Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reporter Forum

The Devotees of Elazar

Elazar The Glorified is a Daemon Prince of Slaanesh, worshipped as a proxy for his patron by the Diatchi Tribes. The Diatchi are of Kurgan stock and a number of small tribes make up this people. The Tribes live in a state of conflict with one another and each answer to competing Zars. However, their duty to their immortal idol supercedes all other matters and the Diatchi warhost is an intimidating sight indeed when unified in purpose and marching under the watchful gaze of Elazar himself.


The Devotees of Elazar are a Slaaneshi Warriors of Chaos force. I wanted to create a host dedicated to Slaanesh that didn't focus on the lust aspect of this particular god but instead on the vanity and pride aspects more. I also wanted to avoid the common pink/purple colour schemes used by Games Workshop and do something a little more original. I had always wanted to try a chaos army with a bone coloured armour as I thought this would give it a very unique look instead of the traditional cult colours or undivided black that Games Workshop use.
There is a fair bit of fluff I've written to go with the characters and the army and I've put some of that here, so apologies in advance to anybody who isn't interested in that side of things!
There is more to this army but the rest can be seen on my blog. I haven't posted it here as I intend to repaint a lot of it as it's looking poor next to some of my newer minis as my painting has gotten better with practice. They'll get added back in and updated when I get to them. Anyway, firstly there's fluff and rules for my Sorcerer Vela...

Vela The Performer

Once a great performer in the Altdorf theatre, his true name since forgotten. He possessed some magical talent that charmed the minds of his audience in a harmless way, indeed he knew not of this gift of his. Like all performers he had many patrons in the nobility, it was the way of the rich to try and enhance their standing by supporting the arts. This one performer though had a patron of a different nature altogether.
One night after a grandiose performance of a play entitled ‘The Merchant of Marienburg’ the performer returned to his quarters to find all the usual lavish gifts left for him by his supporters. Amongst them was a curious glass case within which stood a scarecrow marionette. Intrigued the performer reached into the case and picked out the strange puppet.
The next day he did not show up for the play and when the angry theatre owner went to his quarters to rebuke the performer he found a scene of devastation. Untouched in the destruction of the quarters was a glass case and next to it a card signed ‘Elazar’.

The performer next turned up deep in the northern wastes where he’d wandered aimlessly until he was picked up by a Diatchi raiding party who took him captive. As is the way of the Diatchi and most of the other Kurgan races they made some of their captives fight to the death. Those they deemed blessed by the gods were spared and given a new life amongst the tribes. So it would be for this man as Elazar had developed a great love of his star performer and would see no harm come to him. He slaughtered a number of stronger slaves, showing a startling sorcerous ability that earned him the fear and respect of the tribesmen. They spared his life and he took the name Vela. It soon became clear that he was inseparable from the strange marionette that he carried with him. He spoke to the puppet and often fought with it. Worse for the tribesmen he often embarked upon strange performances for their ‘enjoyment’ sharing the lead roles with the being of wood and string that accompanied him. However, when at war he proved to be an invaluable ally. The puppet seemingly a focus for his power and his sorcery. Capable of controlling the minds of his enemies and making them do his bidding; his brand of warfare has proven invaluable in the wastes. An insane megalomaniac and egoist, Vela is now a favoured servant of Elazar and his presence can be found alongside the champions that his daemonic patron favours at that time.


Vela The Performer - 195pts

Equipment: Hand Weapon, Chaos Armour

Special Rules
Eye of the Gods

Sorcerer of Elazar: Vela is a Level 2 Sorcerer who chooses his spells as normal from the Lore of Slaanesh. His Mark makes him Immune to Psychology.

Daemonic Patron: Elazar still watches over Vela, taking great interest in his career and keeping him from harm. Vela is immune to Killing Blow and Poisoned Attacks.

Insane Puppeteer: The Northmen respect Vela's power and know that he is truly loved by Elazar but an insane southman with a puppet doesn't inspire their confidence. Friendly models can never take advantage of Vela's leadership even if he is the army general.

