Ulthuan

It has been some time since we had one of these. Last time Caledor and Charce were heavily represented, so I wonder if anything has changed.

Cheers

The Admiral

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My friend and I have a long-developing story surrounding our armies, characters and the battles we fight. My elves hail from one of the colonies, by way of a lengthy exile in Lothern. Here's the brief version of their history.

Lord Seredain Urithan (I'm named after him btw not the other way round), is the son of Urithan Elea, Lord of the watchtower-citadel of Talthos Elea. This was a city at the closed end of a deep wooded valley in the southern part of what is now the Massif Orcal in Brettonia. Walled streets and towers rise up the steep peaks at the foot of which lie a network of caves and the source of one of the region's small rivers.

The first Lord of the City, Urithan, was tragically slain by the renegade Runelord Zotchaz and his dwarf bodyguard during a battle fought in the foothills of Elean territory during the final phase of the War of the Beard. Urithan had died trying to save his son from the near-fatal trouble he'd got himself into leading a reckless cavalry charge right into the heart of the Dwarf army. Seredain himself was rescued by his father's dragon, Titan, while Urithan was last seen being heaped upon by slathering Dwarf axemen. Zotchaz disappeared after the battle, which went to the elves by a whisker (a great last charge to recover Urithan's body though, if it still lay on the field, it was too mauled to be identified and only his sword was found). Rumour has it that the missing Zotchaz has spent the centuries since plotting his vengeance, working insane experiments on Orcs and Goblins with evil magics, and that he now controls a legion of orcish slaves... Such stories, however, have all stemmed from the freed Dwarf slaves of defeated orc masters and, as far as most Elean elves are concerned, Dwarfs are never to be trusted.

Like most of the High Elves, after the death of Caledor II, Seredain and the Elean forces returned to Ulthuan to defend it from the Dark Elf invasion, leaving their citadel closed and hidden behind powerful enchantments. Since that time until the modern age, Seredain lived in exile as a Merchant Prince in Lothern, funding military and trading expeditions to the remaining colonies and the new Human kingdoms until he was powerful enough to fund a return-expedition to recover his lost throne and restore his city. King Finubar eventually gave Seredain permission to reclaim his birthright. So, Seredain once again became the Lord of the Tower and he, the Loremaster Lecalion and a host of Elean elves and their descendants returned to unlock the city they had once called home.

To reach and hold Talthos Elea they've had to push past haughty Brettonian princelings and hordes of Orcs and Goblins who, over the past 20 years, have been slowly forced back out of the city's heartland. For the Brettonians' part, they finally made alliances with the Elean elves to join forces against the orc tribes being driven into the lowland plains by High Elf successes. This process was greatly facilitated by Talthos Elea's re-establishment as a centre for diplomatic expeditions and (magical) trans-continental communication by Lecalion (a better diplomat than his aggressive pupil the Prince). The good word of the Loren elves was eventually earned (largely by offers of military assistance), and relations with the local Brettonian townships, whose people are by and large terrified by the elves, were much improved by the individual efforts of the young High Elf mage Acheron, who has taken a great interest in the affairs of humans in the way that a cat takes interest in the affairs of a ball of string.

The slow victory against the Orcs recently reached its climax with the slaying, by Seredain's hand, of the great Black Orc warboss Gnashrak Ironhide. Since then, however, (2 years ago or so), reports are coming in that Gnashrak lives again, remade, a half-mechanical monstrosity with glowing eyes, massive limbs and huge steel jaws. Seredain knows in his heart that the ancient enemy, Zotchaz, is behind the resurrection and has sworn to wipe out him, his cult and his orcish slaves in vengeance for the death of Urithan. For his part, Zotchaz has sworn the destruction of the elven city responsible for his humiliating defeat during the great war and for which, along with his heresies, his people never forgave him.

That about covers it.

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The Cavalry Prince - List Design, Tactics, Battle Reports

It just ain't cool if your chrome don't shine.

Great stuff Seredain.

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I chose Eataine for my sea guard force. Then again Tengal is Naggarothi (well, from the Shadowlands).

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~

I have a few lists that I run with different themes, so choosing was a little hard. My Nagarythe army is my favorite and gets used the most. But I do have love my Phoenix guard "Legion of Fate" army.

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My Elves
The confusion between opinion and fact fascinates me.

Chrace, although there are members of other kingdoms in the army (Shadow Warriors and Ellyrian Reavers most prominently).

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Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians

Technically mine is from Caledor. The main body is from the southern tip of Caledor, near to the island that is Vaul's Anvil. They are extremely rough.

