#warhammer soulbound

[zmasters]

Life and Death, a Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Story

In the streets of Candleheld, a city of Shyish, marched the four clawed legs of Thavara. The vampire, formerly of the Avengorii Dynasty, paused in front of a green realmgate. This gate lead to the other half of the twin city, the half within the lush forest of Ghyan. She planned to enter the gate and travel to the Realm of Life, but nervousness froze her place. The green glow washed over her thin, light blue lower body. Her blood red wings hid her clawed fingers playing with a woven dagger, a gift from the one she wished to talk to.

Thankfully for her, the one Thavara wished to talk to walked through the realmgate first.

“Ahh, Zyn.” She said, faking confidence and trying to use her wings to hide her wagging tail. “Just the wych I wanted to see. What brings a child of life into the realm of the dead?”

Zyndras, a sylvaneth branchwych, stood in the glow of the gate. A scythe sat on her light brown shoulder while bugs skittered through the red leaves decorating her head. “I could say the same of you.” She answered, her voice raspy.

“How many times do I have to remind you that I’m undead?” Thavara laughed.

“You know what I mean.”

“I joke. Still as stiff as the tree you live in, aren’t you?”

“Still trying not to eat everyone you meet?” Zyndras shot back, her still face failing her attempt at comedy.

With a hearty laugh, Thavara plucked a worm out of Zyndras’s foliage. “You supply me with enough meat.” She said, throwing the insect into the air and catching it her mouth. “What to talk in the normal spot?”

The two warriors meandered past the strange looks of Candleheld's residents towards an old, abandoned dock. This dock was partially destroyed during an ogor pirate invasion. While the invasion was dealt with long ago, a small gnoblar tribe that traveled with the brutes had infested the area and keep people from repairing the broken trade port. A new dock was built a hundred meters down the beach.

Thavara’s fangs dug deep into a lone gnoblar’s neck while Zyndras poked at a piece of washed up driftwood. A flower sprouted from the wood.

“So… what’ve been up to seen we last talked?” The vampire asked, trying to avoid what she wanted to say.

“I was,” Zyndras sighed, keeping her eyes on the sprouting flower. “I was visited by Mother Alarielle.”

“Oh! That’s great!” Thavara smiled. “I wish Alarielle was my god. She’s so much nicer than Nagash.”

“She is.” The sylvaneth sadly creaked.

“What’s wrong Zyn?”

She sighed. “Mother Alarielle asked me to become a Soulbound.”

The statement struck Thavara like a stake through the heart. Becoming a Soulbound meant one thing. Death. Permanent death. No resurrection. No rebirth. Nothing. A soul lost forever.

Thavara knew the danger of becoming a Soulbound, especially for a sylvaneth like Zyn. Her plant pal and her kin lived for their cycles of death and rebirth. If she agreed to this request from her goddess, her entire "bloodline" ends right here.

"Y-you said no, right?"

Zyn didn't answer her.

“Right?”

"You wouldn't say no to your god."

"I wouldn't say no to Nagash because he'd rip out my bones and build a new servant!" Thavara yelled, throwing the dead gnoblar to the ground. "Alarielle gives you a choice. YOU CAN SAY NO!"

"I can't!" Zyn shot back. "No sylvaneth can say no to our Goddess!" She lowered her voice with a sigh. "Death can't refuse their god. Life won't."

The two stood in silence. The blood of the greenskin drip towards the piece of driftwood, watering the red flower growing out of it.

"I'm sorry." Thavara squeaked. "I don't have many people I can call a friend. I-I'll miss you..."

"So will I." Zyn said, taking a step closer to the vampire. "But you will always be a member of my Glade."

Thavara wrapped her clawed arms around the branchwych, lifting her into the air and causing her to drop her scythe. "I'll keep an eye open for you here." She smiled, pressing her forehead against Zyn's. "You Glade will be safe with me."

"I trust you will."

The vampire laughed as she dropped her sylvaneth friend. "So what does your god want you to do?"

"Those I am bounded to and I are tasked with preventing Drycha and her Outcast from attacking the free cities of Ghyran. Candleheld included."