Magic Items
The Marionette: This scarecrow marionette was given to Vela as a gift by his patron Elazar. The marionette is a focus for Vela's sorcerous power and a tool for his power of manipulation. The marionette has its own cruel intentions though and longs to break free of its controller. Indeed, at times the puppets will wrestles with Vela's, trying to reverse their roles and trap Vela within the confines of wood and strings. The puppet allows Vela to add D3 to his casting roll once per turn. This cannot cause a miscast or irresistible force. However the malevolent spirit of the marionette attempts to assume control and Vela must test for stupidity in his next turn whilst puppet and master battle wits.
The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3. This doesn't cause Vela to have to test for stupidity in his next turn.


A ball of fire flew past Amador and impacted the ground a few metres behind him. It burned itself out in an instant and dust and ash were strewn everywhere by the force of its landing. Amador turned to see where Vela was. He’d mounted a rocky outcrop and to the bemusement of the tribesmen around him was reciting lines from a play. The marionette he carried was ‘acting’ along too.

Amador didn’t dare even mutter a curse under his breath. He knew the Performer was a favourite of his daemonic patron, privileged over even himself in that respect.

The wizard ally of the southmen hurled another fireball across the battlefield, this time it whooshed clean over the Mad Puppeteer’s head. Vela’s attention was snapped from his recital for a moment and he glared across the battlefield with contempt for the weakling wizard. He concentrated his gaze for just a few moments as the wizard summoned the raw energies for another spell. Suddenly the focus of power back lashed on the southman and he exploded in a sphere of bright light, the energy of which seared the skin of the men who’d been acting as his bodyguards.

Vela switched his attention then to a large group of heavily armoured cavalrymen charging towards Amador’s silently marching Warriors. With a violent jerk of the marionette the legs of the steeds became tangled and they fell sending their riders hurtling to the ground with jarring force. Another movement of the scarecrow marionette and the Knights leapt upon each other, blades drawn. They slaughtered one another in a screaming orgy of violence.

Then Vela was locked in a bitter argument with the silent marionette and paid no further heed to the enveloping battle around him.

Amador made a silent promise to his patron that the souls he reaped today would be in his honour. With that he ordered the charge…


















Hellcannon Aral'vakran

Such is the vanity of Elazar that trophies are taken from all his victories, no matter their size or manner.
Aral'vakran was a rival Daemon Prince of Slaanesh who competed with Elazar for their god's favour. The Daemons' respective followers waged war upon one another and once the Devotees of Elazar had establish the upper hand the two immortal beings clashed in combat. Elazar bested Aral'vakran and bound the Daemon within a small trinket box.
Decades passed by and Elazar, courting the Dwarven Daemonsmith Vogner Ungart, gave the bound Daemon Prince as a gift in exchange for the dwarf's servitude.
Once more Aral'vakran marches at the head of armies but now, instead, as a bound slave. Deep inside the cannon bearing his name lies the same trinket box striving to contain its prisoners rage within the warmachine, all the while Elazar watches in amusement.














