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Ok so a few weeks ago I decide I would take the plunge and start fantasy. I read a lot about it and watched games at my (not so) local GW, and chose Brets as my first main army. I have been think about how to paint them for a while and I would really like to play them as an army based in the cursed land Mousillon.

I know the basic background of Mousillon but I can't find much about it. It would be great if anyone could explain more. I am planning to theme it around a small band of knights ( there won't be any peasants or man at arms in this army) who are loyal to the are and fight to try and protect the few remaining good people in the land and desperately bring the area back to into normal Bretonnia. The idea being they still have the same core beliefs as all other knights except being constantly exposed to the evil there has made them less naive about their knighly values. They have seen so many horrors there they understand how bad the world is and don't try to hide from it.

I don't know if this contradicts any important fluff and if it does how to change it.

Also I have no idea about what colours a Mousillon army should contain. Obviously black but I am not sure what else.

Well, the Ducal heraldry is Bordure Or and Sable, a Fleur-de-lis Sable, so yellow and black is the way to go for the ducal family retainers.

But most knights wear their own heraldy rather than that of their lord, so having individual heraldries is also quite possible.

If you are looking to do a cohesive paint scheme, consider painting the barding of the horses in black and yellow, and while giving the knights their own heraldry also quarter in the heraldry of the duke. (Quartering means you paint the upper left and lower right quarters of the shield, with the personal heraldry in the other two quarters.)

As mentioned above, the colors of Mousillon are black and yellow. For some fluff on the area, check out:

http://warhammeronline.wikia.com/wiki/Mousillon

There is some background there, so I won't bother to duplicate it here. Also, google 'mousillon' if you haven't done so to see lots of ideas about how to theme your knights.

Good luck, and be sure to post pictures.

* edited after reading the wiki:

The wiki doesn't really go into the affair of the false grail, nor does it adequately describe the condition of Mousillon now. If you can get your hands on the last edition or two Brettonian army book, they have great background info in them (and prior editions should be inexpensive).

If you can't find more info, drop a note, and I'll break open the books

Thanks for the help so far. I have tried searching the web for stuff but got limited results. I know thats its a area thats been ignored by the rest of Bretonnia and its a marshy area with lot of fallen knights/ undead / and other horrible stuff walking around. The main thing I don't understand is why the rest of the Bretonnians just prettend it doesn't exist. The link you gave helped but what is the false grail?

I am no expert on Heraldry but would paining all the knights yellow and black but with different patterns on it and giving each knight his own heraldry on the shields still keep it in check with the background.

The False Grail was a "royal" scam by Duke Mordred (or Mandred?) of Mousillon and his wife Malfleur, inspired on the Morgana/Mordred myth of Arthurian Folklore. Malfleur was a sorceress (and possibly a Lahmian Vampire) who created a fake Grail for her husband, so he could lay claim to the royal title of Bretonnia as actual owner of the Grail. The pair imprisoned the Fay Enchantress in a castle so she would not interfere with their scheme. I recall Mordred even claimed that Malfleur was the Fay Enchantress (to give more credit to his ludicrous claims, and it is said she looked the part). Many Grail Knights did not fall for the scheme and tried their best to expose it, with little effect, while the Mousillon court fell to decadence and depravity. In the end, some young knight (errant or questing?) found the castle by chance, freed the Fay Enchantress and the fraud was exposed. Mousillon was sieged by the royal army/cursed by the Fay Enchantress and suffered an outbreak of the Red Pox plague that effectively wiped out the population and Ducal entourage. I'm sure of Mordred's demise (by plague or sword) but recall that Malfleur disappeared.

It's detailed in the 5th ed. Bretonnia army book, which I have no access to ATM (it's at my parent's house).

maybe this will help I found this from a whole website dedicated to Mousillon http://www.strike-to-stun.com/Mousillon/

Mousillon is situated in the marshy valley of the River Grismerie and originated in the Dark Age of Bretonnia when refugees from Settra's raids sought safety hiding in the marshes along the river. The settlement grew rapidly into a large town, and became a prosperous trading port. Riverboats made frequent trips up and down the Grismerie bringing goods and people, from all over the world, to the towns of Guisoreux and Parravon and the numerous villages in between. The lower parts of the city suffered badly from frequent flooding of the river, causing conditions to become unbearably squalid. The poor state of these areas often attracted Skaven and Undead raiders. Elements of the latter managed to gain a hold within the crypts of the city, and became a persistent menace to the population. Eventually so many people sought refuge here that their hovels clustered around the outside of the walls and extended along the banks of the river. These would remain the city's poorest inhabitants, finding work only at the quays or as sailors aboard Bretonnian ships. Like other port cities of Bretonnia with similar poor areas, Mousillon would be plagued by the Red Pox from time to time. The last outbreak two centuries ago was so bad that the city was almost entirely depopulated.


Many of the kings of Bretonnia have desired to cleanse and rebuild Mousillon, but despite every effort the city tended to revert back to squalor. For centuries the dukes of Mousillon tried to hold back the decay. And under the leadership of Duke Maldred the city seemed to have finally achieved a victory over the centuries of pestilence and squalor. Travellers reported that Mousillon was the most wondrous city in Bretonnia, more splendid even than the capital Couronne. The city seemed charmed, its people happy and content. In summer the white walls of the buildings sparkled in the sun, and in winter, when the rest of the land shivered under the snow, soft breezes kept the streets and houses warm.

