Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Fantasy Adventures => Topic started by: WuZhuiQiu on 22 June 2020, 04:15:10 PM
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Thinking about older Games Workshop models in particular prompted this question. Supposing that undead skeleton units consist of raised warriors, where would their ubiquitous skull and bone insignia and heraldry have come from? They can't all have been death fetishists before they were slain. Would necromancers and vampires have workshops of undead craftsmen?
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This has long been a source of amusement for me, especially when you look at Nagash. I wonder if he designed his outfit. Project Runway of the Dead!
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A wizard did it.
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The warriors are raised from the dead in the remains of the clothing they were buried in. The weaponry, armour and shields probably would have to be supplied by the "skull fetishist" necromancer from whatever source they have. So why are their skull banners tattered? Are they not new? And, being "lungless" how do they "blow" horns or trumpets?
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A wizard did it.
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And, being "lungless" how do they "blow" horns or trumpets?
That is an unfair question. The move around muscleless too.
And yes, of course there are workshops and wholesellers for all that a necromancer is in need of. Banners taylored from rotten fabric, insignia stitched or sewed on made from sinew and bones, freshly forged ironwork is aged by acidic corrosion to the grade desired by the customer and so on. Just imagine you were a necromancer - why wasting time and energy for magical acts if you can just buy what you want? The more progressive of them do even mail orders... lol
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Well, at least in a Warhammer-like setting, magic users are not that common, using magic takes some effort, and spells are not guaranteed to succeed, so wave-of-the-hand explanations about magic don't quite seem to explain very much.
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Skulls are pretty common in insignia. You can find plenty of uniforms all through history using a big ass skull. Even modern officer caps and pins will involve skulls.
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After considering these same issues, I've opted for completely blank heraldry and minimal equipment for my undead. My liche/necromancer/whatever is raising an army, not working on a craft project. :D
I've also rationalized the animated dead who move around without muscles in a similar way to considering elementals in a fantasy setting... To sum it up in the most straightforward way: it's magic. lol
For a humorous bit of reading on the topic, I've always loved the text on the old Citadel Skeleton War Machines box: http://www.solegends.com/citmd/md8swm/index.htm
Now let's talk about those necromancers who like to bleach their skeletons before sending them off to battle... ;)
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Have you never been to a necromancer convention? Half of them are posers going "Well I have solid gold rims on MY skeleton hordes". Probably quite easy to make some nice spooky shields/banners when you have thousands of bodies working 24 hours a day. Some of them have to have been able to sew when alive.
I would be really interested in playing a campaign about a necromancer trying to pimp his army. He sends some zombie lumberjacks into the forest to get wood for his new chariot. Wood elves don't like it, beastmen don't like it and some where yonder there's a witch hunter who really hates chariots.. End game scenario if the necromancer succeeds is the biggest swarm of Dwarves ever seen invade the territory. They've heard of skeletons covered in jewels, solid gold shield rims and mithril cod pieces on every death knight. Such a treasure drew every dwarf within 10,000 leagues to claim his piece.
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Have you never been to a necromancer convention? Half of them are posers going "Well I have solid gold rims on MY skeleton hordes". Probably quite easy to make some nice spooky shields/banners when you have thousands of bodies working 24 hours a day. Some of them have to have been able to sew when alive.
I would be really interested in playing a campaign about a necromancer trying to pimp his army. He sends some zombie lumberjacks into the forest to get wood for his new chariot. Wood elves don't like it, beastmen don't like it and some where yonder there's a witch hunter who really hates chariots.. End game scenario if the necromancer succeeds is the biggest swarm of Dwarves ever seen invade the territory. They've heard of skeletons covered in jewels, solid gold shield rims and mithril cod pieces on every death knight. Such a treasure drew every dwarf within 10,000 leagues to claim his piece.
This is ridiculous, and I love it!
I'm going to bling the grill on some of my skeletons when I get home tonight! I'll just mix them in to the regular hordes, just because.
