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Now that it's stickied . . .
PLEASE POST YOUR QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS ABOUT THE WORLD OF WARMACHINE AND HORDES HERE
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I thought this board could use a thread on the background of the fictional world in which WM/H takes place. This thread is about game fluff and aesthetic design of the PP models and art.

As an opening question, I just recently received the WM Prime MkII rulebook in the mail. For whatever reason, I had not noticed from browsing the models online that Protectorate characters and troops tend to wear masks. Why is this? Is it related to their faith?

(edit) ~3333th post!

http://privateerpress.com/iron-kingdoms/introduction-to-the-iron-kingdoms/deities-of-the-iron-kingdoms

Man's Ancient Patron, Menoth

Symbol of MenothSymbol of MenothThe worship of Menoth (lawful neutral) is ancient, predating the Church of Morrow by millennia. Menoth is a strict, vengeful deity, credited by most humans (even those who follow the Twins) with the creation of the world and mankind. It's unquestionable that Menoth exists, for his priests were once the powerful ruling class of the land. Alas for Menoth, the more uplifting and tolerant message of Morrow began to take hold with the people, and today the worship of Menoth is a minority faith everywhere except the Protectorate. Outside of the Protectorate, the largest minority serving Menoth is among the "Old Faith" of Khador, where many citizens cling tenaciously to the worship of their ancient creator.

Menoth is usually depicted as a masked giant, towering over his frightened worshippers. He demands adherence to a strict code of conduct – part of which is providing constant tribute to Menoth and his priests. The notion that a man may "ascend," so central to the worship of Morrow and Thamar, is blasphemy in the church of Menoth. To Menoth, man's place is to serve his creator, and his reward is to pass quietly into oblivion.

Domains for Menoth's Clerics

Menoth's clerics have access to the domains of Knowledge, Law, Strength and War. Some evil high-level clerics become Scrutators, the feared temple police and policy-makers. Powerful Scrutators can even gain access to the domains of Evil and Destruction.

Cleric Weapon of Choice for Menoth: Flail

So, I take it you answer is "because Menoth is depicted as being masked." This is the only asnwer that I can find, as well. But Menoth is pictured (or statues of him, to be more precise--in the Iron Kingdom Character's Guide) as having a mask of human likeness. Given that he is the principal god of humans, this makes sense. What doesn't make sense is why his followers--and Feora is a partial exception here--wear masks which obscure their humanity.

That's a mask on Feora, actually.

Another flip answer: they live in a desert.

Yeah, I know about Feora--I said partially because the lower half is in the likeness of a face.

The desert explains the ninja-type masks but I'm still at a loss on the others. Terrifying the faithful maybe? Then again, you can see more of the Reclaimers than the Scrutators.

So who believes Vinter is truly Reborn? Makeda supporters? Herxis supporters? I wonder if Herxis's conversations with his ancestor aren't just reinforcing his innate will to power. I'm not sure what those conversations might even be like. Are there examples in the fluff?

I don't think Vinter is the reborn. I'm pretty sure he's just a really tough opportunist.

He must be ridiculously tough. His absolute dominance over a culture that revolves around killing your way to the top kind of makes me wonder how he managed to get overthrown in Cygnar.

I think it'd be cooler if was the Reborn. It makes me wonder which Ancestor he is or claims/is acclaimed to be.

Manchu wrote:He must be ridiculously tough. His absolute dominance over a culture that revolves around killing your way to the top kind of makes me wonder how he managed to get overthrown in Cygnar.

I think it'd be cooler if was the Reborn. It makes me wonder which Ancestor he is or claims/is acclaimed to be.

In the background, he's overthrown through the intervention of Morrow. I believe
it's implied that a priest helped Leto overthrow his brother.

In his little history of the Iron Kingdoms at the beginning of Primal, Magnus says the primarch of Morrow helped Leto out. That gets to the core of my remark: some Cygnarans are more politically subtle and ingenious than the Skorne, who eat plots and gak schemes?

Manchu wrote:In his little history of the Iron Kingdoms at the beginning of Primal, Magnus says the primarch of Morrow helped Leto out. That gets to the core of my remark: some Cygnarans are more politically subtle and ingenious than the Skorne, who eat plots and gak schemes?

They basically say that in the Cygnar fluff section of MKII. The Skorne really do love killing. It reminds me of a certain Chaos God who also hates scheming and loves blood .
Personally I would like to know more about the Dragons. We get of lot of fluff about Lord Toruk in MKII but I really would like to know more about Everblight and I'm too cheap to get the original Primal book (Trying to save up for my Cryx force).

What would you like to know? (I've got Primal in front of me right now, browsing through.)