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Vortrey of Hoeth, at your service

Technically I don't actually have an army yet, but the models that I've been building/painting are definitely from Chrace. I mean, magical lions - it doesn't get much better than that.

Chose Saphery, since it's my favourite part of Ulthuan, and I plan to use a RGoH Prince in a block of Swordies when I get more SM's painted up.

Nagarythe would of been my second choice as i'm a fan of Shadow Armour Prince with SW's.

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"You only get one chance to make a last impression."
"For every choice, a consequence."

My main character/general comes from Yvresse, though the army features a variety of units. The spearelves, silver helms and archers are from Yvresse, though there's a small unit of swordies from saphery, a wandering hermit of an archmage from the colonies, a band of dragon princes roaming the world in search of glory and a troop of white lions loaned to the general in exchange for some Yvressii spearelves (the best on Ulthuan I'll have you know).

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~High Magic Lore Master of the Mage Knight Guild~

That said, Elves, being civilized, obviously have English accents.

I've concentrated mainly on getting the look and the feel right rather than the fluff per se.

That said my general definately has a touch of the Pharaohs with his chariot and magic bow so maybe Tiranoc. Of course you might expect more chariots but as the army has something of a militia feel to it you could say it was a Lord and his people, with no other aristocrats present!

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A New Blog (Orcs and Goblins)
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=70550
Cavalry Prince Reloaded
viewtopic.php?f=80&t=70001

If i told you I had no Shadow Warriors, would you believe Nagarythe?

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The Dwarf begged the Dice Gods for Insane Courage on his re-rollable Break Test, failed to achieve it, and the Dice Gods mocked him horribly by giving him Double 1s for his flee distance immediately after. My White Lions promptly ran the Warriors down.
Lord Tethlis' account of slaying fowl Dawi.

My character Shandiar hails from Tiranoc and there is plenty of fluff for him around the site during the campaigns, but my army consists of troops from many provinces though I rarely leave Ulthuan without any chariots.

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High Priest of ASS

Eataine of course! But Captain Anaris and the Mist Walker are almost never home. Much more exciting to roam the world. Is there anywhere an intrepid Hawkship captain and his band of merry men cannot go?

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What happened to you Ulthuan? You used to be so cool...

I said Cothique, although they're technically from the Shifting Isles off the coast.

The Sapherian Archmage Elstrith has been a fixture in High Elf politics for well over a thousand years. His labyrinthine schemes and plots have raised and toppled numerous noble houses of Ulthuan. The fortunes of several generations of princes have been reversed and re-reversed for no reason other than supplying the master manipulator with the tiniest temporary edge. Those in the Phoenix court hang on his every word for he deals advancement or ruin with an even-handed apathy. Recently however, his own fortunes finally took a turn for the worse when he underestimated the spectacularly tactless arrogance of a member of House Caledor. As punishment for the carnage he unwittingly unleashed he was despatched on numerous diplomatic missions to clean up the mess he made. Annoyed by the apparently resounding success of these missions the apparently envious Phoenix King then ordered him posted to the bleak and iron grey Shifting Isles where his growing power and influence could be at least temporarily contained.

(Side note: I always imagined that the Shifting Isles would require a coven of mages on them at all times to keep them moving. Island chains don't shift by themselves after all! The bleak and isolated setting led me to reason that the mages assigned to this job would be either eccentric or temporarily out of favour in the Phoenix Court. It would be logical a small garrison would be posted there as well. Both to protect the mages and provide a first line of defence against Norse raids.)

On Belthasil, (the island that has the fortress from which the defence (both magical and mundane) of the islands are co-ordinated) Elstrith was unlucky enough to run into his highly intelligent and manically depressed grandson, Calis. Calis was the first child to be born on the Shifting Isles in three centuaries. He graduated from Hoeth at a surprisingly young age with a distinction in Grey Magic and conducted numerous studies into various archaic languages. His love of puzzles and codes led to a brief spell of fame as editor of the Lothern Examiner crossword. However, this ended in infamy when seventeen down infuriated Kairos Fateweaver to such an extent that he destroyed the newspaper offices in a fit of pique.

