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If we assume Squat heads are around the same size as human ones, lore-wise, the Squats seem to be around 6 and a half heads tall, so around a head shorter compared to the average human (that are around 7 and a half heads). Aka, the Squats are like, roughly around 150-160cm.

 Sacredroach wrote:
I love the idea of GLaDOS mixed with Deep Thought looking like a Quintesson...in possession of STCs and other heretical information.

Yah...I like it. Definitely getting the army book. I would love if they could ally with the Imperium but not if there are any Mechanicus in spitting distance...

You can bet once Cawl gets wind of this that all hell will break loose.

No Quintesson will ever be greater than my favourite tattoo. The Three Faces of Stupid. Which is a Quintesson, but the three visible faces are all Beavis.

Right hand normal Beavis. Picking his nose with a tentacle. Central head, naturally, Cornholio. Left hand Beavis in pain with a pencil in his eye.

 Tyran wrote:
Guys, I just realized GW completely ripped off Disney.

Along that same ludicrous vein, you could argue that calling them Ancestor Cores is intended to be seen a reference to "The Last Question", the Isaac Asimov tale I jocularly quoted upthread.

 Tyran wrote:
Guys, I just realized GW completely ripped off Disney.

Googling it, Amphibia came out in 2019. It is early 2022. Given how long its taking for the Old World to debut and we've already seen a Squat model, this is the basic equivalent of people saying that Ashwaste nomads are a Book of Boba Fett ripoff

The Kin: Oh great Ancestorcore - do you have an answer?

Core: I DO!

The Kin: The ultimate answer?

Core: I DO! BUT YOU'RE NOT REALLY GOING TO LIKE IT.......

 GaroRobe wrote:

 Tyran wrote:
Guys, I just realized GW completely ripped off Disney.

Googling it, Amphibia came out in 2019. It is early 2022. Given how long its taking for the Old World to debut and we've already seen a Squat model, this is the basic equivalent of people saying that Ashwaste nomads are a Book of Boba Fett ripoff

Pretty sure that somehow the Simpsons (or Futurama) already did it.

I mean: Giant degrading AI controls society, and is venerated as a god. I suppose Fritz Lang might have some ideas there... Or Cordwainer Smith with the Abbadingo. Or, or, or...

Some have developed idiosyncrasies – what might even be termed “personalities”.

What’s really intriguing is that allegedly Squats were abandoned because they couldn’t think of a direction to take them, but this definitely feels like a direction and an interesting one to boot.

Guess sometimes it takes 30-years for inspiration to strike…

The art is pretty and all, but at a first glance this guy just looks like a Space Marine.



...Which, given how large the new Squat models appear to be, does at least give Firstborn players something to do with their models when they are finally written out of the Marine books...

 Sacredroach wrote:

Pretty sure that somehow the Simpsons (or Futurama) already did it.

I mean: Giant degrading AI controls society, and is venerated as a god. I suppose Fritz Lang might have some ideas there... Or Cordwainer Smith with the Abbadingo. Or, or, or...

Literally the plot of at least two of Star Trek the original series episodes.

 insaniak wrote:
The art is pretty and all, but at a first glance this guy just looks like a Space Marine.



...Which, given how large the new Squat models appear to be, does at least give Firstborn players something to do with their models when they are finally written out of the Marine books...

Lore wise I understand why they'd look fairly similar to Space Marines presuming those are just from a more advanced / Complete STC for Power armour or Exosuits, but the lack of an apparent distinct identity for their designs is still quite a disappointment if there isn't more to them. We've seen 3 different armour styles now (Miniature and the 2 different ones in that art) and they just look a little bland.

 Tyran wrote:
Guys, I just realized GW completely ripped off Disney.

For context, the big bad of Amphibia is The Core, which is, and I quote:

Isn't The Core one of the factions in the video game Total Annihilation? Disney ripped off Cavedog Entertainment!

I went with Amphibia because I wanted to be funny but also because the Core is made of the uploaded knowledge, wisdom and personalities. It is literally made of ancestors.

Super godlike AIs are relatively common, but not many have the ancestor worship component that is present in the Votann.

" if the secrets of the Votann were ever revealed to the galaxy at large, the uneasy peace between the Leagues and the Imperium of Man would quickly crumble."

So they are clearly outside the Imperium, which I like. But does it seem like they are going with "they where always there" in the lore, rather than a narrative of re-emergence?

Liking the hard sci-fi feel of the art- getting a bit of a feel of Dune with the armour. I'd like a bit more of a dwarf vibe from it but I'm guessing seeing the helmets, weapons and other stylings will suggest that more in addition to a better sense of their proportions.
The dragon thing coming over the top of the leaders armour - initially I thought it might be a weapon handle but maybe its shield tech?

I wonder if the Core will malfunction like the Computer in Paranoia...

given the speed a lot of the Imperium operates at they've not been gone long enough to notice except for the 'local' area which was probably mostly eaten by Tyranids as well

 insaniak wrote:
The art is pretty and all, but at a first glance this guy just looks like a Space Marine.

He looks even more like Starcraft Marines than 40k Marines do.

Interesting direction with the "our gods are dying or going mad or demented". I will wait and see what GW do with this. I at first mistook the artwork for a space marine as well.

