An army of the End Times: The House of Shattered Tears Part 1

Whilst waiting for layers of paint to dry on Nagash I have been working on this side-project. In an attempt to empty Limbo (my aborted projects box) I have gathered together a range of elven miniatures in an effort to make a coherent army out of them and with the advent of the End Times I can do just that. Thus, far my efforts have been largely successful with several units assembled and a slew of lords and heroes converted to accompany them. I have also developed a colour scheme for them using some of the paints and techniques I have picked up from painting Nagash - essentially a Caledorian colour scheme of green and red but fairly unique in my opinion.

WARNING: END TIMES SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you want to re-familiarise yourself with the events of End Times Khaine you can read my summary and review of it here: End Times: Khaine - Review

As you can see much of this army is made from some rather random miniatures, some old and some new. In my efforts to empty Limbo I have managed to remove nearly all of the elf and dark elder spare bits and pressed them into service, and rather successfully thus far at that I think.

WIP House of Shattered Tears

The House of Shattered Tears is an ancient family of Caledor whose seat is the Tower of Infinite Woe, a grim pinnacle half-sunk beneath the waves and surrounded by blasted wastes from wars long past. The dynasty that controls this northern outpost of the dragon princes has long been gifted with the powers of foresight and prophecy, once seen as a blessing it has long been considered a curse. The sinister and distressing foretellings of their mages giving the family, and their abode, their names. This ancient house is led by the brooding Prince Astalaton and his sister Lady Arianna the Seer. It was her visions that convinced her brother to support Prince Imrik in his alliance with Malekith and to even go so far as to join themselves to a Dark Elf house: that of Doombringer...

The Hand of Doom

Lord -Chancellor Dazmir Darkspine

Dazmir Darkspine, Lord-Chancellor of the Blood Legion has been awarded the title: Hand of Doom, which gives him the power to act with the voice of Dreadlord Doombringer himself. Sent to Ulthuan to secure the allegiance of the House of Shattered Tears, the ancient sorcerer revels in his return to his ancient homeland; fighting under the banner of the newly-crowned Phoenix King Malekith. I had a lot of fun reinventing this character for the End Times, I kept his colour scheme fairly similar to what he had previously but updated slightly to match the rest of the army. The model itself is to represent Dazmir arriving on Ulthuan in the dress of an ancient elven lord with a splash of his own esoteric creepiness of an age long forgotten. 

Dazmir Darkspine

Arinthorne the Ancient

Upon his appointment as Hand of Doom, Dazmir was gifted the dragon Arinthorne by his master. An ancient beast that remembers the time before the Great War, Arinthorne is thought to be just as old and malevolent as his new master.

Vorgh'alath the Creeping Shadow

I decided to add a Dark Emissary to this force, simply because I like the model and he seems like the sort of creepy guy Dazmir would keep around.

Thralls of the Hand

Something to help tie the army together are these creepy helmets I have given to Dazmir himself and the bodyguards given to him by Prince Astalaton. The helmets are ancient devices constructed by a mad seer in the distant past of the House of Shattered Tears. Part instrument of torture and part mind control device these horrific visages are given to retainers and servants whose proximity to the strange magics of the Tower of Infinite Woe has driven them mad. The pain administered directly to the brain being sufficient to keep the poor elf lucid enough to receive mental commands from the seers. Dazmir has adapted his own helmet (which allows the blind sorcerer to see), adding some of the technology of these helms to his own giving him direct mental control over any who wear the regular helmets.

The Pale Ladies

Accompanying Dazmir are the assassin sisters known only as the Pale Ladies. Not trained by the Temple of Khaine, but rather by the Lord-Chancellor himself and mysterious tutors from far off lands. Never seen to speak and their existence a mere rumour beyond the upper echelons of the Blood Legion, it has been postulated by the heads of the great houses that the Pale Ladies are Dazmir's own daughters: shaped into weapons by their father to further his political agendas. The blind sorcerer has never married so the Pale Ladies are thought to be nought but expendable bastards; the nature of their mother however is oft debated behind closed doors, some believing that they were born of slave stock or from the womb of a daemon. 

In order to complete this army I am going to buy the High Elf half of the Island of Blood kit to add a smattering of other units to bring the force up to around 2000 points. I think I will then add some Dragon Princes to carry through the Caledorian theme and provide me with some extra parts when converting the Island of Blood characters. That should probably cost about £50 depending on how cheap I can get them on eBay which I think is a reasonable amount for enough models when combined with some spares and old projects make a decent sized army.