Even more to Elstrith's annoyance, Calis's only friend Telstryk has appeared to have taken up permanent residence on the island, whose overcast skies, endless drizzle and total lack of flora or fauna of any type has done nothing to dampen his irritatingly cheerful demeanour. This Tiranocci (can someone please give me the word for a native of Tiranoc?) noble has made himself an impressive reputation as a rogue and a mischief-maker. His chosen career as a treasure-hunter infuriated his deeply traditional father who expected him to wisely rule the family holdings. His father's dissapproval (which also includes anything from after the reign of Caledor the Conqueror) has failed to dissuade the enterprising young Elf who has made something of a name for himself. Discovering the fabled Spear of Archaeolec in the ruins of an ancient Elven Colony in the New World and also a host of other items which he has sold for not inconsiderable sums or disposed of as gifts to haughty Elven princesses. (The story of 'The Duel for the Reisinnel Gem' is apparently only matched in excitement, drama, and witty banter by the story of his passing on of the stone to Princess Elannial in 'The Seduction of Lady Elannial.')

The garrison of the islands is composed principally of the hardy spear and archer marines of Cothique itself. A detatchment of Lothern Sea Guard is also always present, patrolling the islands. They are currently Captains Valthin and Eskinil. A band of Shadow Warriors is usually on somewhere on the islands. Never reporting to Belthasil they are known to fight whole battles on their own, leaving the arrow-riddled corpses of Norse raiders to be discovered by Elven Fishermen, sometimes not until weeks later. To the best knowledge of Belthasil, the current band of Shadow Warriors are led by a dread and wraith-like figure known as Flekken. Tortured, mutilated corpses have been observed chained to the rocks on the outer-most islands. A grisly but nonetheless effective warning to any who would trespass. Only Calis has made contact with Flekken and his fraid of ghosts who call themselves the Morning Mists.



Well, there's the basic skeleton of the back story to the main element of my army. I have a lot more fluff on each of the characters listed here and I've chronicled several of their adventures. These adventures usually involve interaction with other elements such as a contingent of Caledorian heavy cavalry led by the supremely egotistic Prince Estalath who, despite being a consummate warrior, spends most of his time in Lothern poking fun at various foreign dignataries with comments such as 'Guess what? I'm going to live longer than you! Ha ha ha!' Everywhere Estalath goes he is surrounded by a somewhat dim and similarly arrogant entourage comprising the rich but inept Lord Smifth, Rekslin, Drakemaster of the Burning Lordlings (I've always thought that would be a great name for a band.) and Aventhis the Terminally Enthuasiastic, High Helm of the Hatchlings. These are all in stark contrast to the disfigured, mutilated skeleton of Disfleskin, also known as Whimper. The Battle Standard Bearer of Prince Estalath, who was burned, bitten and otherwise broken to within an inch of death by a particularly berserk Black Hydra which was itself transfigured into naught but inert crystal by the fearsome Nagarythian Death Mage, Alsethyk. A violent and enigmatic individual with a sick sense of humour and a burning sword known as Reaper.

And all this is before I get onto my Skaven army. Where do I find the time? Really?



Elstrith

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Sketch-ing / Thermoluminescent Divilment / Twikitch's Triumph / Clan Westrik

Raised in the colony of Arnhelm, but of Sapherian blood. Currently a Saarai-Minathai (mage-knight) serving as an agent to the White Tower.

So I voted Saphery rather than the colonies.

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"To contemplate letting the alien, the heretic or the traitor win just to save a few million lives is the worst kind of heresy, because it is clad in the mantle of good intentions."

"I am Aenarion's heir, not Aenarion himself. My fate is my own."
-Tyrion, Champion of the Everqueen

i Voted for the colonies,

Recently i started to think where my force and lore came from. I chose The Citadel of Dusk (a high elf port, so i assumed collony:p)
For some more fluff i let my forces build and guard a tower on the citadel of dusk, The tower of midnight. My plan is to paint a standart Gw themed high elf army (so the blue's, But my most important units would have banners refering to that tower (still work in progress). The others would get Animal's on them and some elfisch speedsch.

I know your fluff is only in your eyes but, I believe the Shifting Isles, shift because of the VORTEX that is centrally above Ulthaun, and something to with the Illusions that emminate from eastern Ulthuan (as if Ulthuan is trying to protect herself from invaders).

And as for Tiranocci, thats a great interpretation, I always thought of Tiranocian, just like Caledorian.
GW always seems to tiptoe around such Adjective-Pronouns.

Also as a side note of my own (if you didn't already know): technically the Shifting Isles are a part of Yvresse, not Cothique (but as I'm also from Cothique "a Cothiquen/ Coth-eek-an", I like to claim them for my-own aswell), to take note of where Cothique's border is, is actually just where [most maps] list COTHIQUE on the eastern coast, It's a tiny bit larger than Chrace, even though the map/s show a kingdom at least twice that....

