Start Again

 

It is one of the deepest curiosities of this blog that it does not, in fact, fully cover my main two sets of little metal figures. 

It's in the timing of course. When this blog first tore its way screaming into this universe, fresh blood dripping from its nubile form as it sucked in gaspfulls of icy air into its pulsing lungs and grasped a sword before any sustenance, it was the end of 2013. As explored before since then, I had been painting models for a long time by then, and the history of Millitant's adventures in little metal worlds stretches back long past that point. But most notably, being first started at the end of 2013 means that the entire start of my main army for Warhammer was completely overlooked on here. 

The time has come to correct that mistake. 

There's something in the air now. Something set in motion that shall rule the fate of many. The board is set and the pieces are already in motion. A new concept has begun living rent free in my brain, a vision of a grand sprawling epic that might very well one day soon sweep the internet (or at least the Warhammer part of the internet) by storm. For now it is a secret that only blogs can tell, because it involves an eternity of planning, admin work and writing reams and reams of silly backstory, plus a number of technologies I do not yet possess. 

And the first step on that long road is to know thyself, which means making sense of my own Warhammer armies. And that in turn means that I must finally begin the long, painful, thankless task of sifting through the backstory and units of my Wood Elf army, and reforging it anew. 

In contrast to my Tau army in Warhammer 40,000, whose beginnings are becoming ever more steeped in legend and myth as more and more of my childhood is lost like tears in the rain, the origin of my Wood Elves is much more clearly documented, because it is much more modern. This is because for most of the first 17 years of my existence my pop cultural genre tastes were very early and very, very, very strongly rooted in science fiction over fantasy. Like a lot of cis male lads born in the 1990s, I quickly developed a strong fascination with various kinds of technological machinery at an early age. What started as an obsession with real-life cars, trucks, agricultural and construction machinery and all kinds of aerospace vehicles quickly moved on to Thunderbirds, Beast Wars and this very obscure short-lived 1990s Flash Gordon cartoon once I discovered television (there were many, many, many more such cartoons to follow), and then Men In Black and Star Wars once I discovered VHS tapes, with various assorted space opera artwork running throughout as I discovered books. After discovering Lego I was always much more drawn to the Space and Aquanaut ranges than I ever was the Pirates and Castle ones. Later on when I discovered video games I largely overlooked Age Of Empires in favour of Command & Conquer and later Starcraft. 

There were a few exceptions of course - Deltora Quest and later Harry Potter (because of course it did, I was born in the 1990s after all) remained very conspicuous islands of swords and dragons in a sea of lasers and spaceships, as did Slizers and later Bionicle. And every so often I would shamelessly pilfer some fantasy concept or another and work it into science fiction with Games Workshop efficiency - most of the fantasy universes I encountered in the wild invariably got elevated to 'future'-grade technology, and a lot of dragons got imported into space adventures, often receiving a cybernetic makeover in the process (seriously, why are there no cyber-dragons in 40k? Tolkien Orcs and Elves with spaceships are fine, but you draw the line at a general riding a giant fire-breathing cyborg dragon with a couple dozen laser cannons and missile launchers strapped onto it? REALLY?). But by and large, for pretty much all of my pre-adult life, the rule of thumb when it came to what kind of made-up worlds I liked was "Give me sci-fi or give me death". 

It was in the aesthetics you see. Science fiction, especially the space opera variety that was my favourite, was full of all these spaceships and robots and hover tanks that all zipped around quickly (or stomped around ominously) and made cool noises, as well as all these lasers and rocket launchers and machine guns and such that all made the bad guys explode, which lent science fiction visuals a certain kind of explosive oomph that a bunch of dudes poking each other with sticks (or occasionally dropping rocks on each other) could just never quite match. This mixed with the distinctive brand of savage venomous tribalism that came naturally to me back then (I blame what appears to be a long line of hyper-competitive Tools on my father's side and the cycle of hyper-competition that they fostered) to produce a particularly cringeworthy fanaticism of science fiction over fantasy that persisted for over a decade and a half. Even when I started discovering Horror Films I locked onto psychological thrillers first because oh my god only little babies are scared of ghosts and vampires and junk (yes that really is what my poor wretched misguided self thought once upon a time).

(The other, even more horrifying side of this is that I also had a very unfortunate undercurrent of Toxic Masculinity imprinted on me from a young age, which left me feeling compelled to distance myself from a lot of fantasy content out of fear of it being too girly with all those princesses running around. However hard you might be cringing at reading that, I can assure you that I am cringing at least twice as hard thinking back on it. Fortunately increasing contact with girls in High School - and some key female role-models in the media I consumed - was eventually able to deprogram me of such lunacy)

Throughout this period there was also something else bubbling under the surface after I discovered tabletop games. After getting my first ever White Dwarf magazine copy in early 2006 I was introduced to the Dwarfs that inhabited this strange alien undiscovered country of Warhammer that existed on the far side of the Games Workshop hobby that was by now giving me Warhammer 40,000. This was important, because these Dwarfs weren't like other fantasy civilisations. They had guns. They had flamethrowers. They had a primitive clock-punk attack helicopter. And THAT was enough to get my attention, in much the same way that featuring a clock-punk space shuttle in The Last Hero was enough to get me interested in Discworld. It wasn't nearly enough to win me over to this whole fantasy thing, but it was enough to begin bridging the gap. 

This was followed a little later by another White Dwarf magazine that introduced me to the Empire that inhabited this strange alien Warhammer game. Again, they had guns. And gattling guns. And rocket launchers. And a clock-punk tank. In the White Dwarf they were fighting these Vampire Count guys that had an army of zombies and wolves and ghosts and bats and things and while in the past these kinds of Halloween monsters had always felt kinda lame, these ones actually looked pretty dope. 

Maybe this whole Warhammer fantasy thing isn't as lame as I first thought it was. 

This more or less continued for a few years, before being completely swallowed up in the unprecedented upheaval that began in the 2010s. History is always a tangled chaotic mess of interlinking factors and causes and effects, and it is no different with the history of a person. But nonetheless, most historians traditionally trace the dramatic seismic shift in pop-cultural tastes that comprised the Fantasy Reformation of 2010 - 2012 to three key events. 

The first was the discovery of Urban Fantasy TV shows, specifically Angel, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and especially Supernatural. This was important because, as well as being really fun cool amazing pieces of television, they all featured a common theme of including nominally fantasy elements like monsters and magic in the nominally technological world of 20th century civilisation - Supernatural even had the characters fighting the demons and vampires and monsters with guns. It was just the right blend of modern and fantasy, coming in at just the right time of peak moody adolescence when I was ripe for gothic content, that these shows became the final missing link needed to bridge the gap and get me interested in fantasy... of a sort. 

Perhaps even more importantly for this story, these shows also primed me for what was to come for later... 

The next watershed moment came not long after, around the winter of 2010, when I went through what is quite possibly the only true religious experience I have ever had thus far, almost entirely by accident. By this time I had gotten into the LetsPlay videos of Youtuber Helloween45 - Helloween covered Horror video games, which seemed like the next logical step after discovering Horror films and TV shows. For one of his videos he was forced by technical problems to put together a slide-show of screenshots and ran that with some music over it. Helloween will never know just how much of a profound earthshaking event he was about to unleash when he decided to use the song he chose, on what I assume was entirely a whim. But he made that fateful choice, and I, following his videos, heard that song, and nothing would ever be the same again. 

The song was called Amaranth, and it was by a band called Nightwish. 

Words cannot convey just how profound listening to that song was. See, up until this point I had never really quite gotten music. Like, I could enjoy listening to it well enough, and I could follow Top 40 Pop music enough to converse with the girls at high school about it, but the idea of being as invested in it as much as I saw a lot of people was alien to me. I just wasn't really passionate about music like I was other things, and I could not give a favourite genre, artist or song to save my life (in fact, I actually failed a couple of class projects because of it). But this was different. Listening to this song, for the first time I really felt myself reflected in music. When I discovered Nightwish, I found my voice. 

