Fading Embers General /feg/

Sweet, looking forward to it.

For the Ivory horde, an idea for their banners should be tusks/horns of various large animals, or based on the band. Pic related is gazelle horns, maybe one for a major band?

For Zelthen, maybe a shinig star above the dunes or mountain peaks? It could also have a golden trail weaving between the hills to show the path to salvation/the roads that keep the kingdom alive.

Regarding Dwarves, I'm fine with slug-breeders. Slug-people is a little too out there for me, especially since they are supposed to be travelling through cold, tundra-like deserts.

Damn it, forgot the pic.

Yeah, I'm thinking slug breeders is more in-line with the setting.

Wasn't sure where I was going with sea monsters. Mostly just a supernatural "balance" against Restavia.

If you guys have some basic suggestion pics for each banner symbol, I have some proficiency in Logo design. The symbols would be in a pseudo Celtic/Tribal art motif thoigh, as that's what my style tends towards.

Wow, only 12 posts all day? I really feel like the "posting ettiquette," of letting threads will all the way to bump limit and only making new threads once the old one falls off page 10 has hurt the momentum we had going since it forced people to post in dead threads until the small hours of the morning and derail their efforts waiting for a new one to appear.

I'm working on some fluff posts right now, hopefully they'll help...

It's a Sunday. Things get slow on Sundays.

That's a pretty neat pattern. For a border, maybe some Josephine knots or shield knots to help show unity in the face of strife? Trinity's would also definitely work to tie into the lore of the Mother and two consorts from the last thread.

Some more thoughts I had was for the Inverse. Mathematical or hermitic symbols might work, to bring back to mind the ancient philospher king feel from the Centaurs. A twist we could add is them not being a perfect representation, like a Golden Ratio rectangle with a slanted side, or a hexagram with uneven lengths. Something slightly off from the normal anyways.

I'd have been posting more, but I was dealing with some food poisoning from bad pork. Still not up to 100%, but can at least finish thinking my way through a sentence, and type it out without re-spelling 'the' 6 times.

Hmm, I feel like it's too simplistic to just draw horns on their banners - doesn't invoke a feeling of... anything, really. Lemme research a bit into central asian symbology stuff to find a better (or at least, modified) version.

>Scraps from a diary found aboard the wreck of the frigate Indomitable

More bloody baby-sitting whalers, more bloody open waters with no clouds in the sky, and the sound of the devils from the press-gangs feeding the fish. Caught one of the basterds (sic? ~S.M.) whistling below-decks, and told him that the next time I heard him whistling, it would be from the straw he'd be using to eat lunch after I'm through with him. Bad enough to hear them muttering about bubbling shadows in the water and strange lights below the waves at night.

(The next few pages are illegible smears of ink and water-damaged)

...t I've ever seen! Steel-bodied and shaped like an (Whale? Dolphin? ~S.M.).. bubbles shooting out and blew up one of the fisher's. P... ...e had an idea. Pin it with the ___poons, and pop the hatch. Bosun 'Blacktoothed Jack' took point, and got it open with (Gaff-hook? Polehook? Damned sailor's and their terminology. ~S.M.). A fe... ...ed to haul the strange boat back to shore. Looks like Restavian scrap to me, but the shipwrights ought to pay well.

(The remainder is too damaged to re-construct. Records show that the Indomitable sank without reaching port, and the wreck appears to have had a below-water strike that shattered the keel. No evidence of the strange boat mentioned in these texts were around, but some whaling fleets have superstitions about bubbling shadows and lights below water. Further research is pending on acquistion or funds. ~Silas Magnusson, Year of the end 680.)

Yeah, like the others said, I think it's just ebb and flow.
I post mainly at night and have been preoccupied by irl issues and, before that, by drawing monkeys.

I was gonna suggest or try something exactly like that logo.
I think it might do with a border, but that is spot on.
Excellent work.

Sorry i was asleep most of the day after i got of work (nightshift) and then i had writing to do.

Here is a mockup of the Regiments statline like i promised here The regiment

Troopers 30 Arquebus (W) Group Fighter (P) q4 c2

Veterans 40 Arquebus (W) Group Fighter (P) q3 c2

Grenadiers 41 Arquebus (W) Group Fighter (P) Hand Grenade q4 c2

Lieutenants 46 Group Fighter (P), Handgun (W), Subcommander (L,P) q3 c2

Snipers 50 Arquebus (W) Group Fighter (P) Dead Shot (P) q3 c2

General 66 Group Fighter (P), Handgun (W), Leader (L,P) q3 c2

Artillerist 32 Artillerist Bonded q3 c2

Veteran 44 Artillerist 44 Artillerist Bonded Master Gunner q3 c2

Cannon 100 (rules for use of a cannon in the supplement, page 31)

Since they are a sub faction i didn't give them quite as many options, but i can expand on them if people want.

holy shit that is perfect.