As a Personal note, I dont much like the use of Comedic fluff, I find it usually pokes fun at the game I know and Love, having said that, your use is giggle worthy, even if it does include (another one of my fluff no-no's) a Special Character.

But Good job anyway.

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Sincerely,
Kitlith



Head of the Ninth Age 'High' Elves of Light Army Support.

The Mighty Pen (App) Link coming soon

Shifting Isles are part of both Yvresse and Cothique and yes they do shift just like that. It is not a yearly migration or anything but they don't stay put because they just like the rest of Ulthuan aren't a realy island. They float above the waves due to the spell of the Old Ones and that is preserved by the menhir/monolith/stone network of Ulthuan. Floating is the reason why Skaven hadn't reached Ulthuan. They can't dig through water.

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Guess? (Eyes left if unsure.)

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"The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it."
— Terry Pratchett

My army comes from Nagarythe,and though my colour scheme may in general not reflect that(Spacewolves grey with midnight blue trim) all my cavalry ride black horses from Nagarythe and my spearmen carry black shields and archers have black sashes.Also all my lords and heroes have black cloaks and the bodies of my bolt throwers are black too.

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The Dark is generous, and it is patient and it always wins; but in the heart of its strength lies weakness: one lone candle is enough to hold it back.................

Ok. However, the Phoenix King Bel-Hathor did call a convocation of mages to enshroud the eastern sea approaches to Ulthuan in a maze of spells, illusions and treacherous shifting shoals and mists. The preperations took three decades. Maintaining these spells is closer to what I meant (or at least had in mind) but I should have been clearer.



I'd say that's debatable. The Cothiquen (Ta for that! )-Yvressian border has always been a bit unclear. Between the two maps in the 7th ed book, the C from Cothique is where the border is in one map and I've always lent towards the idea of the east coast being roughly split equal between itself and Yvresse. Much like Tiranoc and Nagarythe in the West. Also, (again I should have specified) the majority of the invasion routes seem to be going through the islands off the coast of Cothique and seeing as the Cothiquiens (someone can probably do better for a plural) are a bunch of hardy seafarers I think they'd quite like to take jurisdiction of the islands off their own coast. (We only have to look at the Koreas to see just how tense things can become with maritime borders. I know Cothique and Yvresse have never had a war but on the whole I think the argument is much better that the islands would be split between them in a sensible fashion. Additionally, as my imagined island of Belthasil is a defensive strongpoint, I imagined it would be directly in the path of any invasion routes. So, it would be in the Nortern half of the chain, therefore my original choice of Cothique stands.



Admittedly, the comedy I do put in is usually more subtle. (Kairos Fateweaver doing crosswords is probably taking it a bit far. I usually limit it to comments on the wine.) I came up with some of that stuff on the spot so it's not really thought through. The reason I do put in elements of comedy is that I really don't like the way High Elves are portrayed in GW literature. No matter what the Black Library book Elven characters are always proud, grim and utterly, tediously boring. I have never once felt that I engaged with or cared about the fate of a High Elf character. My stabs at comedy are a vain attempt to lend some colour/ personality/ life to the race. That's also why I tend to replace proud and grim with the similar but much more interesting traits of arrogant and vicious. I try to make my Elven characters more human and whilst this of course goes against fluff (and to some extent common sense) I find I actually care about whether or not they live in my games. Tyrion for example is a very grim, dour and noble individual. Therefore if he dies a glorious death fighting a Bloodthirster then that would be hugely appropriate for his character. However, a pragmatic self-preservationist like my Elstrith is a character for whom the idea of death of any kind is quite terrifying and something he utterly wants to avoid. Therefore when he does die it is a much more tragic affair as not only is he dead, but his plan of staying alive has been thwarted. I know there are people who'll give out to me horribly for trying to twist the Elven race into something it's not but I would much rather be interesting than noble any day. Hence, the Machiavellian Archmages, self-obsessed Princes and happy-go-lucky nobles.



Still though, it's only a matter of time before they figure out how, eh?



Elstrith

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Sketch-ing / Thermoluminescent Divilment / Twikitch's Triumph / Clan Westrik

Skaven submersibles?

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Prince Deral Lionbane, head of the House of Lionbane, Lord of Lionstone and Warden of Tor Charta

Luna, try not to beat them too hard. They are proud about their pseudo-glorious past and their present nothingness, you know.
-Elmoth, about Caledorians

Dont get me wrong, thats how I tend to borderise the border between the Cothiques and the Yvressarians (Plurals: ), equal halves.... or so...