When I discovered Nightwish, I finally found my sound. 

For the rest of the year, my eardrums quickly began to swim in a soup of symphonic metal as I devoured every Nightwish song I could find on Youtube as ravenously as I had devoured Warhammer 40,000 lore eight years earlier. That Christmas my best friend got me a CD of Dark Passion Play that remains one of my most treasured possessions, and I listened to it religiously for the next year. I would of course later discover other artists of a similar style that I loved, but Nightwish would forever remain my all-time favourite, and Amaranth my all-time favourite song. 

But Amaranth did more than just that. It also opened my eyes to looking at traditional fantasy in a whole new light. It's soundscape, atmosphere and accompanying music video that I watched 1100 times finally got me thinking that epic fantasy adventures could be, well, epic in their own right. And then I discovered this other little number. 

It was called The Last Of The Wilds. 

There are no words in The Last Of The Wilds, just 6 minutes of heart-melting instrumental beauty, and the more I listened to it the more inspired I was of faraway lands of snow-veiled mountains, deep forests of rich green pines, storm-scourged seas at midnight, silver full moons and stars, giant hawks and eagles, fearsome dragons and adventure at every turn. Now, I was finally vibing with traditional fantasy, without any technological training wheels. By now I had also been thoroughly opened up to the subgenre of dark fairy-tales, and had also gotten into Once Upon A Time.

This too primed me for what was soon to come... 

By this stage my curiosity of Warhammer had crystallised into genuine deep interest and a resolution to get involved with it at some point. My starting up with Warhammer was no longer a question of 'if', but of 'when' and 'with what game faction'. The front-runners at this point were Dwarfs (still riding the initial "Oh wow they have guns" factor and piggy-backing my explosively growing obsession with all things Nordic at the time), Bretonnians (having rediscovered them after rethinking everything I had ever believed about fairytales and, as mentioned, Once Upon A Time) and Vampire Counts (plugging into all that Horror shtick that I had deep-dived into in the preceding years and Victoria Frances artwork. Plus I still thought the concept of an army of horror monsters was pretty dope). The Empire and High Elves were also intriguing possibilities. There were also these Beastmen and Wood Elf armies that I remained curious about, having inquired into them in the past (before the Fantasy Reformation) but was unsure of what to make of them, save that the Wood Elves had these cavalry troops that rode GIANT HAWKS which was the dopest thing ever (so much so that I had stolen the concept and given it a sci-fi twist many years earlier). 

Then came the third watershed moment of the Fantasy Reformation of 2010 - 2012. And my fate was sealed. 

In the spring of 2012, around Term 3 of my final year at high school, I began to become aware of the latest video game Blizzard was working on. I think someone might have shared the trailer with me at some point. Regardless of how I found it, this trailer showed me a window into a dark gloomy fantasy world where humans struggled to survive in the cross-fire of wars between angels and demons. In other words, the culmination of all of the things that I had been deep-diving into over the last couple of years. I knew then that I had to have this video game and play through it. I needed to know more

The trailer was for a video game called Diablo III. 

The really important thing happened a short while later, when more information about the game became available and it turned out that one of the playable character options in this upcoming game was a person called a Demon Hunter. Demon Hunters roamed the land of the game's setting fighting Demons with crossbows and various ingenious traps and devices - just like the characters in Buffy, Angel and Supernatural. Demon Hunters went about their adventures clad head to toe in brooding dark cloak-and-hood getup, just like a lot of the characters in the fantasy artwork that I thought looked the most rad. And the female character model looked a lot like a lot of the singers in all the symphonic metal bands that had by now well and truly become my jam. In other words, this character class embodied the culmination of all the things I had been deep-diving into over the last couple of years. It was meant to be. I knew that when I got my hands on this Diablo III video game, that would be the character I would play as. 

I got my hands on that Diablo III video game for Christmas that year, and then spent the rest of the summer enjoying the simpler pleasures of shooting demons in the face with a crossbow. It was tremendous, enormous fun and I loved every second of it (except when the game said no because my wifi wasn't good enough for it). And from then on I knew exactly what I wanted my first Warhammer army to be like - I wanted an army just like the Demon Hunter I had been playing as. I would accept no substitute. In the moments when I could manage to tear myself away from Diablo III, I scoured the Warhammer model ranges for a game faction that would give me the army style I so craved, and began to grow increasingly dismayed when I found nothing that came even close to it... 

... until I remembered that Wood Elf line and gave it another look over. 

Yes. This was it. The Waywatcher models were enough to cue me into this line being the one that would provide me with the army of cloaked hooded bow-slinging anti-heroes that I so desired. Sure they used plain old longbows instead of the cool snappy pistol crossbows I had been enjoying in Diablo III, but that was a minor annoyance at most, it was still close enough. 

And so it was that in early 2013, I went out after my University classes had finished for the day, visited the GW store that was conveniently just a 15-minute walk away from campus at the time, and went home with a copy of the rulebook for 8th edition Warhammer. A few weeks later, I did the same thing and went home with a copy of the Wood Elf army book and a Battalion Box on which to found my brand new army for this strange new world of fantasy adventure. 

It is from that box that came these two: 

The Wood Elf Battalion box contained a surplus of Glade Guard sprues, more than was needed for the units of 16 I had already decided I wanted. I quickly worked out that I would have enough pieces for a full unit of 16 Glade Guard, a small band of 5 Scouts, and then three Glade Guard figures left over. These could easily be made into Characters for a Wood Elf army, and indeed that's what I did with one of them - we'll get to her later. The final two I decided to build as regular archers and put to good use as test models to practice painting on. This was very important, because the Wood Elf model range is one of the most beautiful model lines ever made for Warhammer, which in turn meant that I was absolutely terrified of painting them, because up until then my painting had largely consisted of throwing colour at models until it was impossible to see the undercoat through it. I had almost zero confidence that I would end up doing the sculpts the justice they deserved. 

The only thing that kept me going and persuaded me to try was the colour hobby section in the Wood Elf book. It featured these zoomed-in insets of certain parts of the models, which was important because not only did it show me for the first time that the 'Evy Metal studio painters were not, in fact, flawless in their painting, but also through studying them intensely I finally came to understand how highlighting works in paint. 

When I finished these two prototypes in April 2013, they represented the very apex of my model painting at the time, and showcased the very bleeding edge in my range of painting skills. They combined my newfound comprehension of highlighting with the precision detailing I had honed on Battlefleet Gothic models in the preceding years. I followed the instructions in the painting guide of the Wood Elf book to the letter, because I loved the GW studio scheme for the Wood Elves and wanted mine to look like that. Granted the greens they were painted in were a far cry from the dark drab browns and greys of the Diablo III Demon Hunters that had brought me to them, but it was a happy change since green is my favourite colour. 

They have not exactly aged gracefully, something not helped by their use as a testbed for paint sealing and finishes. The primitive method employed here - a coat of gloss varnish followed by a coat of Lahmian Medium to remove the shine - was never entirely satisfactory and always seemed to leave an unacceptable amount of shine on them even at the best of times, and one of these days I will go back and repair the finish as best as I can with the methods and resources I now have at my disposal. But nonetheless, I was awfully proud of them at the time and they motivated me to keep going with the rest of the army, which only looked better. 

And that then, was the beginning of the Meadows of Heaven. 

From the Ashes

Good god has it really been that long since I've posted here? I could have sworn there had been something after the Custodian.

Oh well. I'm back now, after finally finishing the third (out of a planned four) Glade Guard regiment for my Wood Elves, The Spirit of Spring.

This unit had a troubled development. I actually started on it about mid-way through last year, but then had to put it on hold along with every other part of my life not related to assignment writing in order to cop with the unending onslaught of university work that happened in the last semester (fortunately, I will never have to worry about that again). Then just as it was finally getting finished, a freak accident occurred that resulted in yet more delays.