Unnoticed by the two, the flower roots buried into the sand of the beach, the blood feeding the burgeoning plant. This will not be the last time this flower will taste blood. Mere months later, Zyndras would stare down at the blooming, blood red flower, fed by the blood of Thavara.

Thavara never told Zyndras that she became a Soulbound herself.

[farsight-the-char]

Cities of Sigmar (Hammerhal) Barmaid I love you.

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Age of Sigmar: Soulbound - Kharadron Wattock by CM - Morin

[koboldart]

Recently we started a Warhammer Soulbound campaign and I just had to draw my badass sylvaneth branchwych, Lhyrann, and her pal, Grubby :)

[mayyonase]

I drew my Soulbound Party's Characters

Karmyl the Draconith, Vernus the Stormcast Eternal, John Geils and "Traveller" the Witch Hunters, and Twig the Kurnoth Hunter.

(And also Jimothy the Quiverling)

[nictanova]

Kurnothi aelf from the city Lethis

A character for a AOS soulbound party.

[othernaut]

Character Creation Challenge, Day 28: Age of Sigmar: Soulbound

The immortal fills the space of my parlor. His head scrapes the ceiling; his bulk dims and distorts the heaven-light that siphons through the window screen. He is stoic, ever-armored, but I can feel the anxiety rolling off of him in waves. He follows my hands as I place the vessel between us, as I pass my hand over the bowl to set the aetherquartz flickering. I sit across from him, but do not bid for him to follow; none of the furniture here will support his weight.

I let the silence grow in this ritual space. His mounting panic flickers along the edges of the aetherquartz, bruise-black. When the empty crystal has eaten enough of his fear to stain the core of the vessel, I motion with my hand, and he takes the cue.

"Have you ever met your god?" asks the Eternal.

I pause and, after reflection, shake my head. I have seen more depiction of Teclis the Illuminator and the Blind God than fact. But for one of the Stormcast, whose souls have been chosen, handled, and refined by the Lord of the Storm, the fact of the gods must feel very different. The Eternal takes my cue to continue, rumbling his truth into the empty air. "I loved my god all my life. I remember that. Even before I was reforged, I loved him. It felt like..." He pauses; his eyes gaze inward to some place inaccessible to outsiders. "It felt like having a friend, someone who would stay with me, believe in me, when all the rest of the world was violence and deprivation."

"Did your opinion survive meeting him?" I ask. His eyes brighten; the aetherquartz flares with a dull rose-golden sheen, the Eternal's joy a brief but distinct fact before it, too, is drawn into the crystal. "Of course! Sigmar does care. He does. Even through the flash and thunder, all the majesty the storm would command, that is the impression that endures. He cares for mortal lives, for humanity - as small, as stupid, as oblivious as we can be - like no one else would dare. I still feel like he watches me, not like a judge or jailor, but like a friend."

He pauses, and I let him. Fear and adoration smoke from his shoulders like a bonfire burning inside his chest. This, then, is the source of it, the reason he came to see me in the first place: the paradoxical love and fear of someone close. No, not fear - the colors of true fear have not yet manifested in the vessel. Fear's brother, then: Disappointment. This is a man who loves his god, and his god has let him down.

Once the vessel has absorbed another measure of emotion, I speak. "There is an ambiguity to your love, Knight-Venator, there must be. Speak it aloud, if you wish, and you may find it loses its power to hurt you." It is difficult to perceive details in the dim light, but I see the edges of his sky-blue eyes tighten. He has worked so hard to keep his emotion from showing on his face, and when it does, it's a grimace of pain.

"He made me into a weapon," he says. That word, weapon - emotion surges out of it like arterial spray, too many feelings, all mixed, all confused. "I was a poacher when Sigmar first came to me, you know. I thought I had died and he was judging me. But I was happy to be reforged. I was happy to become Stormcast. I was chosen, literally chosen. And all I have seen since then is war, or the preparation for war. And I am fine with it. I have been made to be fine with it. I feel like I shouldn't be, but that doesn't change what I am."

