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Hi guys,

I'm not intimately familiar with the fluff, having never played the undead in Old Warhammer. But, the other day I was glancing at the range, and it struck me that they're all human. The Vampires, Skeletons, Zombies, all of them appear to be hominid.

Has it ever been defined in the fluff that Vampirism and the undead are a human only thing? Could there be elven vampires, or even Orc or Dwarf?

They have all been human but elves can still be affected by the curse hence the character mannfred turned in end times. You have to remember elves don't have much reason to go to the lands of men.

Hell I doubt they would go anywhere near sylvania without great cause like end times. Plus other races are not interested in immortality since they live for a really long time anyway.

There can be but it generally doesn't happen seeing as Dwarfs and Elves live long enough for them to not be bothered about immortality and Orcs are happy as long as they fight.

There used to be a dogs of War undead unit that had skeletons from most of the other good and evil races.

I dunno how things work in Sigmarland but I recall an ogre vampire from a BL book back in the Old World.

There are non-human undead, its more that while (normal) humans make up a minority of armies they actually make up a majority of the population in the realms (barring perhaps Skaven) so most of the corpses to draw upon are human. As for vampires, the same as above, though there can be other races. A dwarf is vampirized in the Flesh Eaters battletome.

[edit] Also, like female Guardsmen in 40k, its a case of them existing but not having models.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
There are non-human undead, its more that while (normal) humans make up a minority of armies they actually make up a majority of the population in the realms (barring perhaps Skaven) so most of the corpses to draw upon are human. As for vampires, the same as above, though there can be other races. A dwarf is vampirized in the Flesh Eaters battletome.

[edit] Also, like female Guardsmen in 40k, its a case of them existing but not having models.

Really? I thought the ghoul king drained him dry considering the whole point of the story was that his army was starving or something. I do recall that the ghoul king in one story turned a chaos lord.

I think the only reason you dont see non human vampire models (the dogs of war unit as an exception) is jsut for ease same with the fluff, its easier to write about human vampires as that a well established trope in fiction.

Thinking about it, is an elf skeleton different enough from a human skeleton that we could tell the difference?

TheWanderer wrote:
Thinking about it, is an elf skeleton different enough from a human skeleton that we could tell the difference?

Nope. That's why in the picture of the mixed skelly regiment, you'll notice the Elf still has his armour from the waist down. Otherwise no one would notice.

Thank you for your responses everyone!

It sounds like the fluff is plenty wide and deep to accommodate non-human undead, if one wishes to go to trouble of modeling it. (In particular, I think the Dark Eldar Lhamaean model would convert to an elven vampire very easily)

The Dogs of War miniatures are great! I miss those odd one-off designs from the age of pewter miniatures, and I can't imagine how good they would look now. (Albiet, caked in detail, and $60 for 5

I think one could make a recognizably elven skeleton, emphasizing the slight build to the body, and high cheekbones on the skull. But, it's one of those things where close enough is good enough - in a unit of any size, one would barely see the difference at gaming ranges.

I think they are the most common type, and probably the most easily bite-able. I mean it'll be pretty difficult to bite an Orc (they have a tendency to fight anything that comes close), and Elves are quite nimble so getting to bite them would be pretty difficult also.