In the end though I think it turned out ok. It would seem that I've lost my touch with mixing colours however - I tried to recreate the same light blues and yellows that I used for the spites on the Treeman Ancient, but couldn't get quite the same shades. Not that it matters too much, I still like how they turned out, especially the blue one. If I could change one thing I would probably make the basecoat and first layer on the yellow spite a little bit darker (especially the basecoat), since it's kind of hard to distinguish the detail on it as is.

Really though the only fault I have is the basing on the movement tray, which has a few 'accidents' on it caused by the particularly thin PVA glue used to stick basing materials on spilling over the sides (and taking the aforementioned basing materials with it). Looking at the pictures though it doesn't seem too noticeable.

But all wars have casualties, and alas, I must end this post on a sad note, with the loss of an unsung hero that was dearly loved and is sorely missed.

My trusty paint-water glass, which has faithfully cleaned my paint brushes ever since I first started this hobby over 13 years ago when I was 8 years old. It's been with me every step of my tabletop journey, and a lot of other events, and was an iconic symbol of my hobby roots and childhood. I close my eyes, The lantern dies, The scent of awakening, Wild honey and dew...

The freak accident I mentioned above was said glass falling onto the floor and breaking (and scattering dirty paint-water everywhere in the process, though the effects seem to have been negligible), which left me out of action painting-wise until I could find a replacement, which I eventually did. It still isn't just quite the same though...

That will be it for now. There still isn't any new Fantasy background at the moment, since I'm still assessing how much demand there would be for it (as it doesn't comply with GW official background anymore). Seeing more and more people looking towards past-hammer and being dissatisfied with GW's recent background material is making me lean more and more towards 'yes' however.

Ailyn the Spellsinger, and some stuff about background and Tau (I couldn't think of any clever title puns or cool sounding titles)

An owl hooted off in the gloomy distance as Mir'q'arielle steadily made her way along the winding forest path. At least she thought it was an owl as she trod on through the shadows, it occurred to her that it could just as easily be some form of spite or other fey spirit, or even other Asrai communicating with each other in secret. Either way the Wood Elf thought it best to keep moving. Though still daylight in the outside world (by her reckoning at least), the canopy of this part of Athel Loren was dense enough to block out almost any sunshine, casting an ominous and eerie darkened shade over the wood. Anywhere beyond a few dozen or so paces was completely obscured by darkness, and as was common in Athel Loren small beady eyes occasionally glinted out of crevices and hiding places, and every so often something would skitter or scamper across the path just out of sight. Nonetheless, the dusty, twisting, leaf-strewn path was at least somewhat illuminated, and had yet to turn in upon itself or vanish off at a dead end. It seemed that The Forrest was at least allowing Mir'q'arielle to continue on her quest, for now at least.

And it was fortunate indeed that Mir'q'arielle continued to be uninterrupted in her journey, for it was of utmost importance - she was to travel to the Oak of Ages itself, and appear before Ariel, the Queen in the Wood herself, and make one final attempt to reason with her and the rest of the Asrai. One last attempt to peacefully reconcile the Meadows of Heaven with the rest of Athel Loren, through diplomacy and negotiation. One last attempt to talk sense into the rest of the Elves, to try and get them to see and realise the danger and madness that was sweeping through the once great forest, and to convince them to take action against it alongside the Meadows of Heaven.

The Asrai noble plucked a string of the Rhymer's Harp she had brought with her from the royal armoury of the Meadows of Heaven, and instantly its magic propelled her through another sizeable part of the forest path in the span of a few short moments. Normally Mir'q'arielle did not travel with one, but this was an important task and so she had been provided with one and a small satchel bag to carry it in. The musical note's effect wore off and she returned to her normal speed, passing through another stretch of the lonely forest path.

At once, Mir'q'arielle's cloak took on a life of its own, trembling and shifting as the Murder of Spites that called its folds and feathers home suddenly rushed out to confront an unseen danger, Kaereon taking flight in the same direction. In a blur of movement Mir'q'arielle spun around to face the danger, only to face nothing but more shadows. A movement caught on the edge of her vision sent her turning to the other side, but the obscured shape twirled away behind her. She heard footfalls just behind her before the mysterious assailant leapt over her head and somersaulted to her front in a whirl of colour and streamers, before settling into the shape of a tall athletic female elf with deep rich electric red hair, a long spear in one hand and an elegant sword in the other.

"What such dull wits you've been left with Traveller," the Elf said with a chuckle, "Your companions spotted me quick enough, but even then its a wonder you've gotten on this far through the woods. All that time spent picking foes off with that old longbow of yours must have left you flat-footed."

Mir'q'arielle could not believe her eyes. "Aemiria!" She exclaimed, "By Isha! We thought you were dead! The horde-"

The Deathdancer laughed, and jumped and shifted as she spoke. "It takes more than a few hundred servants of Chaos to slay the Queen of Muses. By Loec's good graces, and the steel of his blades, I managed to survive the battle, but was separated and some distance from the Asrai lines. After much wandering, battling darkness at every turn, I managed to find my way back to Athel Loren."

"Why did you not return to the Meadows of Heaven?" Mir'q'arielle asked.

"I intended to, but the Elvenpath was secreted from me. It seems that The Forrest wished a new and different adventure for me, for instead I ended up journeying deep into the wood. At long last I arrived in the heart of Athel Loren, in the area they now call Fyr Darric, where I visited the great stronghold of my kind, the Feast Halls of the Wardance. It has become a dark and twisted place, filled with sadism and wanton cruelty and malice. They consider it now a game to have blood contests with captives, only to execute them as slowly and painfully as possible. Such an appalling practice I would expect from the corrupt and bitter Druchi, but not from noble Asrai, I would like to think we're better than that. And that is but one of their many degenerate sports. Alas, they are also extremely vigilant. I was kept in the region for many many seasons, unable to leave."

"How awful. It must have been painful for you to see the great bastion of your people fallen so."

"My people are the Elves of the Meadows of Heaven Mir'q'arielle, never forget that. But it did fill my heart with sorrow to see my Wardancer kin so depraved. Fortunately a few weeks ago, at least that's what it feels like, I was able to escape my retainers and slip out of the territory along with my Blades of Loec, which I was sure to steal away with me from where they were being kept after their confiscation. I've been wandering the forest ever since."

Mir'q'arielle stood, taking in everything she was being told as the Spites returned to her cloak. "It is good that we ran into each other then."

"Always good to have a travelling companion, but we must make haste. My escape cannot have gone unnoticed. Fyr Darric's hounds must surely be hunting for me even now. We must return to the Meadows of Heaven. I have seen much of what Athel Loren has become, and much of the darkness creeping through it. I must speak with the Wishmaster at once."

"We know as well Aemiria. I had set out to seek audience with Ariel to rouse the Asrai to action."

"Ariel has grown as decadent and corrupt as any of them. She has grown intoxicated with the accursed Dark Magic that they even now practice with wanton abandon. I'm afraid she would not listen. I'm not sure any of them would. The Wishmaster must be informed of the full extent of the danger."

"Then we could send word with an Eagle. I have good ties with-"

"No, some of the Eagles have ties with Argwylon, a place of magic academia in the north, they could easily report us to them. As noble as they may be, the Eagles cannot be trusted with this. We must travel back and deliver the news ourselves."

Mir'q'arielle looked down. She had a long history with the Great Eagles, to think they could not be depended on was difficult to bear. "I see," she said. "Let us be off then."

"Excellent," Aemiria replied, "Lead on friend. Along the way I will recount to you all of my thrilling escapades and adventures I have had along the way."

"Only if you retell them again when we get there," Mir'q'arielle said, "I am sure the Wishmaster will want to hear all of your tale as well." 

So the other day I finally finished something that's been sitting on my hobby space ever since I got the characters for my Wood Elf army - my Spellsinger on a Unicorn. It was long, and it was hard, and working with greenstuff is now one of the top contenders for 'most horrific excruciating torture I have ever endured in this hobby', but I finally did it. And now here she is, my Spellsinger, Ailyn! 