Manchu wrote:What would you like to know? (I've got Primal in front of me right now, browsing through.)

pretty much everything. If that isn't to much . Although specifically his plans about the other dragons, and his selection of his generals.

Toruk or Everblight? AFIK, Toruk wants all His Progeny dead.

Everblight

Everblight laired in Ios to escape Toruk and found the elves whose gods had left were easily swayed into worshiping him. The Elves eventually slew him after Scyrah's return but did not destroy his athanc. He (in athanc form) eventually was moved close by to the Nyss, who he enslaved. Vayl joined of her own free will, however.

Everblight is supposedly the smallest and most cunning of Toruk's children, from what I
remember.

What makes him unique is the ability to control the expression of his blight. After being de-carnated, he found he could plant pieces of his athanc into other beings to mutate them (through his blight) into monsters. He can perceive through these creatures and shares their minds.

A bit about Everblight in Ios from the retribution book:
he was hiding under the empty shrine of their missing goddess of the night for some time before he was discovered. when the Iosan army came after him he went on a rampage and destroyed the city Issyrah before they "killed" him reducing him to basically a glowing bowling ball of evil.
To prevent him from regenerating they placed him on top of the highest, coldest mountain(apperently exreme cold prevents dragons from regenerating), not knowing their cousins the Nyss were nearby, and he laid dormant for 214 years until Thagrosh dug him up. it has only been about 5 years since he was recovered by Thagrosh.
thats all ive got, i just thought hordes players might not have the details from the ret book.

All of that is basically included in Primal, told in the first person by Everblight. According to Primal, he never goes dormant but it is a struggle.

Why was Everblight in Ios though? It doesn't make much sense as to why he was there.

He was hiding out after losing a fight to Toruk. The only reason he survived was that he led Toruk to another dragon and slipped away while those 2 fought. He found an underground lake and lay in it to recover.

Unfortunately for the Iosans, it was under Issyrah and he pretty much figured out how to use his blight to manipulate lesser beings by practicing on the Iosans. At least until they flushed him out and dismembered him.

Does anybody have the Iron Kingdoms RPG books, and the time and skill to create an article for Dakka?

I am thinking of one that is independant of Malfred's excellent summaries.(Hurry up and get to Cryx!)

This is something that it would be cool if PP did on their site,
but I would rather they use their time to work on minis and rules.

So, as I'm certainly interested in Warmachine's fluff, what's up with Magnus and the whole traitor to Cygnar thing?

All I know is that there was some kind of coup and Magnus was on the losing side.

skrulnik wrote:Does anybody have the Iron Kingdoms RPG books, and the time and skill to create an article for Dakka?

I am thinking of one that is independant of Malfred's excellent summaries.(Hurry up and get to Cryx!)

This is something that it would be cool if PP did on their site,
but I would rather they use their time to work on minis and rules.

Um, sorry, but Cryx is a long ways off. I'm on Khador now, and Protectorate next.

I'm trying to have the groundwork in place for when the Force Books drop so that there's
as little agitation as possible.

(At least you're not waiting on mercs...)

@skrulnik: If you have a particular question, I won't mind looking through the books and trying to answer it--that's exactly what this thread is for. (I don't like the idea of fluff articles because fluff should be discussed. Good fluff is open to multiple interpretations.)

@Cryonicleech: Most simply put, Cygnar under Vinter Raelthorne IV was becoming an authoritarian police state. His younger brother, Leto, allied with the Church of Morrow (the good deity of Cygnar) to orchestrate a coup, which was successful. Vinter IV fled into the east. Officers who fought for Vinter against Leto were offered pardons--even those like Asherth Magnus, who had led guerrilla campaigns against the new King. Magus was duly pardoned and reassigned to the northern borders, where he ruthlessly prosecuted Cygnar's fight against Khador. When Magnus tortured Khadoran prisoners to obtain intelligence, one of his subordinates (Coleman Stryker) reported him and he was imprisoned for some time. After his return to duty (having been demoted), Magnus gathered Cygnaran soldiers hostile to Leto's rule and deserted. He is now a wandering mercenary. Magnus is perhaps the staunchest Vinter IV loyalist alive. He is critical of Leto and other Cygnaran kings who have allowed Cygnar to decline through, he believes, weak-willed observance of the Corvis treaties that created the Iron Kingdoms. He lauds Vinter's legendary martial skill and merciless approach to politics.

And now Magnus... well. You need Hordes: Evolution and Hordes: Metamorphosis to find out I suppose...

Are you referring to his reunification with the Conquerer?

Perhaps. Or AM I?

puahahaha...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
There's actually a fight scene with Vinter in it in Metamorphosis.

malfred wrote:There's actually a fight scene with Vinter in it in Metamorphosis.

That's not a fight, it's an execution!