He's right - the aetherquartz dulls at the mention of war. There's no emotion there to drain. That, then, would be what separates the Stormcast from mortality - he really, truly does feel nothing at the thought of war. His mind is clear, and so I speak quickly. "Why, then, would you come to the Cathallar if you feel fulfilled and ready in your purpose?" I ask. Now it is his turn to pause. The vessel is doing its work and the sensation is unfamiliar to him. His mind, drained of the murk and mire of overwhelming emotion, can now examine at leisure the source of the pain. He can behold it unclouded and discern its nature.

"This is my first time coming to the Realm of Hysh," he says at last. "You Lumineth do not speak of it in hyperbole. It truly is paradise here. You've made it paradise." He sighs, a last exhalation of sorrow that paints the aetherquartz purple and red. "And my task is to take ten of you away from here. To bind your souls. To carry you to death and conflict." A short silence, the space of a heartbeat. "To make you into weapons, too."

The vessel steams between us, filling with an immortal's regret.

Hours later, I sit on a sculpted hillside some distance from the city, bare feet in the fine grass, letting the aetherquartz burn. Unbound, the Eternal's sorrow and regret rises like a black plume, a ragged scrape across the brightness and precision of Hysh. It will take time to release; it must be done slowly, else the massed emotion will seep into the landscape, poison and kill the grasses and trees. It gives me time to reflect on what the Stormcast said and what it will mean for my Realm and the Realms beyond.

That anyone could view Hysh as a paradise, use that word unironically, is... quaint, to me. I have seen the warriors of Chaos surge at the gates of Tor Xillion. I may not be a warrior in the same way the Stormcast are, but I have made the fear and anguish of my people into the tools I need to fight for them, and it is a resource I find in abundance. To release the emotion like this, slowly into the air, that is a practice for times of peace, and I have not always had the luxury. There is no end to war - though only in paradise, it seems, could we have brought it on ourselves.

The creatures of Chaos are particularly susceptible to weaponized emotion, I had always found. That was always their fatal flaw, that the rage and sorrow and depravity inside them, unexpressed, served as fertile ground for the lies of the Dark Gods. To be struck with emotion as a weapon, then, would be to almost welcome the knife. Even when those depraved creations still wore the faces of the aelves they once were -

The aetherquartz snaps as it burns. A fresh stain, a new measure of sorrow spilled into the cup: Mine.

I hope that I brought them some peace, at the last. I know I didn't.

I find, these days, I cannot stand sorrow for very long. Only a few moments pass before I am pulling the little box from my robes, sliding it open, rattling the little chips of fresh aetherquartz inside. Undimmed by use, they are quite literally solid shards of brightness, glass-sharp and feather-light. My supply is running low, but it doesn't matter. There's enough for now. I extract one of the chips and slide it under my tongue. My body relaxes against the hillside as the sensation suffuses me, at once energizing and calming. The bud of my angst cannot stand the pure light of aetherquartz. It loses all color, all realness; it becomes an outline of itself that I can examine and dismantle dispassionately.

Raw fear. Mounting desperation. And, at its heart, envy. How strange. I crush it, I let it go. I watch the Eternal's trauma burn away into the sky. It all seems so alien, now, as I am filled with the light of reason. I will need to make a choice soon.

The next day, the immortal is back in my parlor, blocking the light. The set of his shoulders is calmer, the tension visibly released. This time, I do not place the vessel between us immediately. I sit with my hands clasped on my lap. I let the question build between us.

Light flickers under my tongue as I say, "I have been weighing what you said to me yesterday. If it is necessary that the Lumineth join the war for creation, then I find it only reasonable if the one who goes truly understands the gravity of the task." The silence ticks over, familiar in this quiet space. "I have three stipulations that I would have you bring to your god and mine."

"Wait, you?" he says. "Can you do this? Should you? To become Soulbound is forever."

"The Scinari Cathallar are Magi too, you know. What else could be appropriate for the reclamation of the Mortal Realms than the magic of light?" I feel the skeleton of a smile attempt to build itself on my face and, with the logical remove of the aetherquartz beneath my tongue, allow it. "Three stipulations. I don't need the answer now, or soon. But if I am volunteering for a lifetime of conflict, I feel I should make my wants known."

"Say your piece," he says, immediately. No more vulnerability; this is business.