Looks fine to me. The smaller list is alright, and there still is a fair amount of variety I can see in it. I can already think of three lists I'd want to run with it. One with two squads of troopers supporting a cannon, one with a firing line and grenadiers to wipe out groups of Visamt cannon fodder, and one with a squad of snipers backed up with grenadiers and veterans and a General. Now, to think of ways to break the lines.

You think they could benefit from some dragoons? or just leave as is?

Dragoons might be okay, but an advantage them have is everyone but the gunners has Group Fighter. The only other ones who have it is the Imperial forces, and they only have it on their shit guys. If you keep them near each other, and especially if you have a Lieutenant or General close enough, they're going to be punching above their weight. In addition, their q value is low enough to be able to hit your actions fairly reliably. The biggest down-side I see is that low c value will likely get them mulched if they start taking hits from Knights or other beefy guys. On the other hand, you can kit out 3 squads of 3-4 guys fairly easily, even without having to rely on troopers. If you do go trooper gunlines, you can get 2 of 3 with a Lieutenant, and still have 122 points to spend on your support in a 400 pt game. That's a lot of guns

Disclaimer: I found this after two seconds of Google, but digital editing is a piece of cake. I can vectorize and modify this to what you like no problem.

yeah, we'll just leave them be. They seem fine to me as is.

You know the longer i sit here an the more stat lines a crank out the more i realize being a knight player is going to be suffering. Time to go martyr myself for Zelthen.

Now now, your Knight's are pretty damned good. Throw lots of action dice, since you have enough q you're unlikely to get turnovers, and you're unlikely to get really hurt in a fight due to your lowest (Aspirants) having the same c value as the best lizards units, or most other's 60-70+ pts for 30-40 pts. with your knights having c 4, even on the shooty ones, and most others having 2, their best is your half-ways, and they're almost impossible to get a terror-causing cas. Conversely, you're likely going to cas on a 2+, and terror cas on a 5 or six. That's a damn good reason to try and tarpit against you.

Here's how I'm picturing the meta:

Knights: poster boys and the !Space Marines of our setting.

Dragons: big weak armies, big creatures. Probably going to be hard to face off against for inexperienced players, but something tells me they've got a soft underbelly.

Bears: Crowd-Control, the game. Fuck up your formation before going to the kill, and big smashers too. Probably the "Fun" option.

Lizardmen: Gotta Go Fast! High mobility, the question is whether they can pack enough punch to make that worthwhile.

Visamti: "Second Best" option. Will likely play second fiddle to our Knights, but are all-around good with a variety of unit options.

Speaking of soft underbelly, i know it's probably near impossible, but i would laugh my ass off if a Visamti caster with the destroy undead spell won the contested roll against a dragon. Just bop, there goes your giant beat stick. It would be such a terrible and glorious moment at the same time depending on which side you were on. Honestly even if i was the dragon player i would still probably laugh my ass off.

Yep. Trading a 30 pt cast for 150-253 pts worth of dragon would just be hilarious. I'd probably wind up naming him something like "Khazeem, Quieter of the dead and Shusher of dragons". I'd honestly go 'well-played' and try to re-organize what's left of the skele rabble to bum-rush the guy who killed it to win back the Invere's honour.

You know this makes me think. When we get this going maybe we should share about our games here in the thread and use them to do some collective story building. I bet in every battle there would be at least one or two moments of awesome, even if they aren't quite Khazeem level.

What's the elevator pitch of this setting?

Yeah, I was going to say, the fact that Destroy undead is a kill spell might make for some interesting times.

It is a campaign based game where you run through scenarios. I could easily see five players working collaboratively to write out a scenario where they duke it out and play through an entire timeline.

Planet be dying. Shit is pretty much-irreversible. Either escape, renew or consume, depending on who you be. Bears wanna peace out, not!bysantines want to do SOMETHING, but leader be an asshat, Knights are mutants raising power for god, Lizards wanna BE god, and Dragons go 'Fuck y'all, you ain't going nowhere but in mah belly.'

There's others, (Whaler's looking for Fiddler's green, Techies trying to find not!Atlantis, dwarves trying to bring back glory, and Commie Jedi-Holocron wizards trying to make the people under their malfunctioning care survive.) but ultimately, the main focus is on the other 5. Straight-forward enough?