When I first conceived the idea of my Wood Elf army I had four very clear ideas about the characters I wanted in it. Two of those became Maxamaron and Moni'qeth, my general and standard bearer. The other two were the wizards I wanted in my army. I knew right from the get-go I wanted two wizards, one with the Lore of Athel Loren, and the other with another Lore, which I decided would be life (this was the days before the new Wood Elf book, so I couldn't choose just anything, but Life fits in with my idea of Wood Elf wizards acting as medics or healers in the Wood Elf army, and I also wanted to make sure I could keep my warriors in top health. I care about them like that).

I also had a clear vision of exactly what I wanted them both to be like. The typical Warhammer wizard is often somewhat flamboyant and extravagant, and so I wanted one of my wizards to break away and be different from this archetype by being quite humble and simple in their attire and the items they used, an older wiser magic user that knew that adding gems to something doesn't make it magical, it just makes it expensive - this would become Aneaeth Ollissin, my Spellweaver. The second wizard, on the other hand, I wanted to be much more extravagant, to contrast. At the same time, I knew as soon as I saw it as an option that I wanted one of the wizards to be riding a Unicorn. I love classic fantasy tropes and conventions, and it doesn't get much more classic than a beautiful Elven maiden riding a Unicorn and wielding magic. Finally, I knew I wanted one of the wizards to have red hair. I put these trains of thought together to create a quintissential vision of a classical attractive young Elf mage atop a Unicorn with flowing red hair, and this fitted perfectly with my want for an extravegant wizard. It also lead to the nucleus of the character backstory, she would be a young inexperienced, but gifted Spellsinger, in contrast with the aforementioned wiser, older one. This younger Spellsinger I decided to name Ailyn.

After scouring GW's model range for suitable female heads for converting these two magic practitioners (I never liked the puffed out 'super saiyan' style hair of the official female Wood Elf wizards), it quickly became obvious what model would be used as the basis for the younger spellsinger - The Fey Enchantress from the Bretonnian range. Its a model I deeply love (much like the rest of the Bretonnian model range), and even knowing that it was a sacrifice for the greater good it was heard to cut her to bits, but in the end I managed it by promising myself that one day I would put together and paint up the Fey Enchantress in all her Bretonnian glory. Anyway, the first thing I did was remove the Unicorn, replacing it with the unmounted one (re)released for Storm of Magic, ever so subtly converted. My original plan was to then cut away the Enchantress's torso and replace it with one from a Spellweaver model, but that eventually proved far too impractical to do (getting her off her Unicorn ended up being hard enough as it was!), so in the end I resorted to my contingency plan of simply switching her goblet arm with the staff arm from the aforementioned spellweaver model. I feel that most wizards should have a staff, and even if they don't, I planned on giving this one Calaingor's Stave anyway, so it'd be nice and WYSIWYG that way, as well as helping to differentiate her from the normal Fey Enchantress model. The other part of said contingency plan was the addition of vines along her dress to make it look more Wood Elfish, which I think I did quite well on, even if one of them broke off as I was undercoating her (which is why there's one leaf just above her knee awkwardly floating there. Oh well, I don't think it looks that bad). The next step was to fill out the top of the model's head. The Fey Enchantress has a crown topped with a big fleur-de-lis, which I removed along with all the other fleur-de-lisses on the model, but this ended up leaving a big space of flat resin on the top of her head, so I had to sculpt something to cover it up. I was going to go with leaves, but hair proved to be easier to do. After that I added a daisy-chain around her head, its an element right back from my original vision of the character, and I feel the idea of a lovely young Spellsinger with flowers in her hair is very Wood-Elfish. I'd originally planned to have the Unicorn be completely unadorned, a wild free creature with nothing on it except the Spellsinger that was riding it. However, Spellsingers come with a longbow as standard issue, just like any other Asrai character, and there wasn't anywhere on the Spellsinger herself to put one, so I stuck it and a quiver of arrows for it on the Unicorn, slung on with a leather loop greenstuffed around the Unicorn's body.

The base is another holdover from my original vision (to which the final model is actually extremely close to). In the background Ailyn is so full of the power of the forest that life springs up and blooms wherever she walks (or wherever her Unicorn walks when she's riding it), and so her base is covered in flowers, both small ones made from grated up sponge (using the very fine tutorial on this very forum) and larger ones crudely formed out of wire and greenstuff, along with a single large bumblebee, again crudely formed from greenstuff. Yes, I am fully aware that a bee that size would in fact be the size of a large kitten, I do not care - it is clearly a magical giant bee. I imagine a magical forest like Athel Loren needs plenty of magical pollenators, and Spites only do so much. Besides, there are giant hawks and giant eagles, why can't there be giant bees as well?

All in all I'm actually quite content with how Ailyn turned out. I think I might have liked more flowers on the base, but I think it worked out ok in the end. Anyway, background time. 

Ailyn, Glamourweave Spellsinger of the Meadows of Heaven 

In these darkened days, Ailyn is of an increasingly fewer kind. The newest and youngest of the four mages that govern the Fey Glades and the Celestial Heath, Ailyn is one of the last remaining members of the Kindreds of Yenayla - the Glamourweave Kindred. A smaller Kindred within the Spellsinger and Spellweaver Kindreds, the Glamourweave Kindred is known by many names; Shaper, Tree-Singer, Skein-Weaver, Shadow-Walker, Changeling, Wood-seer, Grove-kin and Wood-shaper are just a few well known titles they are known to go by. Glamourweaves are extremely closely linked to Athel Loren, and are as much Forrest Spirit as they are Elf, in a similar manner to the Wild Riders of Kurnous. They are dedicated to maintaining the correct balance in Athel Loren, and in times past they would often act as envoys to the older spirits of The Forrest. Alas, as the Asrai turned away from the older traditions of Athel Loren, the Glamourweaves, much like many of the other more specialised Kindreds, largely died out, and in the present time in most of Athel Loren they are all but extinct. The Meadows of Heaven, however, never abandoned the older ways, and so the territory remains a haven for all Kindreds, the Glamourweave included, and so a number of Glamourweaves continue to keep their Kindred and its teachings alive, though as they were never a large Kindred to start with they are few in number.

As well as this, Ailyn is also one of the last few who practice the fabled Lore of Athel Loren. A strange and subtle lore, the Lore of Athel Loren is a form of spellcraft that comes from magic flowing trough Athel Loren's web of consciousness. This fey form of magic can be used to create powerful glamours and illusions, or to heal even the most grievous of wounds with a touch. An Elf using the Lore of Athel Loren can weave spells of confusion and trickery to hide important areas, objects, or even entire armies, and can cast dangerous blasts that can strip a target of its memories and wits. This lore can even be used to access the secret and hidden pathways in the world, even those inaccessible by Moonstone, allowing allies to move quickly unimpeded by even the most daunting of terrain, or to disappear completely and reappear somewhere else entirely. Most impressive of all of the powers available through the Lore of Athel Loren however, is the ability to influence and alter the growth of trees and foliage, whether it be to incite a tree to grow into a beautiful structure or monument, or to cause entire groves to uproot and shift to create new glades or pathways or seal off existing ones. Many Asrai in the rest of Athel Loren no longer have a strong enough connection to the raw mystical power of Athel Loren, with their connection having over the seasons been corrupted by the use of Dark Magic, and so most territories in Athel Loren no longer practice its use - even Argwylon, for all its vaunted knowledge, retains little education or expertise regarding it. The Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven, however, never took to practising the more unwholesome forms of magic. Such forms of magic are illegal in the Meadows of Heaven, in the eyes of the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven, magic forms such as the Dark Magic, the Lore of Death or even the Lore of Shadow are the magics used by the hated Druchi and Beastmen, and consequently they consider the use of such lores to be stooping to the level of those tainted beings, and thus abhorrent. As a result, the connection between the Spellsingers and Spellweavers of the Meadows of Heaven and the consciousness of Athel Loren is pure enough to still be able to make use of the Lore of Athel Loren, and so its practice remains common within the territory.