"First, I will need provision enough of aetherquartz to practice my craft. This is non-negotiable. To serve as Cathallar, this material is necessary." I breathe over the gemstone chip under my tongue, feeling both bravery and anxiety unmade in the light. "Second, though the specifications of Lumineth among the Soulbound have not yet been established, I would ask that my service not come with exile. I, and any among my binding, must be free to return to the Realm of Hysh as it is needed."

The Stormcast nods; I see him memorizing, internalizing my conditions. "All reasonable, I suppose, in this unreasonable time. What is your third condition?"

I breathe in; I exhale light. It builds at the back of my mouth and fills my skull with certainty. There, at the center of my psyche, discontent is pulled from its birthing-bed and euthanized. If I am being asked to give as much as the Stormcast, then I deserve the same consideration. I always have, but I've never asked it, never recognized it before.

My resolve is crystal-sharp. My mind is bathed with brightness.

"I ask my god to come to me and tell me this himself."

*****

Elegia Farspeaker Scinari Cathallar

Body (1), Mind (4), Soul (2) Species: Aelf (Lumineth) Core Skill: Channelling Core Talents: Spellcasting (Light), Unbind Skills: Arcana (Training 2), Channelling (Training 2, Focus 1), Intuition (Training 1), Lore (Training 2), Reflexes (Training 1) Talents: Arcane Discipline, Unbreakable Spells, Witch-Sight Spells: Arcane Bolt, Arcane Blast, Mystic Shield, Pha's Protection, Healing Glow, Provenance Equipment: Relic robes of purification (Light Armor), scalpel of the soul (Dagger) x3, aetherquartz vessel (5:1 Channelling to absorb an emotion-affecting spell/effect, 5:2 Channelling to release it into the environment or a person, can hold up to Mind spells/effects before it begins to affect the user), a reserve of both fresh and spent aetherquartz, two runic scrolls of calming and meditation, resentful adventurer gear (backpack, bedroll, lantern + oil, waterskin, ablution kit, 10 days rations), emergency shoes, 60 drops of Aqua Ghyranis

Melee: 1, Accuracy: 4, Defence: 2 Armour: 1, Toughness: 7, Wounds: 4 Initiative: 5, Natural Awareness: 2, Mettle: 1

*****

AoS: Soulbound is such an interesting property. Everything I know about Age of Sigmar and, in fact, Warhammer Fantasy is secondhand; quite a lot of my friend group are Warhammer nerds, and I've been hanging around them long enough to have absorbed the full spectrum of bitching about AoS and what it did to their little plastic horse guys. As I've never owned or played the wargame, though, I didn't have any negative preconceptions about Soulbound going into it, apart from "a magic apocalypse happened and the world broke" and "they changed all the names of the fantasy species in order to make them copyrightable".

Which is why I'm very delighted to find that not only is Soulbound good, but it's good at being the specific sort of fantasy that I find compelling: high concept, high magic, malleable physics, subjective reality, replete with all the proud impossibility that fantasy should possess. While I'd qualify the actual mechanics of Soulbound more as "functional" than "elegant", the numbers do support what the system is trying to do, and I find that there's enough permissibility within the rules to allow players to fuss with and customize their big damn heroes without having to fight the system to do what they want. Compared to the great beast that is the Fantasy Flight 40k games, Soulbound is practically rules-light, and where the rules focus is right on the themes that the game is trying to spotlight.

Because that's another thing about Soulbound: the theme of the thing is most of the thing. The fantasy world is, at first blush, intimidatingly large, but it does a lot that I appreciate in communicating its universe and the possibility of storytelling within it. If it makes up some bullshit, then it also repeats the bullshit throughout the text, reinforcing its constructions through familiarity. If it spends a few pages detailing some grand, sweeping landscape across an expansive span of time, then it also focuses down on individual adventuring opportunities within that landscape, and furthermore on how the individual sword-weirdo can participate in and feel just as decisive and epic as the figures from the legends. It uses familiar enough fantasy conventions that anyone who knows what an elf is can buy right in, but it's just off to the side enough that it feels different from the churning genericity that plagues a lot of the genre. If the ruleset is serviceable, then it's the setting and lore where Soulbound gets a lot right.

