#the warmaster

[tagedeszorns]

I need to promote Horus from now on, it seems.

[gauntsghostsfieldguide]

The Warmaster- Part 23 and Final

TWENTY-FIVE: EXECUTOR

"Hundreds of men and women filled the main floor below him, and the upper galleries too – hundreds of men and women processing information, making decisions and determining the lives of millions more across the surface of Urdesh and its nearspace holdings." I'm sure that's very interesting. Seeing the people actually moving would be more-so.

"The Ghosts were in that mess somewhere. That’s where he’d sent them." That's where they always end up. It's where they're effective. It's where I wish the narrative was.

Macaroth turned up! He's doing shit again.

"‘I ignored it. I trusted in the loyalty of your stations. Whatever you thought, whatever our differences, you knew I was warmaster. That, I thought, was all that mattered.’" But if their discontent means they think you're an unfit Warmaster, which, given that you were in your nightshirt a couple of chapters ago, they have a point, of course they're going to try and replace you. You weren't doing your job, you were fucking about in a library.

"Van Voytz snarled and swung at Gaunt. Gaunt caught his wrist before the blow could land, and pushed back hard. Van Voytz stumbled backwards, collided with Kelso and crashed into the side of the strategium table. He steadied himself." And now they're brawling with each other while soldiers die outside. None of you (except Gaunt) are good for anything.

"Resolving this isn’t so simple. I have been at fault. I have been absent. I have lost my connection with staff command. I aim to remedy that. I intend to take direct control of this battle-sphere and win this cursed war." At least Macaroth realizes he fucked up.

"Damn you. Are you really throwing Jago back in my face?" I would.

Yoncy's being incredibly creepy.

"But they were outgunned at a ratio of about five to one. The agriboat fleet was swarming with Sek’s warriors, and they were laying down so much fire, Rawne couldn’t get any of his units past the sea wall." Well, shit. I'd be more worried if there wasn't another book out, but I'm still worried.

"She held out a bloody object for him to see. It was a Tanith warknife, the blade broken.

Mkoll’s." Huh. That's significant, but isn't he dead?

The enemy is retreating, but everyone's worried, because no one knows why.

"‘First Lord Executor Gaunt,’ he said. ‘Kindly proceed with this meeting while I am gone. I want answers, remember?’" Gaunt gets a promotion anyway.

And the book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. The Ghosts are still on Urdesh and the fight there, while paused, is far from over.

[trve-grimdark]

[alphamecha-mkii]

Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan Schematic

[mariajoseignacia666]

[porblegames]

Cry 'havoc!', and let slip the geese of war! I have sculpted some 10mm geese in a variety of poses to add to your bases, terrain or dioramas. There are also strips if you would like a silly unit! All miniatures come pre-supported

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/10mm-geese

[luckyspacecadet]

10mm warmaster here we go!

Enjoying painting these darkelves so far. Few bits to go on these, I'll be freehanding symbols for each units shield to distinguish and some snow for their bases to contrast the dark palette.

[skunts-own-truth]

Been secretly shipping Erebus and Abaddon since End & the Death came out. Abby is Erebus’ embarrassed little puppy, getting used to all this Chaos Undivided and Warmastering business. You know what I mean? You feel me? You drinking from the same tap, you fucking bastard?

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Horus Heresy by Zheng Wei

[ikaminiature]

浪人一列

[charalysis]

Darksiders: War

So, I may once again reference real world disorders as a launching pad for discussion about behaviors and actions. I will reference both games and book. Thank you!

To begin, let's talk about War's baseline characteristics.

War is certainly more, shall we say, heroic of the Four. He is loyal, lawful, and regularly tries to be by the book, methodical, and overall tries to be good. Maintaining Balance in the universe is his main goal, the thing he strives for. He wants things to maintain order, regardless of who's messing it up. Admittedly he had a bias against demons, but that's not to say he likes angels.

In his efforts to be a lawful individual, he also strives to be a better person overall by trying to be kinder than other Nephalim where he can. He seeks connection and even affection, with Strife in particular.

Throughout Genesis, War and Strife can stop and talk and often these conversations drift towards the emotional and hard to discuss. Charged topics that Strife has genuine difficulty addressing.

But War helps him work through these emotions and topics, giving him his own perspective and trying to ease his mind, even if it fails or they disagree. No matter what, War seems incredibly willing to stay by Strife's side.

This loyalty and desire to help and seek connection is also present in Abomination Vault, when he goes to help Death handle the crisis, despite being told no and even threatened. He is eager to help the eldest Horseman, and he is even angry at himself for nearly dying/dying, thinking he's failed Death some how. He doesn't even question it when he's brought back by Death, he just rambles about his failures and saying Death should have let him die.