As a result of this, the mystical power of Athel Loren flows through Ailyn's veins as much as Elven blood does, and she feels much of what The Forrest feels. In recent times this has been the cause of great pain, as she feels madness and corruption twisting through Athel Loren's glades and trees. Her Glamourweave nature also gives Ailyn a close affinity to Forrest Spirits, especially Spites, and together with the ancient Treeman Avyrrnhan she represents the interests of the Forrest Spirits in the Meadows of Heaven, speaking for their needs before the Wishmaster. This deep connection with Athel Loren alone makes Ailyn a valuable member of the royal court of the Meadows of Heaven, but it is not for this reason that she rose to her current position. Instead, Aneaeth Ollissin chose her to become the fourth member of the ruling council of the Fey Glades and the Celestial Heath, representative of Spring, because of the immense magical capacity Ailyn possesses. Though still quite young by Elf standards, Ailyn holds unprecedented amounts of magical ability, perhaps rivalling that of even Ariel herself. She is however, still young and extremely inexperienced, and currently lacks the skill and knowledge to use her abilities to their fullest extent, and so the vast majority of this incredible power remains latent and untapped. Nonetheless, she has already demonstrated this exceptional talent - one of the first actions she ever did as a Spellsinger was to inadvertently awaken the slumbering Avyrnhan completely effortlessly, and it was this action that brought her to the attention of Aneaeth, who since then has made it her task to take the young Spellsinger under her wing as an apprentice, teaching her the ways and knowledge of magical practice.

She also gave Ailyn the staff she now wields, one of Calaingor's Staves. The Calaingor's Staves of the Meadows of Heaven, however, are very different to the ones now used in other parts of Athel Loren. Where the latter purify and strengthen a Spellsinger or Spellweaver's connection with Athel Loren enough to make use of basic spells from the Lore of Athel Loren, a Calaingor's Stave of the Meadows of Heaven enhances a Spellsinger or Spellweaver's command over the Lore of Athel Loren, allowing them to Tree-Sing repeatedly, commanding entire swathes of Forrest at once. The immense raw magical ability of Ailyn has also brought a Unicorn into her service, the magical creature being utterly seduced by the power within her. In addition, such is the extent that the Spites of the Meadows of Heaven adore her that she is escorted at all times by a Pagent of Shrikes.

In the days following the estrangement of the Meadows of Heaven from the rest of Athel Loren, Ailyn has been increasingly pained and saddened by the plight of the forest, and so she has taken it upon herself to restore The Forrest to its true glory. In recent times she has come to spend more and more time roaming the forest of Athel Loren, healing the damage done to it and restoring harmony to it. She brings Daylight to Modryn, and seasons to Arranoc, Atylwyth and Tirsyth, and does what she can to equalise the other areas of Athel Loren. However, she is but one individual, and cannot be everywhere at once, and such is the extent of the changes wrought upon Athel Loren that the Forrest invariably returns to its disharmonious state when she leaves. Even so, Ailyn continues her long quest, determined to do as much as she can to restore the proper balance to Athel Loren, no matter how long it takes.

Somewhat bizarrely however, Ailyn may not be alone in her quest. In recent days rumours and talk have begun to spread about a startling phenomena. Spites have reportedly been seen or glimpsed in vast numbers, entire armies of them pouring through the Forrest. According to tales, this 'Spite Crusade' works ceaselessly and relentlessly to undo the changes in Athel Loren, healing corruption and mercilessly battling intruders, and even occasionally striking out at Elves practising certain forms of magic. Most who claim to have seen this also say that these Spite armies head in directions that have an uncanny tendency to coincide with the direction Ailyn travels in, and all apparently can be traced back to the Meadows of Heaven. The exact nature or purpose behind this supposed 'Spite Crusade' remains a mystery. Some suggest that they might be a secret weapon unleashed by the Meadows of Heaven to dominate the rest of Athel Loren covertly. Others think that Ailyn's quest to heal Athel Loren has created an example that the Spites aspire to emulate. Others still claim that it is the work of Drycha, or that it is the first stage in a rebellion against the Elf presence in Athel Loren. Some instead argue the simple explanation that it is a natural reaction to some of the worst excesses of the Season of Retribution (or the Season of Lunacy as it is known in the Meadows of Heaven). Whatever the truth may be, the so called 'Spite Crusade' remains largely unproven, the stuff of fancy tales told in Halls by travellers. Still, talk and sightings of the phenomenon grow more and more numerous each season. While the Spites may have good intentions at heart, if the 'Spite Crusade' is indeed true it could have dangerous consequences for Athel Loren, as its invasive activities, especially the reported attacks on Elves, could give Araloth and the other Asrai opposed to the Meadows of Heaven and its ways the pretext they need to make war upon the Meadows of Heaven.... 

And finally a short while ago my local Games Workshop store had its birthday, and to celebrate they threw a giffle giveaway where I won.... this. 

In case you can't tell, its a Tau bundle including a Hammerhead, 3 Crisis Suits, a Firewarrior team and some Gun Drones. According to my estimates its roughly $265 worth of models for free. And it goes great with the Devilfish, Crisis Suit and Stealth Team I won in the Christmas giffle giveaway. Granted, this one didn't include bases for the models, so I'll have to get those seprately, but even taking that into account its still a massive discount off what it usually would cost. 

Assuming there's another Christmas giffle giveaway, with a bit of luck I might end up with a small Tau army entirely for free. This pleases me. 

Right then, back to more hobby. 

Exunt

Meadows of Heaven

Don't worry everyone I'm not dead. Well not yet at least. The small eternity since I last posted is due to a combination of the annual mid-year university assignment dump taking longer than anticipated to burn through, good old fashioned forgetfulness and the fact that painting terrain is really long hard work.

And with that, a short while ago I finished my first ever piece of terrain, ever, a Citadel Wood.

And here, with some of my Hobby Minions(tm) in it.

And finally with it some backstory about my growing Wood Elf army.

The Meadows of Heaven 

Deep within the forest of Athel Loren lies the shifting realm of the Meadows of Heaven, a secret place known to few outside the Asrai. Though it is a prosperous and stable realm, it's leaders hold little sway over the rest of The Forrest, for the realm has in recent years declared itself independent of all of the 12 eternal realms of the wood.

Geography

The location of places within Athel Loren hold little meaning, for the glades and pathways within the great forest frequently shift and move. This is especially prominent with the Meadows of Heaven, for the entire territory regularly changes it's position within Athel Loren, appearing near the Pine Glades one week, and being near the edge of the Wild Heath the next, and it is as much for this reason as the territory's recent political estrangement that the Meadows of Heaven is not marked on most maps of Athel Loren. As a general rule of thumb however, the Meadows of Heaven tends to follow a rough orbit of the Oak of Ages, and never enters the region of the Wildwood.

As well as this constant shifting within Athel Loren, the various provinces within the Meadows of Heaven often shift and move as well. However, they never stray particularly far from the 'centre' of the territory, at the heart of which lies an artefact whose origins and purpose are a mystery even to this day. The object itself is a massive sphere partially surrounded by a crescent like border, not unlike the blade of a large pendulum, and is covered by intricate designs. It is known to hold vast magical power, and it's discovery marked the founding of the Meadows of Heaven, and so its silhouette forms the royal insignia of the Meadows of Heaven to this day.

If one were to look upon a map of Athel Loren with the Meadows of Heaven marked upon it, they would notice that the territory itself is tiny, barely a fraction of the size of even the smaller Eternal Realms. Despite this, the various areas of the territory hold a diverse array of specialisations and capacities, almost creating a miniature form of Athel Loren, and so the Meadows of Heaven are largely self-sufficient, which has proven fortunate in recent times. Some of the more notable provinces within the Meadows of Heaven include:

Imaginaerum

The Capital of the Meadows of Heaven, Imaginaerum is the only province within the territory that never changes location, as it is centred around the great object at the heart of the area, which itself dominates the front of the royal hall of the Meadows of Heaven, the seat of government for the Meadows of Heaven and a grand place that also holds the great emblems of each of the noble households that a Wishmaster may be from, as wells as countless treasures. Other features of interest within Imaginaerum include the royal treasury of the Meadows of Heaven, the largest concentration of the territory's wealth (though in truth much of the territory's wealth is highly decentralised and just as much of it is dispersed amongst numerous secret caches to prevent theft), and the royal armoury of the Meadows of Heaven, a vast stockpile of arms and armour, including a magnificent collection of magical items, some common throughout the world, and some which are barely heard of outside it's confines.