But like a gilded goblet made by a shoody craftsmen, the glittering surface of Mousillon hid a rotten interior. The port's prosperity was not due to the hard work and honesty of its citizens, but was fuelled by the sorcery of Malfleur, and the corrupt dealings of Maldred. In daytime the city streets bustled with all the usual activity of a busy port, but after the sun had set, the inhabitants of Mousillon had the curious habit of never leaving their homes after dark. At night, the only things that moved through the dark streets of the city were packs of rats and the crews of the night-calling ships. Wrapped in cloaks, hoods pulled over their faces, these silent strangers moved mysterious bundles of cargo backwards and forwards between the dockside warehouses and their sleek, black-sailed ships.

During the years of Duke Maldred's rule the king of Bretonnia died and left no heir to the throne. Maldred decided to seize this opportunity to make himself king of Bretonnia. He could not wed Isoulde, the daughter of the dead king, since he was already married to the sorceress Malfleur. So together she and Maldred hatched a treasonous and dishonorable plot. This became known as the affair of the false grail. When the treachery of Maldred and Malfluer was exposed, their doom, and the doom of Mousillon, was set in motion. The knights of Bretonnia led by the Fey Enchantress laid seige to the city, a siege that would last for three long years. as its inhabitants suffered, so did the city decline. The sparkling white walls started to flake and peel, revealing cracked mudbricks beneath. Foul-smelling seaweed clambered up the rusty mooring chains and spread across the piers and jetties. Cracks appeared in the pavements, and streaks of grey mould soiled the city walls.

Yet while the townsfolk perished from starvation and the pox, Maldred and the nobles of his court shut themselves up in the white palace and immersed themselves in an orgy of self-indulgence. Outside, the starving townsfolk killed each other in fights over dead seagulls while in the perfumed rooms of the palace the nobles drank sparkling wine from crystal goblets and nibbled on swan's wings. Dressed in red silks and satins, and wearing fantastic masks, they danced to the sound of their own self-destruction.

One cold spring morning the Knights besieging Mousillon witnessed something strange. As the sun crawled slowly into the sky, its cold red light spilled over the walls and towers of the city, so that it seemed drenched in blood. Mousillon was utterly silent: not a single sound could be heard from inside its walls. With an ominous groan, the twin gates of the city yawned open, as if inviting the watchers inside. Protected by holy relics, and in the company of the Fey Enchantress, a small party of Knights ventured into the city. Inside, all they found was death. Bodies of men, women and children lay all about. Batting away the flies, the Knights made their way through the dead up to the palace. They walked through the open doors into a scene from a nightmare. In the palace gardens, the plants had withered and rotted. Inside the halls and chambers the finery of the debauched nobles writhed with maggots, and scuttling insects gnawed away at the chairs and tables. In the main hall, Maldred and Malfleur slumped dead in their thrones, their empty eye sockets gazing vacantly over richly dressed skeletons of the nobles heaped on the marble floor. Maldred's stiff hands were clasped around a golden chalice chased with rubies; the false grail.

Who could say what strange fate had brought about the doom of Mousillon and its lord and lady? Was their evil punished by some divine retribution, or had the powers they sought to master ultimately destroyed them? The Fay Enchantress ordered that every door and window of the palace be bricked up, so that none could ever enter that cursed place again. Great grey stones were hacked from quarries in the forest, and dragged to the city by teams of oxen. Room by room, corridor by corridor, every door and every window was closed with blocks of stone, and wreathed with sacred blessings to seal the evil within.

All the dead bodies in the streets and houses were gathered up, heaped on wagons and taken outside the city to be buried in great pits. Though the burial mounds were covered with fresh earth, and sanctified with prayers for the souls of the dead, the only plants that would ever grow there were twisted hawthorn and black sukebind. Indeed, the pits soon aquired such an evil reputation that the main road into Mousillon, which used to run right past them, had to be rerouted to approach the city from the east.

Periodic attempts to repopulate Mousillon have never succeeded, as most honest citizens of Bretonnia are wary of the place. Any who are foolhardy enough to venture into the ruined city in search of sanctuary or treasure inevitably come to a nasty end, crushed by falling masonry, torn apart by monsters, or driven mad by stalking horrors. And traders sailing up the River Ois on their way to Gisoreux whisper that, at the dead of night, the sound of ghostly music and laughter still floats from the abandoned city.

Mousillon is now virtually an uninhabited ruin. The few remaining townspeople are dwindling or settling in new domains along the coast established by vigorous Knights. In this way the king and his Knights are tirelessly building a 'cordon sanitaire' of castles around the city which is regarded as virtually lost to Bretonnia. Ultimately the city must be redeemed for Bretonnia, but for now, its days as a port are over and it is regarded as a lost territory to be reconquered. The present king has now ordered an Errantry War to cleanse the city's ruins. He has declared that the Knight who can rid the city of evil will be made Duke of Mousillon. Young Knights Errant from all over Bretonnia now gather outside the city gates preparing themselves for the trials that await within this city of lost souls.

If you can get the WFRP stuff theirs a f ull sourcebook on Mousillion which would help.