The Ancestor Core concept sounds like almost a mix of Infinity Circuit and STC database mixed together.

The worship or veneration of AI cores sounds like basically what happened with the Adeptus Mechanicus and the STC. Over time, why bother to try to understand the material yourself when you can just ask the computer and it gives you the answer? Eventually all the information becomes so vast and complicated that it seems impossible to understand yourself, and the computer begins to assume a god-like status if its answers mean the difference between survival and death.

It says the datastacks are self-organising so it perhaps has long gotten beyond the ability of the Squats/Kin themselves to manually fix. Maybe the cores themselves no longer know how to further expand or streamline their operations, and maybe the Squats are too scared to do something like defrag or delete some old data for fear it may irreparably damage the cores, and from just simple veneration/worship of the old.

This background is so intriguing! Having a human faction that preserves ties to the DAoT through gestalt AI constructs that are slowly turning rampant is *so* fething cool! And the art direction for the faction looks excellent so far, too - clearly stemming from the same technological heritage as the IoM, but managing to look more functional and ... rational?

I don't think I've been this excited for anything to do with GW since they fixed the midget marines.

It's also really neat to see that they're being introduced as having a non-hostile relationship with the IoM. This adds a degree of complexity and intrigue that makes the setting much more interesting, in my mind.

 Tyran wrote:
I went with Amphibia because I wanted to be funny but also because the Core is made of the uploaded knowledge, wisdom and personalities. It is literally made of ancestors.

I was being silly, as well. But after I made the post, it occurred to me that what motivated the Core in Total Annihilation was a desire to safeguard everyone by uploading their personalities.

Umm...

^^;;

It's a relatively small thing and not definite, but to me the article saying "No one beyond the Leagues..." seems to imply that "The Leagues" are a physical location themselves, so they might not be fleet-bound after all.

I tell you hwhat, that artwork is extremely cool. To me it looks more like LoTR dwarves in space than WHFB, which is I guess the right way to go to make them different to Kharadon. I want to see some beards though lads (looks like one of the enthroned in the top left has a good beard going on).

Love the idea of the ancestors starting to go a bit mental and perhaps the Votanni are looking for a fix. This looks like the absolute right direction so I'm keen so see what happens next.

Vontanii eunt domus

I see the Votann, they go the house?

 Flinty wrote:
Vontanii eunt domus

I see the Votann, they go the house?

I'm trying to figure out who would be the centurion and the grammatically-challenged vandal in this exchange.

 Olthannon wrote:
I tell you hwhat, that artwork is extremely cool. To me it looks more like LoTR dwarves in space than WHFB, which is I guess the right way to go to make them different to Kharadon. I want to see some beards though lads (looks like one of the enthroned in the top left has a good beard going on).

Love the idea of the ancestors starting to go a bit mental and perhaps the Votanni are looking for a fix. This looks like the absolute right direction so I'm keen so see what happens next.

I believe both the revealed model and the central figure in the artwork (in the gold mask) both have beards.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I wonder if the Core will malfunction like the Computer in Paranoia...

Traitor! Friend Computer is 100% fine and fully operational.

It's the Kree supreme intelligence. Networked minds of the specie's greatest thinkers around a computer core.

 crumby_cataphract wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
Vontanii eunt domus

I see the Votann, they go the house?

I'm trying to figure out who would be the centurion and the grammatically-challenged vandal in this exchange.

 Olthannon wrote:
I tell you hwhat, that artwork is extremely cool. To me it looks more like LoTR dwarves in space than WHFB, which is I guess the right way to go to make them different to Kharadon. I want to see some beards though lads (looks like one of the enthroned in the top left has a good beard going on).

Love the idea of the ancestors starting to go a bit mental and perhaps the Votanni are looking for a fix. This looks like the absolute right direction so I'm keen so see what happens next.

I believe both the revealed model and the central figure in the artwork (in the gold mask) both have beards.

Yes I think the helmets will be stylised bearded faces, more lifelike than Kharadron ones. I think one of the exo suits has one as well but its something I really want to see. I thought the silhouettes they posted of the actual model all had bare heads but I think its just that their helmets are more head sized and shaped. It looks like they are going for "Space Dwarfs" rather than "dwarfs in space" so the visual references might be more subtle [the digital rune language rather than just runes for example]. Mind you love the big ancestor face on the wall panel in that room and the figures in the alcoves. Really liking the feel of it.

It's nice artwork. I hope we get to see actual models soon, for Warhammer Fest maybe. That's around the corner, right?

I'm especially interested in the exo armor. I always loved Terminators. To be fair, way more in concept than execution, what with the anatomical quirks of the models being exceptionally quirky even by GW's standards. It seems they went with a similar design for exo armor. And that certainly has my attention.

And of course one of the big questions I want to see answered definitively is how tall they are. See how those mockups people made got it right and see if GW figured that even though Squats are based on the dwarf archetype, they are abhumans and can be justified to be taller than your run of the mill dwarf so as to make more imposing models.

Given Ancestor Cores are giant AIs, wonder how they’ll reinterpret Living Ancestors? Maybe Mentat style beings? Or cyborgs enhanced with Ancestor tech?

I quite like the new lore - espeically the apparent nods to Deep Thought!

Now how will the mice come into it.....