The Glade of Poppies

The Glade of Poppies is the largest centre of learning and knowledge within the Meadows of Heaven. It was devastated during Cyanathair's first assault on Athel Loren, but has since largely recovered, though the prized poppies that give the area it's name have yet to reach their original height. This area is also the primary site of manufacture for much of the weapons and armour and the magical items used by the Meadows of Heaven. Of interesting note is that many of these magical items still use older designs no longer in use by much of the rest of Athel Loren, and so many of them are subtly different. A Bow of Loren made within the Meadows of Heaven, for example, will not deliver as many shots as one made from elsewhere in Athel Loren, but instead will be more accurate, and can be used in combination with enchanted arrows. The enchanted arrows themselves use designs less well-suited for large-scale production, and so are limited in use only to individuals of significant status, but include varieties not used by other territories of Athel Loren.

The Celestial Heath and the Fey Glades

The Fey Glades are the centre of magical knowledge and lore within the Meadows of Heaven, and are strange and wondrous places filled with fantastical occurrences and creatures of magic, and it is said that at night the glades glow with faerie light. This area is centred around the Celestial Heath, a grassy hill upon which grows a single tree, the Celestial Tree, from which the twisting skeins of fate can be seen amongst the stars and the passage of the moons with uncanny clarity, and so the Celestial Heath is the primary place of scrying and fortune-reading amongst the Meadows of Heaven, and home to it's greatest seers and prophetesses. Magic study and lore within the Meadows of Heaven is tightly controlled, with many lores of magic being illegal within the territory, and so study around these outlawed lores mainly centres around ways to dispell them. The Meadows of Heaven never took part in the study of Dark Magic that many of the other realms of Athel Loren conducted during the Season of Lunacy, and while this shielded the territory from the Dark Magic's corrupting effects, it also means that to this day mages from the Meadows of Heaven are unable to make use of Dark Magic. At the same time, the lore of High Magic has almost completely been forgotten amongst the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven, but the territory is also one of the last remaining places that retains knowledge of the fabled Lore of Athel Loren, a strange fey strain of magic said to come from the very power of the forest itself.

The Dead Gardens

The Dead Gardens are the main burial ground in the Meadows of Heaven, and are the final resting place for many of it's greatest heroes, as well as every Wishmaster that has ruled over the territory. At the heart of this area is a large artefact much like the one within Imaginaerum, but partially shattered and half-buried in the ground. Unlike the rest of Athel Loren, the spirits of fallen Asrai in the Meadows of Heaven never form into Tree-kin, and indeed rarely linger within the world at all, with those few who do remaining largely confined to the Meadows of Heaven. Though this makes the area a darkened and haunted place, even more so than the rest of Athel Loren, it also means that Asrai who journey there can sometimes communicate with these spirits of the dead, though this is not a common occurrence. The area is thought to hold powerful magic, and has in recent times become a target of a number of corrupt individuals.

The three rivers

There are three rivers that run through the Meadows of heaven. It is believed that they run mostly underground from the mountains near the forest, for while they sometimes appear in other parts of Athel Loren, they are only consistently found within the Meadows of Heaven. One of them, the River of Riches, is filled with an abundance of metals, gold and precious stones that line its bed, and is the primary source of mineral wealth within the Meadows of Heaven. Another, the Ghost River, is a stream of immensely potent magical energy that flows all around the world, and is a dangerous and terrible force. A contingent of Waywatchers from the Meadows of Heaven has taken up guarding this river as their mission and duty. The final river, the Iskalia or the Singing Maiden, is largely an ordinary river and provides the Meadows of Heaven with a source of fresh water as well as the occasional fish.

The Glade of Twilight

A small and secretive glade within the Meadows of Heaven, those who reside here are extremely isolationist, even by the standards of the Meadows of Heaven (which is itself one of the more isolationist-leaning parts of Athel Loren). The Asrai who dwell within the Glade of Twilight are predominantly a Warrior Kindred, and hone their skills in combat to an incredible degree, and also practice limited amounts of divination and scrying, though not to the same extent as those of the Celestial Heath. Exactly why the Asrai of this area are so secretive, and what they mean by 'mastering the darkness', remains a mystery even to the rest of the Meadows of Heaven...

The Invisible Fortress

The Invisible Fortress surrounds the boarder of the Meadows of Heaven, and is the territory's primary line of defence against attack from enemies. It is a dense network and gauntlet of sentry posts, war-camps, strongpoints, bastions and walls formed from intertwining trees, deepwood alters that drive nearby trees into a killing frenzy, traps and other such defences that extends for some length into the Meadows of Heaven itself, and is notorious for its strength against even the fiercest assaults. Indeed, in the entire history of the Wood Elves, the Invisible Fortress has only been breached once, during Cyanathair's first onslaught at the start of the Secret War.

The Elvenpath

The Elvenpath is a long and winding trail through Athel Loren and forms the main point of passage into the Meadows of Heaven, and indeed with the Invisible Fortress in place its only point of entry without magical assistance. Though it's exact locations change, it stretches throughout all of Athel Loren, and always ends at the Meadows of Heaven, regardless of the territory's current position. Because of this the Elvenpath forms the main link between the Meadows of Heaven and the rest of the forest, though in times of war it's entry point to the Meadows of Heaven will often be blocked with tree-sung woods.

As well as these there are numerous small halls, shrines, streams, springs, glades and other such places scattered throughout the Meadows of Heaven. Despite its name, the territory is largely dense woodland, with only a few small meadows being present, most of which are used as stable glades.

The same mystical force that binds the various parts of the Meadows of Heaven together also acts as an equalising force in regards to the magic that permeates the rest of Athel Loren, such that the Meadows of Heaven will always follow the time of day and seasonal passage of the outside world, regardless of where in Athel Loren the territory currently presides. It will remain daylight in the Meadows of Heaven for the entirety of the day in the rest of the world (or rather the entirety of the day percieved through Athel Loren) even if the territory is currently within the bounds of Modryn. Likewise, if the world is in the clutches of Summer and the Wild Hunt rides across the lands surrounding Athel Loren, the Meadows of Heaven will also be in Summer even when in Atylwyth. This effect also extends to the area immediately surrounding the Meadows of Heaven, and so Asrai from other realms in Athel Loren can sometimes experience this difference themselves, to varying opinions and reactions.

Society

The Meadows of Heaven was originally founded by a large portion of social misfits and independent-minded souls, and so Asrai from the territory have a tradition and reputation of being both very individualistic and extremely stubborn. They are also occasionally known to be highly emotional, leading to them becoming extremely passionate about subjects dear to them as well as quick to anger or offend. The Meadows of Heaven is one of the few territories of Athel Loren that still retains the older system of kindreds, and examples of every kindred from the past of Athel Loren can be found within it's dominion.

The ruler of the Meadows of Heaven is known as the Wishmaster, a regional title, and this individual will carry both the royal crown of the Meadows of Heaven and the King's Longsword. Unlike many other places in the world, the royal crown of the Meadows of Heaven, a slender thing made from silver and bronze, holds little value, and the primary symbol of office is the King's Longsword, a large two-handed sword forged by Daith himself on commission many seasons before the Meadows of Heaven politically distanced themselves from the other Eternal Realms. Though there is usually only a single Wishmaster, their partner, if there is indeed one, is known to be able to command great sway with them, and the couple of Moenaeron and Lyraelle famously shared the title of Wishmaster throughout their reign.