With you're portrayal of High Elves, your not the only one who tilts the Asur's behaviour/tendancies.
I tend to push my Cothiques (or Cothiquens, or Coths "like Goths from Gothique"), in a somewhat amalgamated way: ther'e Resolute like the Yvressarians, (Most are) Dark and somewhat haunted like the Nagarythii (but feel the same way about all Raiders, Druchii, Norsc and the like..), their Mages are Naturaly atuned with the sea - as Avelornias are with the forest, ALL are great mariners/sailers/etc.., even better than those from Eataine (Pronounced: Ay-a-tain), (or Eatainees),
And yet have a great sense of humility, and even softness for the lesser races of the olde world (forces of order of course), and I even plan to include a very small empire contingent, with a single Captain (who has a great understanding and Love of the Asur people and possibly a (180 year) young elven maiden [who also feels the same way], she could possibly be a mist mage, or something else, I havent made up my mind as of yet).

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Sincerely,
Kitlith



Head of the Ninth Age 'High' Elves of Light Army Support.

The Mighty Pen (App) Link coming soon

I have to say Yveresse, the colour theme is Blue/Grey, I have a Prince riding a Griffon, like Eltharion =P, there is a Mage and some Swordmasters to 'protect him', figured the mists off the coast probably need upkeep, there are some Ellyrion Reavers, or I've heard them called Shore Riders somewhere. The core I have Seaguard, but when I expand to 3000 points I'll get some Spearelves. I think it all seems to fit in Yveresse better than the other kingdoms at the moment.

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Lord Elessehta Silverbough of Ar Yvrellion, Ruler of Athel Anarhain, Prince of the Yvressi.
Beastly member of The Mage Knight Guild.

My griffon prince was out hunting in ellyrion when the party came across a young griffon under attack by a roaming WL, he shot the lion with his bow and saved the griffons life, being a noble beast he accepted to becomme my princes loyal mount ever since

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famous last words:Hold my beer and watch this
:):)
other last words:Why on earth did i do that??
:)

By default: Caledor.

You can never have too many alpine grazing cattle, or cattle grazing large lizards with bad breath.

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Surprise is an event that takes place in the mind of the enemy commander
Crowbot_Jenny
Sunrise
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The_Castle_Series_4_Episode_5

But this did not surprise them, for as it is written in the Great Elven Book of Knowing: Isn't life just one bloody thing after another.

Yvresse for me. Any excuse to trot out Eltharion in either swordmaster or griffon mode!

I have Caledor, from Vauls Anvil region. Based with black volcanic rock my army is lead by a Dragon Mage in low point games and a Priest of Vaul (contemplating between high and metal lore currently) He has a large hammer and is blind and carries chains. I have a dragon prince on a Carnosaur that I added a saddle to that "counts as" my lion chariot and he leads a small regiment of lion princes, and the phoenix guard are black and are Anvil Guard.

I'm still in the process of building the army and I'm searching for a few names, and a way to incorporate a mounted prince (really I just see a Priest of Vaul being more defensible than an archmage so maybe a defensive geared prince with RGOH or something)

My army has been shelved for a long time while I work on finishing my degree, but I have an established character leading the army. Caledor of course.

The army is normally lead by a Commander named Valandil Telrunya, a vassal of the house of Imrik of Caledor (the Dragon Prince from the previous edition). His father and mother were killed in a Druchii raid along the coast and Valandil and his sisters were taken in by Imrik's house. Imrik joined the House Guard of Imrik's estate, and quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the prince's inner circle of house soldiers. He has fought many battles for Imrik when the prince could not take the field himself, the most distinguishing of his career being that of the Nemesis campaign. After being named Dragon Marshal of Caledor (a temporary position given to him by Imrik), Valandil lead the Caledorian Expedition to the Old World during the war surrounding the hunt for The Nemesis Crown (some of you who played that summer campaign may remember some of this). Alongside such prominent military commanders like Admiral Giladis, Valandil Telrunya helped broker an alliance with the Dwarven kingdoms and the Empire, as well as regaining a lost Elven city that had fallen into ruin within the Empire. After the Nemesis Crown had been retrieved by the Dwarves, Valandil came back to Caledor and resumed his duties as head of Imrik's personal guard.

Like I said, I've been away from the hobby for a while focusing on my University work. But after I graduate I fully plan on getting back into it with the same Caledorian theme. It's a shame GW hasn't really done anything to advance the lore of Warhammer Fantasy since Nemesis, but I hope to get new army up and ready by the time they do.

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Lord Noradil Telrunya, Cult of Asuryan
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