Free Companies of the Gilded Hand - 7

'Young' Aldrik Tarsyn, Castellan of Iridiumspire

Unlike most officers in the Free Companies, Aldrik Tarsyn can not trace his origins to a family of true Venithyans. Rather, he was born in the Sprawl, the slum that spread around Iridiumspire since the end of the Realmgate Wars to host the reclaimed tribes of the Glittering Plains. Luckly for Aldrik, Karol's Cuirassiers had recruited from his people through the entire Age of Chaos, and at the age of sixteen he was able to leave the Sprawl and join the Iridiumspire garrison. He quickly distinugished himself among the ranks of the Cuirassiers for his recklesness. It was during the purge of the Irongrove Brayherds that this side of his character led him to charge, alone, the gor pack that had felled Castellan Valmont. Picking up the banner the old veteran had carried, Aldrik charged his stallion into the gors. Seeing the young men bashing horned skulls in with the ironwood haft, the faltering lines of the Free Companies rallied and charged back into the fray. As the gors routed, Aldrik was hailed a hero and Karol himself recommended him to the Gilded Hand Elders for the role of Castellan. The first ever soldier to become Castellan before the age of twentyfive, he has however proven to be a skilled commander, over time temepring his recklesness and developing a keen flare for strategy. Yet, he still regularly rides with the Cuirassiers, accepting Karol's half-mocking remarks about his age.

As an officer in the Free Companies, I gave Aldrik golden armour, but I kept his horse barding in the same colours of his former regiment, glossy black and brass. As always, I've added touches of red and yellow on the reins, tassels, caparison and flag. To break things a little, I've painted Aldrik's clothes in green, creating a contrast I really like with the burnished gold of the armour.

I've also painted the rest of the Cuirassiers, swapping the red on Voland's Venator feathers for yellow. As Pistoliers don't have shields, I needed to find another area that I could paint white. As my bases are in a shade of brown, going for the original brown horses would have resulted in little contrast (something that the rearing stance of Aldrik's stallion prevented) so the horses were the perfect spot to use some white and stick to the original colour scheme.

They, and the rest of the Free Companies, have had their blood baptism as an army at the latest Triumph & Treachery event at Warhammer World. Stay tuned, and I'll let you know how things went.