The Wishmaster will also appoint a royal court, which will include a number of mages from the Fey Glades and the Celestial Heath (Aneaeth Ollissin has traditionally been one of these, though there are instances of her not being part of the royal court), a royal standard bearer to carry the Wishmaster's personal standard, a number of other nobles, and a King's Executioner. The King's Executioner is a title unique to the Meadows of Heaven, and acts as the Wishmaster's avatar in personal combat should the Wishmaster decide not to partake in a challenge, as well as dispatching enemies the Wishmaster harbours particular wrath towards. Because of this the King's Executioner will always fill in the role as champion of the Meadows of Heaven during disputes between realms, instead of the Eternal Guard usually appointed this task. While such an unorthodox action is not universally accepted by the other realms of Athel Loren, they are often forced to resign to it, as the response is usually a second challenge to address the matter, of which the King's Executioner is again appointed as representative and whom often proves the victor in both matches.

Strangely, despite their famously independent mindset, the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven still use the older leadership titles of Noble and Highborn rather than the names of Glade Lord and Glade Captain used by the rest of Athel Loren. Magic practitioners are however still known as Spellsingers and Spellweavers.

Asrai from the Meadows of Heaven use a slightly different dialect than those from the rest of Athel Loren. While it is largely the same as the more common form of Asrai language, and similar enough that Elves from the Meadows of Heaven and the rest of Athel Loren can usually understand each other, a number of words have slightly different meanings in the Meadows of Heaven, and the Asrai from the territory have a number of unique quirks, colloquialisms and idioms in their speech.

There is also a strong tradition of storytelling in the Meadows of Heaven, and nearly everyone who dwells there will have a favourite tale to tell or hear. Because of this the Meadows of Heaven are one of the few places besides the nymiad court to retain written histories and records, though in this instance these tend to focus mainly on the Meadows of Heaven rather than the greater part of Athel Loren. Likewise, skalds from the Meadows of Heaven also tend to be very accurate when retelling histories of the Wood Elves, though there are still a fair number who will twist the truth to their own ends and so the ceremonial dances of Loec are still the only way to guarantee an accurate historical retelling.

The Meadows of Heaven have traditionally been isolationist even by the standards of the Asrai, almost never interfering in the affairs of other lands unless it was of paramount importance to Athel Loren's safety, though it's armies have frequently mounted sorties into foreign lands to conduct various secret missions. The territory also nonetheless holds strong ties with a large number of the Great Eagles that ally themselves with the Elves, as well as many of the forest's other creatures, though the number of forest spirits within the Meadows of Heaven has historically been much lower than the rest of Athel Loren. It is also then strange to note that the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven will on occasion accept individuals from other areas into their domain and treat them with genuine hospitality, though they are rarely allowed to return. Perhaps most notable of these individuals are the Bretonnian Damsel Sharon D'adele and the human girl Alicia Liddenell. Needless to say, this is always treated with a large amount of suspicion by the rest of the Asrai in Athel Loren.

Unlike the rest of Athel Loren, the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven do not worship the entire Elven pantheon, having long ago concluded that most of the Elven gods had abandoned them. Only Isha and Kurnous are still worshipped, and even then the exact practices are often different from the rest of Athel Loren. For example, the Talon of Kurnous is not practised by the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven, who instead prefer to honour the great hunter by unleashing a first strike of a hundredscore arrows, considering the enemy army itself to be prey more than any individual in it. Many of the Asrai in the rest of Athel Loren consider this to be heresy, but many others grudgingly condone it, provided that such teachings do not leave the bounds of the Meadows of Heaven.

History

The Meadows of Heaven gains it's name from two factors. The relatively constant distance between it's various areas allowed early Elven colonists to gain a point of reference when first navigating Athel Loren, and the historically low numbers of forest spirits in the territory made it something of a sanctuary for Elven colonists menaced by Dryads in the early days of settlement, making it something of a heaven for those early settlers.

While largely following the same conventions of time keeping and historical reference as the rest of Athel Loren, the Meadows of Heaven does hold different names for four great seasons. The Season of Withering is known in the Meadows of Heaven as the Season of Fire, the Season of Retribution and the Season of Redemption are collectively known as the Season of Lunacy, and the Season of Doom is known as the Season of Tears.

The Season of Fire

"HELL TO THE HEAVENS!!"

-warcry of the Beastmen assailing the Meadows of Heaven during Cyanathair's first attack (translated from Dark Tongue)

Though Cyanathair's first assault on Athel Loren, at the very start of the Secret War, affected all of Athel Loren, it remains particularly strong in the Meadows of Heaven, for it is the one time the territory has truly felt threatened. Initially it was thought that the Invisible Fortress, first created during the Winter of Woe some time earlier, would be sufficient to hold back any incursions on the Meadows of Heaven, as the Invisible Fortress was at the time believed to be invincible. Nonetheless the Meadows of Heaven sent several armies to aid in the greater defence of Athel Loren, where they fought with distinction.

This security was brought crashing down when The Corrupter turned it's baleful gaze upon the Meadows of Heaven however. The creature sent titanic hordes to bring the territory to it's knees, and while they were at first deterred by the Invisible Fortress, Cyanathair's innate madness and chaotic nature spoke to the trees and spirits of the Invisible Fortress, as it did to many other parts of Athel Loren, and caused large sections of the defence line to rebel against the Elves, allowing the Beastmen to circumvent the Invisible Fortress and gain direct access to the Meadows of Heaven. Those detachments fighting in other parts of Athel Loren were forced to be recalled, and for the rest of that terrible conflict the entirety of the Meadows of Heaven was consumed by total war. Glade Guard and Eternal Guard cut down thousands of Gors and Ungors in brutal ambushes and raids, Scouts fought running skirmishes with Ungor Raiders, Waywatchers fought a lethal shadow war hunting down Beasts of important status and the terrible monsters unleashed on the Meadows of Heaven while Warhawk Riders and Eagles fought a deadly battle for aerial superiority with flocks of Harpies and winged monstrosities. The Elves of the Glade of Twilight slaughtered through entire warherds unsupported, Spites assailed the enemy with every trick and power they had, the Arboreal Legion smashed it's way through rank after rank of vile creature, and the few Treemen of the Meadows of Heaven fought an unyielding defence of the most sacred glades and trees in the Meadows of Heaven, while the mages of the Fey Glades and the Celestial Heath unleashed the cataclysmic power of The Silent Force, one of the great and terrible spells known only within the Meadows of Heaven, the use of which is forbidden save for the direst emergencies. The Glade of Poppies was left devastated in some of the bloodiest fighting of the entire conflict, and such was the ferocity of the warfare that many of the Glade Guard kindreds in the Meadows of Heaven were wiped out, such as The Light of Dawn and Spellbound Night. To this day their halls remain empty, left preserved as a memorial to their sacrifice. Countless heroes of the Meadows of Heaven were forged in this conflict, and hundreds of tales abound recounting their deeds. In the end the Beastmen horde was broken in an enormous battle that left the Wishmaster of those days slain along with his Eagle companion and mount, and the leader of the Beastmen dead at his blade. Two individuals of note that fought in this battle included a lesser Beastmen Chieftain named Belphegor, who would go on to escape the war, and a young Elf noble by the name of Maxamaron.

The Season of Lunacy

Unlike the rest of Athel Loren, the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven consider the Season of Retribution and the Season of Redemption to be a single season, which they call the Season of Lunacy, as it is at this time that they consider the rest of the forest to have gone mad. For much of this period and those before it since the aftermath of the Season of Fire, the Meadows of Heaven were largely quiet, focusing mainly on rebuilding their territory. As a result they did not take part in the campaign in Naggaroth, nor did they share in the knowledge of Dark Magic that came back from it, which the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven would later go on to claim was a wise decision indeed. Because of this the territory was unaffected by the chaos that the rest of Athel Loren was thrown into during this time, and largely looked upon it from without with a mixture of sorrow, confusion and bemusement. It was also during this time that Maxamaron rose to become Wishmaster, and was afflicted by the Winterheart.

