The Shadowflames
We are gearing up to a skirmish campaign using the rules in Malign Sorcery and this spurred me to finally start a project I had in mind since Battletome Fyreslayers was released. It all started when I read this snippet of background.
I had immediately imagined the Shadowkin as Aelfs and when Silver Tower came out I decided that the Mistweaver Saih and the Tenebrael Shard must be hailing from that mysterious faction.
At the same time, the idea of fiery duardin fighting side by side with shadowy aelfs set in motion another train of thoughts. One that twisted the tolkien-esque idea that shadow and flame were the bane of the dwarf race. When the Chosen Axes were released, the Sahdowflames were finally born in my mind.
Lately, real life interfered with hobby time so I didn't go for conversions. And on top of that, both the duardin and aelf models are so great I couldn't imagine how to change them. What I did, to convey the Shadowflames narrative, was to experiment with painting, keeping a limited palette of black, white and greys for the aelfs and trying a fiery scheme on the duardin. For spot colours, I went for the purple metal of the Caengan lodge icon, but on the weapons and armours of the aelfs, and some dark blue on the rubble sculpted on the bases. The sand colour is there so that I can use them alongside my other Order models.
Now, enjoy the models and their story.
Across the Realms, stories have spread of a cloying darkness concealing bright flames. Warriors returning from the front lines tell of how it descends upon the battlefields to pick on isolated fighters and of how only corpses can be found, stripped of any magically attuned object. Explorers of the Realms' hidden corners swear they saw black skinned aelfs and fyreslayers hiding in the misterious darkness. Shadowflames call them the people of the Free Cities. The mystics and scholars of the aelfish enclaves, wisper of Arh'khaladh, the Flaming Shadow, the perfidious nobility of their distant relatives and their mercenary allies. Only among the Fyreslayer lodges enough is know of the pacts between the Caengan lodge and the Shadowkin of Ulgu to realise that a Zharradumal, a Kindred of the Fire within the Darkness, is stalking the Realms.
Laelanyel
Long had Laelanyel inflicted pain on the fools that braved the mists and shadows of Ulgu. And that, she would have continued to do gladly, but the Necroquake changed it all. The Mistweaver Saih's nightmarish glamours faltered, leaving her palace vulnerable to the predations of the Hosts of Slaanesh roaming Ulgu. A queen without her crown, she called on the ancient pacts with the Caengan lodge. For she had to seek for the tools to reclaim her heritage, artefacts of power that could have becalmed the wild magic and restored her palace. And if anyone was to stand in her way, they would have had to share in her pain.
Aef-Grimnir
The Runefather had grown restless ever since his ur-gold runes had flared bright as the Necroquake hit Ulgu. Grimnir was calling him, but the Runemasters reminded him of his duties towards the lodge. He could not leave the Caengan at a time of strife. Then came Laelanyel calling on their old alliance. So great was the offence she had suffered, that only the service of the Runefather could fulfil the Cengan's oaths. Raising his son Garn to rule over the lodge, Aef-Grimnir left Ulgu.
Engrin Skavenbane
The captain of Aef-Grimnir's royal guard had never left the Runefather's side in the long wars against the Skaven gnawing at the roots of the lodge forge. And though it pained him not to see the mangy filth finally repelled, honour demanded he was at Aef-Grimnir's side through his voyages across the Realms.
Tark & Durbak, the Kinless
The only survivors of the kinsband of Aef's first-born, Tark and Durbak had long been outcasts among the Caengan. As they both had survived, the oath of the Grimwrath was not open to them, leaving them only the shame of failure in protecting the Runeson. It was because of that that Aef-Grimnir called upon them. "Kinless", he said "the lodge has no need of your shame and you owe me a blood debt. By your life or death, fulfill it".
Drevakh Xosh
Of Drevakh Xosh, the Caengan knew little. Some said he was Laelanyel's twin. Others that he was her favourite lover. The few that had dared to ask any aelf about him, had vanished. What they did know for sure, was that whenever Laelanyel took to the field of battle, Drevakh would have soon materialised from the shadows.
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