Wednesday, July 30, 2014

The Tainted Thegn and his Dire Men

Thus sang the mangled minstrel of the coming of Fulgid Glim during the time of Quaking and of Mourning in Qaarra:



He came upon us from the bruiséd North,
Leading forth a host of brigand knav'ry
Who once were only feuding petty-kings,
born to desp'rate battle and gloried death.



But Fulgid Glim gave to them many gifts
And each their bloody praises did he sing;
and forth they came under a new accord,
'Neath the flag of the Many-eyed, Mumbling Thing.




On Glim's brow the crown of cabbages he bore
And the Dire Men called him their Tainted Thegn;
They rode on us in darkness and unease
To throw down the nacreous towers of yore
Where dwelt the darkly dreaming deities.



Now our untimely bruised and bloodied night 
does Fulgid beset with his ugsome thegns:
Greer of dank and mossy mane, crusher of
brittle-bonéd men; and Thjornig Marrow,
who rides to cleave the face of death itself;





Ullidge Brood, who bears the beastly flag
In place of Blind Krell before him, who was slain;
Gorespindle, whose wicked barbs crave flesh;
And Ditherprank, whose mirthful cranium 
is born upon his oddly faithful mute;



And Toller Brigg with his loathsome ordure;
And Brinnae the Goad of rage-mad valour;
And many a blood-soaked tyrant beside.
They come to test our bones on edge of knife,
And beat into our skulls with shrieking axe;
To plunge our hapless land in deeper strife,
To unseam our sickly kerns and burn our shacks;
To rifle through the bones and carry forth
Our burnéd trinkets to the gory North.



10 comments :

  1. good job on the banner....looks suitably evil :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I had a lot of fun with that thing. It was tricky cuz it's a lot smaller than I usually do.

      Delete
  2. That's a great looking unit. Very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is excellent Matt. Your work is focusing and narrowing in a very intersting direction and the quality is ever increasing.

    The unit is looking really great and though each model keeps its own character they look good together.
    We want more of this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All for you A.man ;). I'll be putting up more detailed shots of the individual characters over the next week or two.

      Delete
  4. I like the poem. And the miniatures too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I really appreciate it - I spent a lot of time wrestling with that iambic pentameter.

      Delete
  5. Great work. Great job on the figures. Who makes the castings? They have a very unified look.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Cheers, Mark! I believe the castings are all old Grenadier sculpts from the Fantasy Warrior range, which are now sold by em-4 miniatures (http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/Cavalry.html). You can also buy them from Forlorn Hope Games (http://www.forlornhopegames.co.uk/fantasy-warriors/category/31-barbarians). It's worth looking over both sites, as one sometimes has things in stock that the other doesn't. Also, they both just have a to of leaden goodness. I have a lot more where this came from.

    ReplyDelete