Medieval Christian "god" for Of Gods and Mortals?

[eilif]

A bit of genre crossing, but has anyone done this?  We've successfully used OGAM for fantasy gaming, so I'm sure it can be done, probably mostly with existing stat-lines from the 7 official army lists.  I found that the Japanese army list worked excellently as-i for representing my Chaos Warriors.  I didn't use a "god" persay, but rather a large Dragon who could be considered a god incarnating itself, or just a strong supernatural creature.

The problem is what "god" to use for my medieval knights, who would probably be Christians. No part of the Trinity really works well for this, monsters are usually seen as evil by medieval Christians and the idea of summoning up anything is also pretty taboo. That leaves Saints, or possibly the Virgin Mary.  Could any of you suggest possible appropriate saints (were any said to appear in battle...) or make other suggestions that I might not have thought of?  

[nic-e]

What about a reliquary? Ancient holy remains that in battle summon forth the spirits of saints to save faithful warriors? Or some sort of bound occult unit, a reliquary of forgiveness that brings forth damned souls to fight for their own salvation by purging the enemies of the lord?

Either way i'm imagining it as something golden with bones on it, carried by a crowd of hooded stooped monks.

[eilif]

That's a good possibility.  There's all kinds of things that could be done with Holy relics.

[Comsquare]

Would go for one of the archangels,like Gabriel.
Or an Seraph?

[eilif]

Angels, of Course!  I've got a Bible degree and yet I somehow forgot one of the most common intermediaries between God and man.  Shameful...

Plus, there's an abundance of suitably impressive Angel miniatures that I could use.  Have to find one that doesn't look like he or she is going to a club though.

Seraphim would be cool too. I wonder if there are any 6-winged angel models.

[Comsquare]

Reaper should have some angels, West Wind in their Luzifer Wars range and maybe you could get some Ex Illis ones cheaply somewhere.
Think I also saw recently some here on the Bazar from Mantic 

No idea if a Seraphim-modell exists, though

[Patrice]

Saint Michael has wings, a superior rank (archangel) and is specialized against devils.



Not sure if a miniature exists.

[eilif]

I think an Angel is how I'll go.  I Checked out the West Wind ones, they are cool, but not quite the classical lines I'd be looking for. The Reaper range has some possibilities.  

I think I'd either like to go for some over-the-top militant angel like this:

or a medieval/renaissance representation of an angel (Michael here) that is male, but with features so fine that they almost suggest androgyny.

EDIT: Looks like Patrice beat me to it….

I'm generally avoiding Mantic restic now. I'll deal with it when I have to (squat vehicles) but I just don't like working with it.

The exIllis is a nice option as well. The angel in medieval armor would look quite fitting along side medieval nights.  That it's ridiculously cheap at miniatures market helps too.

$14 for Angel, 8 little devils and two large beastly things.

[fastolfrus]

I might have opted for saints rather than archangels- you could tie them in with knights easily by using national/patron saints, and they tend to get flags too.

St George is fairly popular with a few places, and since he can kill dragons that would suggest he matches up against your Japanese crowd quite well.

Otherwise I seem to recall that The French get St Michael or St Dennis, Scots get St Andrew, etc.

[Comsquare]

Nice options
Personally I think I would go for the ExIllis one, if the rest of your minis are "proper" knights.

But I would prefer "Gabriel" before "Michael", being one of the warrior angels (his name means "Gods Warrior", if I remember right).

[Comsquare]

I might have opted for saints rather than archangels- you could tie them in with knights easily by using national/patron saints, and they tend to get flags too.

St George is fairly popular with a few places, and since he can kill dragons that would suggest he matches up against your Japanese crowd quite well.

Otherwise I seem to recall that The French get St Michael or St Dennis, Scots get St Andrew, etc.

I think "Saints" would be good as "Legends", while "Archangels" would be better for the "God" job, but that's just my opinion

[eilif]

I think "Saints" would be good as "Legends", while "Archangels" would be better for the "God" job, but that's just my opinion

After looking at the miniatures, I think that's how I will go.  Angel as a "god", Saints and maybe historical figures would be heroes, Cav and Infantry as mortals.

I might do a bit of research to find a saint that was also a historical character of the same time period as -or notably revered by- my medieval troops.

[commissarmoody]

Now to figure out what kind of powers and states to give them.

[carlos13th]

Where is that decurion from?

[Patrice]

Note that in medieval representations the legendary or godly characters are shown in the clothing/armour of the period.

The statue of Saint Michael on top of the Mont-Saint-Michel is in late 15th century armour:



So you could take any miniature you like which fits well amongst your other knights, make an aureola or a crown for his head, steal a pair of wings from another winged miniature and glue them on his back, and paint the armour gold or shiny.

Also, medieval knights were Catholics they liked to have pictures of saints everywhere around, so your army could carry a banner with a drawing of the saint you choose, identical to the miniature (there is plenty of historical examples of such banners).