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My vote is that one necromancer purchased all of the "branded" armour years ago and other necromancers just keep resurrecting the same old bones over and over. Possibly after paying the original necromancer a small fee. Kind of like the undead version of these:
(https://www.macfilos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/RX602488.jpg)
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Am I the only one who's surprised nobody has posted this yet lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
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Am I the only one who's surprised nobody has posted this yet lol
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
lol lol lol
I was thinking it. :D
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Have you never been to a necromancer convention? Half of them are posers going "Well I have solid gold rims on MY skeleton hordes". Probably quite easy to make some nice spooky shields/banners when you have thousands of bodies working 24 hours a day. Some of them have to have been able to sew when alive.
Forget marching on your enemies, achieve necromantic economic superiority over neighboring kingdoms with skeletal sweatshops!
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Forget marching on your enemies, achieve necromantic economic superiority over neighboring kingdoms with skeletal sweatshops!
Dan Chambeaux investigated one necromancer who made a sweatshop with golem, mimeographing their life spells so as to have a good supply of short-lived slaves. He got a good telling-off in court, and a probation.
It's all just Gameplay And Story Segregation. No-one made anything up to explain this, the sculptors were just let loose and no-one bothered to question them.
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Dan Chambeaux investigated one necromancer who made a sweatshop with golem, mimeographing their life spells so as to have a good supply of short-lived slaves. He got a good telling-off in court, and a probation.
It's all just Gameplay And Story Segregation. No-one made anything up to explain this, the sculptors were just let loose and no-one bothered to question them.
The Golem Trust will have something to say about that!!
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/7e/6f/dc/7e6fdcb8b12ef6a6a5f359935e2f1751.jpg)
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Well, it turned out the law had something to say about it. He goes legit and ends up working at a storage facility.
Unfortunately for him, there is something in one of the storage units of importance to the Big Bad, so he is himself dead by the end of the book.
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After considering these same issues, I've opted for completely blank heraldry and minimal equipment for my undead. My liche/necromancer/whatever is raising an army, not working on a craft project. :D
I'd argue that raising an undead army is itselft a craft project :p
Forget marching on your enemies, achieve necromantic economic superiority over neighboring kingdoms with skeletal sweatshops!
Is it a sweatshop when the skeletons dont sweat?
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Thinking about older Games Workshop models in particular prompted this question. Supposing that undead skeleton units consist of raised warriors, where would their ubiquitous skull and bone insignia and heraldry have come from? They can't all have been death fetishists before they were slain. Would necromancers and vampires have workshops of undead craftsmen?
Glad I am not the only one that has a problem with this. They should all have mixed heraldry and weaponry.
Also why are they always human skeletons? Surely if you can resurrect a human skeleton then a dwarf wont be much harder, or a troll. The interesting question would be whether a troll skeleton is any harder to kill than a human skeleton if they are all held together by magic? It then leaves the question open that why no just resurrect a herd of cows... much bigger and tougher than a man and a stampeding herd is probably harder to stop if it charges than a few human skeletons swinging swords around. And an abattoir would be an easy place to get cattle - hell the farmers even herd them their ready for you to take over.
A wizard did it.
Good fantasy and story telling requires internal logical consistency.
I fielded a small group of skeletons in an RPG once and deliberately painted the shields and cloth shreds and made the weapons to match those of the players. It was about half way through the encounter that the penny dropped when the fighter said "I'll attack the one with the shield that looks just like mine... wait a minute... where did you get that?"
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I'd argue that raising an undead army is itselft a craft project :p
Is it a sweatshop when the skeletons dont sweat?
Haha! No sweat glands? See someone's previous comment about lungs & muscles. ;)
Also why are they always human skeletons?
You have to search around a bit, but there are non-human skeletons. Beastmen are easy to fake with skull swaps, though the legs will likely be wrong. I've got skeletal orcs, dwarfs, lizardmen, ogres, etc from a few different manufacturers. Plus larger beasts.
I like your idea of a stampede of undead cattle! Rotting zombie cattle might be even better than skeletal ones, and easy to convert! I may have to steal that idea. :D
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I like your idea of a stampede of undead cattle! Rotting zombie cattle might be even better than skeletal ones, and easy to convert! I may have to steal that idea. :D
If you do then check out Brandlins page.
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If you do then check out Brandlins page.
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Sorry,
Mixed you up completely with PhilH who has Bears Head minis. I would blame my glasses but I was wearing them.