Like, I popped into this exercise knowing little more than some snippets posted on a tabletop forum, and came out with a custom-built character based on a cool miniature I found, which I'm pretty sure is exactly how you're supposed to do this. As with all good role-playing games, I wasn't so much forced to do this as compelled to, and I'm kind of disappointed I don't get to roll my slightly crystal-addicted (it's fine) magic psychiatrist elf right into play.

Next up: Kweh!

[kris-ether]

For Cities of Flame I wrote two story hooks, one of which defined some of the setting for Age of Sigmar

[theaceofskulls]

GW put the Callis and Toll Hammer and Bolter episode up for free, so come on and check it out

[farsight-the-char]

Dragon slayer and Grail Maiden

by Wolfdawgartcorner

[haaaaaaaaaaaave-you-met-ted]

Age of Sigmar: Soulbound - Guard Captain by CM - Morin

[lewdcookies]

Solança, Branchwych of Clan Xeria, Gnarlroot Glade, and her bittergrub companion Lavor. Protectors of Fafyrd and Liberators of Whitevale.

**

A character played by friend in a Soulbound campaign we both play in. Felt it'd be nice to paint her up in model form. At some point I do intend to do the rest of the Binding. If I can find the right models for it.

But did you know that Sylvaneth are pre-eminently drybrushable? They have some great texturing for that, saves on highlights. Once I had figured out what colours to use it went down pretty painlessly. Even if I my Coelia Greenshade has some flow issues I've noticed. The clasp at the base of the braid isn't the best, lost too much detail there by accident. The only real mishap was when the bittergrub tail broke off after painting, must've not glued it properly. But that was only minor annoyance in the end.

Also first time I've used tea leaves for basing. Which went down pretty well.

[mayyonase]

Some Drawings of my Soulbound character from a campaign I've been in.

She died but its okay she got better.

LORE

She only had the one reforging as of collecting her party to get them soulbound and a pretty good idea of what her past looked like. She wasnt sure why some random beastman gets to become a Stormcast but she keeps those self doubts to herself. Wouldn't want to embarrass the party.

She's half party Diplomat, half party Meatgrinder. She and the Slayer make a lot of the encounters we had pretty quick to end.

She's had a fun relationship with our guild Dwarf Durin! She owes him a boat! She promised a Duardin she'd get him a boat!

As of now, she was only just reforged and it was a rush job so her head and memories are kinda jumbled for the time being, but she'll figure it out. Maybe She'll even figure out why she was so anxious about her past before!

And Maybe Durin will even figure out how to get that boat she owes him.

Her model^ :)

[two-reflections]

🌟 WIP Wednesday 🌟

✨ Minis

Remember this combat ballerina-looking kitbash I put together to represent a sylvaneth in a Soulbound oneshot?

The GM really liked her and the oneshot is becoming a twoshot, so I'm making another similar creature for him to use as a NPC in the next session. This is how far I am with the new guy:

I've started covering his legs in vines too, but it's not going as well this time. No photo yet.

I like how their weird poses make it easy to set the two up in little scenes.

Get chased, scrub!

Other than that, I cleaned, primed, base coated and drybrushed this half-metal Iron Warrior.

He's not going to be painted for a long time, but I wanted to get him ready anyway.

✨ Fic

I'm reorganising my stories into lists/series. You can find the lists here: Salamander Oneshots, My OC Squad, Chaos Stories, Imperial Stories.)

✨ Other Things

My distraction jumper is almost done. I also threw together another jumper from some random red wool I had. No pics yet, sorry. Have some pretty leaves instead.

Still waiting on the suit for my Trazyn the Infinite inspired character I'll be playing this weekend. I really hope it arrives on time.

I've been drawing a little again. Nothing to show yet.

And that's all for this week! 💫

[gruntled-druzhina]

Nearby LGS actually had the GM screen for Soulbound, Artifacts of Power, and Shadows in the Mist! Gonna run the shit out of this before the chaos rulebook releases. Since I'll just start running so many chaos campaigns. I hope the chaos book has skaven rules.

[farsight-the-char]

Average trip to a LGS for games (longer ones like 40k or RPGs particularly) makes you bounce between these feelings rapidly.

hanging out with other autistic people exists on a scale from “instantly drift compatible” to “lithium and water”