And with Fury, he shows he cares for her. When Fury is summoned to handle the Seven Sins, War is already bound by the Council. She's surprised by his state and the accusations, but ultimately is dismissive for the moment. War, on the other hand, speaks to her. He tries to warn her to be cautious, tell her something is acting against them and trying to hurt them, showing he very much cares about her well-being and safety.

War is repeatedly shown to be caring, in his own way, with his brothers. He worries about their safety, tries to assist them as needed, and tries to comfort them in their grief or anger. He is exceptionally loyal to them and doesn't seem eager to betray or harm them.

Loyalty, while being a fantastic virtue, is ultimately one of his biggest flaws too.

From Genesis and a good bit into the first game (canon's timeline wise), we hear him constantly say that he doesn't think he or the others should question the Council. He's the biggest believer in the Balance and is the most eager to maintain it. He is unwaveringly and unquestioningly loyal to the Council, which is ultimately why he doesn't suspect them directly of screwing him over until much much later on in game one. His loyalty blinds him to the notion of betrayal from the Council.

However, whenever he finds out his loyalty has been betrayed, he is far from afraid of going scorched Earth and enacting revenge. He, with Uriel's assistance, kills the Watcher for his treatment and for being a pawn in the clearly corrupt Council's machinations against the Horsemen.

And revenge/vengeance is apparently something War isn't unknown for. He's clearly displayed enough "eye for an eye" behavior over the centuries for the Council to note its a perfect motivator for him. Thus, he became their scapegoat and was thrown to Earth to prove his innocence. And Samael later points out that he "knows a quest for vengeance when he sees one". Samael's semi-Omniscience aside, he isn't wrong in just making the assumption. War was absolutely aiming to make Abbadon, Straga, and anyone else in his way pay for their actions. I do find it interesting that, ultimately, he chooses to spare Ulthane and Azrael.

Granted, Ulthane does help him more than hinder him despite being antagonistic. And in the case of Azrael, War realized he needed the angel's help, then also saw the immense regret within him. Of course, War is also fully aware that Azrael is a powerful archangel, adept in illusions. He also likely wouldn't have risked a fight with Azrael lest he die, or he actually kill the angel and lose out on valuable information. All this to say, War's intelligent and isn't a stranger to variables, despite often acting on emotions.

Despite popular belief, War is not hot headed or temperamental. War is actually extremely level headed and calm. He thinks through his actions and possible causes. He tries to account for all outcomes, and the consequences of his actions. If he can gain a tactical advantage.

Because he is an embodiment of war itself.

Wars are brutal, bloody, violent... But it's not about whos weapon is better that wins. There's strategy, planning, and a lot of luck.

War himself strategizes a fair bit when it comes to who he can keep alive and who he can get away with killing. Who can be his ally and who he can sacrifice as a foe. He measures who he can take on and who's not worth it.

Its why Samael and Vulgrim don't die, despite War's bias against demons.

Samael, even in a weakened state, is too powerful for War to take on alone. Samael, though, offers assistance if he himself is helped first. War isn't stupid enough to reject help from someone he a, can't kill, and b, is offering their powerful assistance.

Vulgrim had the benefit of Council endorsement at first, but War certainly realized the value he got from dealing with the merchant. Vulgrim offers him health shards, weapon and magic upgrades, and of course, Serpent Holes.

The value of these two cannot be understated in the first game, especially since War is utterly alone otherwise. They're who we spend most of the game with, aside from the Watcher.

Now onto my favorite topic! Symbology!

Similar to Death's mask, War's got a hood obscuring most of his face, particularly his eyes. In fact, he often has to adjust how he's looking around to properly see sometimes.

In terms of symbology we can infer this to be representative of his own clouded and obscured view of things. He has to shift the facts into just the right order and perspective to see the truth of what's happening to him and what happened to cause the apocalypse.

Another piece of symbology is which arm of his his prosthetic.

The left.

Biblically speaking there's a few things to address, as Darksiders is heavily based in Christian and Jewish mythology. I am wildly unfamiliar with Judaism and their symbology, despite lengthy research attempts, and thus am uncomfortable addressing the possible symbology on that side if things. However, I am familiar with Christianity.

In the Bible, the hands are referenced a few times, but the right hand is referenced about 100 times, where as the left hand is mentioned maybe 25, all negatively. However I wish to focus on one particular passage.

Matthew 6 says, "Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. [3] But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: [4] That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly."

This essentially says, "don't tell everyone when you're being generous. Don't brag about generosity or your righteous deeds, for that's not righteous or virtuous. That needs to stay between you and God".