Endika Fleshtearer - The Cannibal King

Andreas sprinted as fast as his legs would carry him. It was all open plains; grass the colour of scorched earth poking through thick snow but the land was flat. No hills, no trees, no cover. He knew he could only keep this pace for a little while and the wide openness of this place would make it all in vain. As if to emphasise that thought he heard a whooping cry from his pursuer who seemed to be enjoying the hunt. Andreas had been duped by the Norse traders; they’d reneged on their agreement and had taken him hostage. He’d known the perils of trading with the Norscans but they’d been true to their word in the past so their behaviour had come as a surprise. It soon became clear they planned on trading him as a slave. After being kept tied to a stake on a length of rope with four other for what must have been at least free days they were finally freed by a group of Norscans who marched them away from the village. With each passing step the landscape had grown more featureless and eventually their party had stopped when a large group of riders came into sight. Andreas had been terrified as the riders approached. One of the Norscans had identified the horsemen’s chieftain as Endika Fleshtearer and had seemed noticeably unsettled himself; another had mentioned a cannibal king. As they’d drawn near, Andreas had seen the body parts hanging on chains from the horses’ bridles and saddles like grisly trophies. Then he’d seen the Kurgan chieftain Endika. He was no more imposing than any other of his stock; his hair was fashioned into a mohawk the rest of his head shaved except for a ponytail tied at the back. He wore armour of gold and bone, his legs bare and noticeably mutated. In his right hand he carried a cruel looking flail. It had been the creature he rode that had unnerved Andreas the most though. It was long and bipedal, covered in purple scales. But, it was the mouths. The creature had too many mouths to be anything of this world and it had moved in graceful bounds towards the group of slaves. The leader of the Norscans had reluctantly gone forward to greet the chieftain and terror had sparked Andreas to life. He’d bolted, hearing angry shouts from the Norscans in his wake which were quickly drowned out by the whooping cry that had followed him since. Andreas cast a glance over his shoulder as he felt his energy dwindling. Endika was there, his daemonic mount bounding along matching Andreas’ pace. As if sensing that its quarry was tiring the beast sped up and Andreas turned to meet it. Its speed was unearthly, it was clear he’d been being toyed with this whole time. Endika leant out low from his mount and swung his flail into Andrea’s kneecaps as he hurtled past him. The blow shatter them and Andreas collapsed in a screaming heap, the pain unlike anything the merchant had ever known. He heard the beast return and the sound of Endika dropping down onto the snow covered ground. He circled round Andreas casting his flail aside and pulled a cruel curved knife from his belt as he loped closer to him. The Daemonic steed gave off a warble of delight as it anticipated what would come next, the sound like that of some giant bird but twisted and wrong sounding to the ears. Endika smiled at Andreas, his teeth were sharpened and blood-stained, his eyes alive with cruel intent. The he descended on his with the knife.














Dragon Ogres










Chaos Knights


















Marauder Horsemen








Chaos Warhounds

Nicely done!

Does the cannon have a crew?

i love those! The painting is great! the conversions are great! +1 rep! where did you get that pupet?

Thanks and that's a good point, forgot the crew there! The best pic I have of them is actually this one as the lighting is better than the ones I took of the crew alone. Have to remember to photograph the crew when the sun shows itself next!





Thank you The puppet is Jack o' Lantern from the Famous Familiars pack which can be found here:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1200013&prodId=prod1300000
The strings are just sewing thread, it was incredibly tricky to string the puppet up though

It's a brilliant little pack as the old familiar models are all great. I plan on getting the rest painted up at some point as they'll be useful for counters etc if nothing else but offer loads of conversion possibilites. I used the book with legs as a familiar in a sorcerer mini-diorama I did (this is in my needs repainting list)

nice job) kep up the good work!

Elazar, my good sir. My eyes were to unworthy of seeing your epic painting skills. They are now turning into a gooey liquid and splating into my keyboard...... Nice paint job!

+1 reputation for you!

From all the posts I've had in your blog and on Warseer, I hope you do not doubt how much I like your conversions and paint jobs!
How's your newest regiment(s) of Warriors coming along? Additional Hand Weapons was it? Or will you paint up halberdiers first?

Thank you very much! My painting skills aren't quite so eye meltingly good but I appreciate the praise!



Thanks Noeste, you've been a very vocal follower of my assorted blogs/plogs/logs etc and I'm very pleased of that. You've been a great help keeping me motivated and on course!
I haven't really painted much of the Warriors with Additional Hand Weapons with having been unwell and working on my son's birthday cake Fanatics but I might put them back to next month as I need my Mordheim warband painted, so will do an Exalted Hero, Sorcerer and a couple of Marauders. The Devotees are going to be infiltrating Mordheim under the leadership of Argider The Enslaver...

Seeing as I've mentioned the Fanatic Birthday Cake I'm going to put pics of it here. I'm quite proud of it and I'm hoping my son is going to love it. He's starting his own Orcs & Goblins army and these 3 fanatics will help get him started. He's getting lots more of his army for his birthday as well, just as well because he's entered a doubles tournament with me next month and needs 750pts worth of models for it!

