Moving into the second month of our Tale of Four Warlords I decided I needed to start bulking out the core of my Daughters of Khaine, and what better choice to do that than with the ubiquitous Witch Aelves.
I'll admit, when I started messing around with Daughters of Khaine back when the book came out, I wasn't super enthused about the staple of the army, the Witch Aelves. It's not that they're bad models, they're gorgeous sculpts with a ton of movement. I was just more drawn to the melusai and khinerai. In fact, my original idea was to do a Temple Nest army with almost all snakes. After painting a melusai though I decided that going that route may drive me a bit insane. My method involves highlighting each scale on the body, so it takes awhile. My new goal, at least for the first 1,000 points, is to have a bit of everything, to really show off the diversity of the army's model range and keep myself interested by switching up what I'm painting. With that in mind I knew one of the first things I should add was a unit of Withc Aelves in the form of the Witches of the Blooded Blade, and let me say, after painting these gals up, my opinion on them has definitely changed.
I had a ton of fun painting this unit! They're fairly quick, but still have enough variance in them that I can work with a couple different colors and textures. I love my Nighthaunt, but it's nice to work on something with a bit more variety in color. You may remember from my original painting guide on the Warhammer Community site that I originally was going for a more natural hair color. Well, after trying out the classic white with red or purple shadows look on my first melusai I decided I liked it so much that I was going to use it across my whole army. I'm really glad I did too since it really gives them a pop of color and also reinforces my main color of Screamer Pink. Even though this is my "main" color, it doesn't feature as much on them as it might on a different army due to, well, how little clothes they're wearing. Anywhere I can sneak it in helps.
I'm really proud of the finished unit. I more or less followed my original painting guide (I even had to reference it when I started on the unit(, but with a few changes. The hair got switched to the white, and I also brightened up the gold to a Retributor Armor base. You can even see my original Witch from the tutorial on the far right in the picture above with the updated look. Fun fact, since I've painted this army in bits and pieces I have done the bases slightly different each time. I can never remember exactly how many layers of shade I used, or how many drybrushes I did between them, so they're all slightly different. In the unit above there are 3 slightly different styles of bases, but you can't really tell, especially once the blood spatter goes on them. That's another thing I had a ton of fun with. I have been wanting to use the Blood for the Blood God technical paint on an army since it came out, but have never had a good project for it until now.
Now, with my Hag Queen and first unit of Witches done my army is slowly starting to take shape. Since this is a narrative Tale of Four Warlords I of course have to keep the story going with the Daughters of Khaine of Khar Nair and their quest for the 8th Wonder of Ghur. This month we take a look at the Witches of the Blooded Blade and Lathori's continued quest for power.
The Witches of the Blooded Blade
The Witch coven known as the Blooded Blade have earned themselves a reputation far and wide along the Talon Coast of Ghur. When they're not wetting their blades within the fighting pits of Excelsis, they're often found at the heart of the bloodiest conflicts that Khar Nair can entangle itself in. Led by the duplicitous Hag, Narochi Ashstrider, the Blooded Blade have cut a gore soaked path across much of the Realm of Beasts in search of the shards of their lost god. Utterly loyal to Lathori Bloodsorrow, the Witches now find themselves as part of an ever growing expedition into the wilds to locate the fabled 8th Wonder of Ghur.
'Narochi curled her lip in distaste as the Kharadron slid from her blade, his blood trailing down the sharpened steel and coating her hand in a viscous, red sheen. The sky duardin were allies at times, but not today. They had been too greedy in their plunder of the wilds around Khar Nair and had paid a heavy price for it. All around her the other Witches in her coven delivered similar killing blows to the heavily armored Arkanauts, a small mercy they could afford to the already grievously wounded duradin. She knew there would be ramifications for the skirmish, but she trusted in her Hag Queen to smooth out the wrinkles between the cult of Khar Nair and the Overlords of Barak-Mor. This had not been the first time that the two had spilt blood, and it would not be the last, but just the same, they were allies against the darker, more sinister things of the realms, and would one day be required to lock shields together in solidarity. Plus, there was also the lucrative trade deal they had with the merchants, a not altogether insignificant detail she thought as she admired the gilded edges of what little armor she wore, now speckled with the life blood of the ones who had supplied the raw materials for its creation.
"My Hag," a younger member of the Blooded Blade intoned.
"Yes?" she purred in reply as she tasted the blood along the blade's edge. Duardin stock always had a heartier, more robust flavor to it than man or aelf.
"A runner has just arrived from the temple. Our Queen has requested we return at once. Something about a lost wonder and the glory of Khaine."
"If Lathori Bloodsorrow calls, then we must answer. My sisters, let us go and be quick about it. Leave their airship unharmed and where it's anchored, but make sure none are left alive. We will let them retrieve their flying contraption later after they have shown proper contrition for their transgressions."'
Next month keep an eye out for something a little more snake like in nature...
Until next time,
Tyler M.
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