In the case of War, he doesn't often hide what he's doing when he's been told to do it by the Council, often announcing it to those he deems allies. He's not exactly subtle or easy to miss. Nor is his prosthetic.

He's obviously a Horseman, he's obviously on a mission when he's seen out places he's not normally. Everyone knows something has happened, or going to happen, when War shows up. War isn't keeping his service to the Creator secret in any way.

Outside of Christianity, and into more occult and spiritual circles, the left hand is symbolic of dark magic, darkness, and weakness.

War's left arm is the one he was wielding Chaoseater with when Death cut his arm off.

Since that, hes worn a almost demonic looking, magical prosthetic that basically has a pocket dimension I think.

When his arm was cut off, it was in a moment of emotional weakness, and he just so happened to run Death through, a far stronger opponent. So his weakness was cut from him in a way and replaced with the stronger, and useful, prosthetic gauntlet.

Bad segway: War's also not taken as seriously by the other Horsemen. He's the baby of them, likely the last of an entire generation of young Nephalem. Often it seems the other three don't take him seriously until he proves them right. Strife though seems more willing to hear him out, but that could be because they're pretty close, even able to laugh together.

Tl;Dr: War is intelligent and loyal, even kind, but lacks the ability to see passed his ambition or goals until its almost too late. He's also surprisingly impulsive.

[tagedeszorns]

I was told to share more of my works in progress.

So here's my attempts on cool chaos-Horus.

I don't like Chris Wraight's physical descriptions of the Primarchs (this "hunchback of Barbarus"-thing he has going on for Mortarion is rather infuriating), except for Horus intense eyes.

But I LOVE the cool, dangerous, elegant, disturbing personalities he is giving them! He doesn't need the flat, boring, repetitive "depraved"-stick McNeill uses to beat a horse so dead it is already liquefying.

[gauntsghostsfieldguide]

The Warmaster- Part 22

TWENTY-FOUR: I AM DEATH

"The ride out had been fierce and blind. Baskevyl had driven like a maniac, his only direction ‘away from the gunfire’." You're alive, at least. For now.

Oh, great, Meryn's trying to cover up what happened. Act like he isn't an asshole.

And I finally realized one of the big things that's been bothering me about the whole Felyx Chass thing. Apart from the sexism inherent in "she has to crossdress to be taken seriously" thing that was nowhere in evidence in Necropolis, it's also pretty... transphobic, really. Not violently so, but the kind of bog standard, "person has breasts and a vagina, they must be female" kind. Everyone starts using she/her for Felyx and calling her Gaunt's daughter as soon as they find out about her gender. She does seem to identify as female, but there's no mention or indication that Felyx could be trans and male. Like, at all. I don't expect Abnett to bring that up, given that he's a middle aged cis man, but it would have been better if he had.

Oh. Ezra's dead. Well, shit. I liked him :(

"With each name, Blenner was pointing angrily at a different blood pattern on the walls and floor of the old wash house. Fazekiel started taking pictures of every dark stain." Good. Who knows if it'll lead anywhere, but someone cares enough to try and investigate.

"‘You’re supposed to be his friend, Blenner. His oldest, dearest friend. Why the hell aren’t you doing this for him? Why aren’t you doing your duty as a friend and a commissar, and wrapping this up in a bow for him? I mean, impeccably? No stone unturned? Why aren’t you doing that for him?’" Good question! Answer: Because Blenner's a piece of shit now, for some reason.

Yeah, I really don't like Blenner's plotlines since he stuck around in Salvation Reach. He's just a cowardly prick with no redeeming qualities and it really makes me wonder why he's friends with Gaunt. His actions in Blood Pact helped save the day, now he's just a load.

"Elodie froze. She looked up and saw the big, black shapes stepping out of the night around them." Oh, no. The enemy arrived.

"Around them, every scrap and stone and brick and rock was dripping with gore. Steam rose from it in the night chill. Domor had seen shells detonate among squads of men. It had looked like this." Something shredded them. That's worrying.

"Enough blood was running in the downslope gutters to make a clear gurgling sound." Everyone's bleeding a lot, I guess.

"‘Double time, straight silver,’ he instructed. ‘If you thought street fighting in an old mill quarter was tight fun, get ready to have your minds blown.’" Another awesome pep talk from Colonel Rawne.

"‘I am death!’ Mkoll screamed, and proved it until his shots ran dry, and his hands and warknife ran wet with blood." And Mkoll's probably dead. At least he went out awesome.

[tinygiantplasticmonsters]

Games workshop 10mm Kroxigors from their warmaster line. Painted up and based by me. Now I just need to get around to painting some skinks and I'll have a nice little 1000 point army to fight my choas I think...

[alphamecha-mkii]

Warmaster Heavy Battle Titan

[mariajoseignacia666]