Will hopefully get better pics tomorrow but this is the cake:





And these are pics of the Fanatics when they were still WIP but mostly done:

yup.great artwork mate.the storytelling puts flesh on bone too.thanks for sharing

Sweet ! The cake that is

These are fantastic minis Elazar. Superb paint work. I looks like the this forum is becoming quite a popular place for superb painters !

I'll post some of your minis on the slide show tonight.

Hi Elazar,

I've just read the fluff for your puppeteer. It's great.

I particularly like this rule:-

"The puppet also allows Vela to modify any rolls on the miscast table made by any wizard on the battlefield. Vela can modify the result up or down by up to the result of D3."

Very malevolent and just the sort of thing I'd expect for a coniiving mannequin.

I quite like the idea of the puppet encumbering Vela in combat in some way or, better still, even assisting the enemy in the hope this will help the puppet break free.

It's an excellent character. Great job (+1 rep and well deserved)

Thanks, glad you like the minis and the fluff!



Thank you very much for the compliment Sigmar. Also thank you for putting my minis in the slideshow



Glad you like the fluff. I came up with idea for the character in so much as I wanted an insane ex-actor using the Infernal Puppet magic item from the army book as it's such a wonderfully characterful idea. Then I went through the army book and picked out the magic items and gifts that I liked for the theme. I wanted to make my own character but for him to still be useable in regular games against all opponents.
Vela is actually:

Level 2 Chaos Sorcerer
Mark of Slaanesh (this was to give him access to the lore of slaanesh as another item gives him his immunity to psychology)
Infernal Puppet (for obvious reasons! This is for the D3 miscast modification)
Bronze Armour of Zhrakk (Immunity to pyschology and killing blow. Units can't benefit from his leadership)
Conjoined Homonculus (+D3 to a casting roll but must test for stupidity)

I just took these things and put them together differently, rewriting things to match Vela's character and create his rules.

And just to finish:







Last few pictures of the Fanatic Cake.

Ok lots of WIP stuff this time!



Here's a quick WIP look at Argider The Enslaver. He's the Chieftain of my Kurgan Marauder Warband for Mordheim. Equipped with Heavy Armour, a Helmet, an Axe and a Sword.
Using the Marauder Warband rules from Border Town Burning an awesome unofficial Mordheim supplement that is well worth a look!

Knights with lances.





This guy will be the Standard Bearer but I haven't decided what I'm doing for this unit's standard yet:


This guy will be the unit Champion on the occassions I have one. But I think he'll be a regular Knight more often than not. With lances they're already expensive enough!


This is my favourite one, the Musician. The pose came out really well and the helmet conversion really looks the part. It's actually one of the horned foot marauder heads but I removed the horns as they looked kind of pathetic!


They need some greenstuff work and then they'll be ready to paint, their shield arms and pauldrons get painted separately (they're not attached to their horses yet either).

Unit of Warriors with Halberds



Unit champion


Musician


Standard Bearer

Good job Elazar, can't wait to see them painted! Especialy that one musician you mentioned.

Thanks Will be a slow process I'm sure but looking forward to getting my painted army expanded. Far too many unpainted minis in it at the minute!

On the subject of unpainted minis here's another:



He's just blue-tacked together at the moment and I still have a lot to do with him. In particular try and get rid of that blasted tentacle! I've mostly tried to avoid mutations in the army. There's the odd one but I decided early on that they're meant to be vain and seeking perfection and mutations would imply they were flawed originally. But I especially dislike the tentacle arm holding the shield so it has to go!
This guy is being worked on in the background. There's another painting competition at my gaming club next month and after Vela won the last one this is the mini that might have to defend my crown. I have another mini planned for my first choice for the competition but I need to get all the necessary bits together and I'm unsure if I can manage that with enough time left to paint it well!
He's going to be a Battle Standard Bearer, I think the pose of the model lends itself to that role very well. He looks like he should be looking down on the battle holding aloft the standard of the Devotees.
The flail is made from marauder flail top with the 'mace' parts coming from the chaos knights sprues. The head is of course Harry The Hammer's, had it sitting around spare and I think it looks great on this mini!