During this time the Bretonnian Damsel Sharon D'adele made her journey into Athel Loren, and was rescued by Elves from the Meadows of Heaven and brought there, where she was kept for some time out of fear she may be killed in the madness overtaking the rest of Athel Loren. During her time there she was tutored by the Spellsingers and Spellweavers of the Fey Glades and the Celestial Heath, and came to be on good terms with Tir'j'aelle Taerynen, the Winter Storm. A second 'visitor' into the Meadows of Heaven during this time was a young dark-haired girl named Alicia Liddenell, believed to originally be from somewhere within the human Empire, who twice fell through the Worldroots and landed in Athel Loren close to the Meadows of heaven, where she was brought to and kept. On her second stay she was allowed to settle there permanently, and was awarded a small knife of magical metal after becoming welcomed by the Spites of the Meadows of Heaven. To this day her blue and white dress has become well known in the Meadows of Heaven, and within the territory she is considered something of a mascot or pet.

It was in this time that the great exodus of the Spites began. The overt use of Dark Magic within the bounds of Athel Loren came to terrify many of the Spites that had long since resided within the forest, and many of them fled to what refuge they could find. One such place was the Meadows of Heaven, as the non-use of Dark Magic there had made the territory something of a sanctuary for the nature spirits. And so it was that hundreds of Spites migrated into the Meadows of Heaven, their fear of the growing use of Dark Magic greater than their unease around the Wishmaster. Even now the Meadows of Heaven remains even more infested with Spites than other areas of Athel Loren, and the Spites have formed close ties with the territory, such that Asrai heroes may still make use of them even when many other Elves in Athel Loren cannot.

Throughout this long season the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven began to grow disillusioned with greater Wood Elf society. Seeing the havoc wrought by the introduction of Dark Magic, and how the other Elves acted with it, as well as Ariel's absence afterwards, began to make the Elves in the Meadows of Heaven think their kin had lost their way. Evidence found in this time that the other Asrai of Athel Loren had allowed Beastmen to lurk the forest, and the untimely demise of Adanhu and Gruarth only brought further disdain, and so it was decided that the Meadows of Heaven would separate from the Eternal Realms of Athel Loren. As the season came to a close, the leaders of the Meadows of Heaven left their places in the councils of Athel Loren, renounced the leadership of Ariel and Orion, and declared themselves independent of the 12 Realms of Athel Loren.

The Season of Tears

The present times have been a mixed blessing for the Meadows of Heaven. The territory is now the most prosperous it has been since the start of the Secret War, but it must now contend with enemies from within as well as from without.

The other Asrai of Athel Loren have a wide range of opinions regarding the Meadows of Heaven and their split. Some consider them dangerous renegades or treacherous deviants, and would love nothing more than to invade the territory and bring it to heel. Others do not necessarily agree with their ways or methods, but do not have any ill intent towards them so long as they continue to aid the forest. Others still share their sentiments and provide them with aid or even flock to their banners. The Eternal Realms are likewise divided in thought. Talsyn is the most unaccepting of the Meadows of Heaven and its independence, with Araloth being the most prominent voice of those who consider those in the Meadows of Heaven to be traitors. Arranoc is likewise staunchly opposed to the Meadows of Heaven, as they both divert guests away from their fate as sacrifices and bring winter into the otherwise never-ending summer. Both these sentiments are mutual, with the Meadows of Heaven considering Talsyn to be something of a centre for the corruption they perceive in Athel Loren (and the Wishmaster considering Araloth to be unfit to lead), and Arranoc to be duplicitous and dishonourable to outsiders. On the other hand, Modryn and Anmyr are both largely supportive of the Meadows of Heaven, for bringing a rare glimpse of daylight and great amounts of aid in trying to heal the land respectively, and the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven feel quite close to those of Anmyr, with both groups feeling a common bond in their suffering at the hands of Cyanathair. Torgovann and Argwylon both largely consider the Meadows of Heaven to be backwards and rustic fools, while those in the Meadows of Heaven consider both realms to be playing with fire, meddling with dangerous forces best left undisturbed. These sentiments are not universal however, and Asrai of every opinion regarding the Meadows of Heaven can be found in any of the Eternal Realms, albeit in varying amounts. Even the forest spirits are divided, with some considering the Meadows of Heaven to be an aberration, while others believe it to be a seed of renewal and the salvation of the forest. Orion himself would be happy to make war upon the territory, as he and the current Wishmaster have never been in agreement on most things, however Ariel is, for now at least, content to allow the Meadows of Heaven to continue on their way, understanding that those who dwell there still serve the forest in their own way.

Tensions remain high, but for now an uneasy peace remains between the Meadows of Heaven and the other realms of Athel Loren, and so the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven have turned their attentions outward. While no longer officially following the mandates of the King and Queen in the wood, the leaders of the Meadows of Heaven agree with the need for greater action against Chaos in the wider world, and so armies from the Meadows of Heaven frequently travel abroad to hunt down the children of Chaos, though their deeds generally go unrecognised and unrecorded by others, even more so than other Wood Elves. Belphegor, survivor of the Beastmen assault on the Meadows of Heaven during the Season of Fire, has risen to become a powerful warlord, and is currently amassing forces for another attack on the Meadows of Heaven in the name of the Master of Skulls. Another evil now covets the territory however, in the form of the countess Justine Favole, who has tasted the power that resides in the Dead Gardens and craves to command it's entirety, and so her followers and minions now assail the Meadows of Heaven in ever-increasing numbers and ferocity. The Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven have also come into conflict with the servants of the accursed Chaos God Slaanesh, though their intentions still remain a mystery.

The Glory of Days Long Past

The methods of battle and war used by the Meadows of Heaven are best described as old but effective. Their armies are frequently well-trained and equipped, though the equipment itself is often different to that now used by the rest of Athel Loren. Glade Guard, for example, continue to use the Glade Guard Longbow, which has been largely phased out of the rest of Athel Loren in favour of the Asrai Longbow. The older Glade Guard Longbow has less power at longer ranges than it's newer cousin, but much greater power at short ranges, and Glade Guard from the Meadows of Heaven train heavily in Asrai Archery techniques to effortlessly fire on the move, allowing them to quickly get into shorter ranges to make full use of this power. Other units tend to use the lighter Scout Bow, a design almost exclusive to the Meadows of Heaven that is less powerful than either the Asrai Longbow or the Glade Guard Longbow, but is considerably lighter than either and thus better suited for easily and quietly moving through dense woodland, or as a sidearm for high ranking nobles. It is also cheap and easy to produce, allowing any Elf from the Meadows of Heaven to own one. Eternal Guard, likewise, still practice extensively in Eternal Guard Fighting Styles, allowing them to rain down much more blows than their compatriots in the other realms of Athel Loren, while the Wardancer Weapons used by the Wardancers of the Meadows of Heaven hit much harder than those used by other Wardancers. Warhawks from the Meadows of Heaven tend to have less brute strength than those from other areas, but are much more nimble, allowing them and their riders to conduct quick hit-and-run attacks to disrupt enemy forces. The few forest spirits greater than Spites that reside in the Meadows of Heaven are far more brutal than in other parts of Athel Loren, with Dryads from the territory eschewing close-packed formations in favour of viscous attacks in combat, while the Tree-kin of the Arboreal Legion are known to strike with far more force than Tree-kin formed from the departed spirits of fallen Elves. All Elves from the Meadows of Heaven still train extensively in firing while moving, though this comes at the expense of developing the lightening-quick reaction speeds other Elves are known for. While the magical support of the Meadows of Heaven is more limited in it's application, the territory boasts a far greater array of magical items than the other realms of Athel Loren, which when combined with the affinity Spites have for Elves in the territory, ensures that leaders of the Meadows of Heaven can be equipped to deal with an extremely wide array of threats.

Where the Asrai of the Meadows of Heaven go, the glory of days long past travels with them. 

(Please ignore the colour of some parts. They're things or places mentioned in the new Wood Elf army book that I've forgotten the official name for, and I'm currently unable to access my copy of the new book to check, so I made them blue for easy reference when I go back over it after checking in the new book). 

And to finish everything off here's a picture of the road still to go. The rest of the year is going to be very busy...