If the world is dead, why do i care about any of this other than the people trying to leave

Because the world can be renewed/saved. Maybe. And or you can finish eating it and then move on.

>Shit is pretty much-irreversible.

Nobledark wargame fantasy setting with an emphasis on Your Guys, and a surprising amount of background lore for being less than two weeks old. The world is barren, and the factions fight for resources, power, and survival.

There are five Factions:

Knights of Zelthen: a large Order of armored Knights with many subdivisions. Lore states they've used drugs and rituals to abandon their humanity in order to better protect the ones they once loved, resulting in various mutant orders. Trying to escape the planet.

Yonas Clans: Bipedal Bear Druids and Tankers that focus on elements and Crowd-Control. Will fuck your shit up. Have a real Ba-Sing-Se feel to their culture. Trying to revive the planet.

The Inverse: Eldritch Draconic Horrors that may or may not have caused the world to go to shit. Control armies if undead and Eldritch Tainted Centaurs, and feed on the life force of the living. Trying to eat everything.

Visamti: What if the Roman Empire survived in this setting thanks to pacts with demons? Yeah, it's that awesome. The ruling Archon is a real bad dude with a real bad plan. Trying to conquer.

Lizardmen Hordes: Pale white Lizardmen that fight like Huns. Trying to fuck everyone's shit up, but particularly the humans.

Planet isn't completly dead yet. The Knights are on crusade for God to make him strong enough to fix the world. Lizards want to become Gods to re-make the world properly this time. The dragons came from who-knows-where, and just want to finish what's left before going on. The Visamti people would like to do something, but the 300-year-old ruler doesn't give a shit about the world dying since they are the only ones still doing fine, and why change what ain't broke?

Note that 'pretty much' isn't IS. There may be a chance, and why not take it? It's not like you've got any other choice other than to lay down and die.

There's also five sub-factions with various alliances and goals between the other factions, which include steam tech worshippers and nomadic dwarves and Giants. I've been focusing on the main factions, so I'll let others explain those.

thought it was Zelthen tryng to revive planet, Yonas trying to escape by transference ritual, and Lizardment trying to be reborn as gods and fix everything by killing all the humans?

So, looking at characteristics of Byzantine artwork, they tended to favour realistic, but flat images of most religious nature. A thought of what to put on the banner could be a mask like in pic related, or an armored fist with rays of light radiating outwards? Something that shows the might of the Archon, may he rule us for the next millenia.

... so it is. I wasn't around for a thread or two. Finals and all that.

fist with a sunburst pattern behind it?

Sure. An hourglass style gauntlet like pic should be fine. Perhaps a scale or other form of justice below it? A little bit of irony, also showing that the Archon's is the arbiter of the law, and is above it as well.

I was going to go with the mask idea, but the gauntlet sounds better. Noted.

Awesome, I thought this project was dead, apparently not!

Also, the Knights of Zelthen are called the Preservers Of Zelthen's Light, and their mutations are angelic blessings from Zelthen, their God of Light, Honor, and Purity. They're on a Holy Crusade to destroy all evil and spread the word of Zelthen, so that the fading sun might be rekindled, and this broken world, renewed.

Man, if those masks are what the nobles and sorcerers wear, then the Archon is a huge dick.
>Here, wear this mask which has similarity to the country's symbol, which is me fisting the sun
>Wouldn't that mean your gauntleted fist will be in all our faces, Milord?
>How perceptive of you. And yes, yes it does. *punch*

keked.

You know i'm actually thinking of a medieval coat of arms type deal now. Have the shield with the fist sun in one quadrant, a scale in another, and then two blank quadrants. Flanked by some sort of animal, an then with the sun mask sitting on top of the shield where they normally put a helmet or a crown over a coat of arms. kinda like pic related. Maybe it might be a quite a bit to busy, but i think it's kinda appropriately ostentatious for this guy.

The Archon is a man of refined tastes. After all, you get tired of slave-girls hand-feeding you peeled grapes and lark's tongues after the first 70 years. You got to spice it up a little. Maybe have a demon be used as a chair? Eh, if it mopes too much, dismiss it and create another.

That would be fine for the main shield. If you wanted to put things in the blank quadrants, perhaps a flame, cross, or other simple shapes would work. The main banner in the armies would be whichever general was commanding it, with the Imperial seal reserved for the Fist's of the Archon (The top casters in the list) as a reminder that even though he doesn't lead from the front, he is always watching their movements.

Coat of arms would be way too busy, plus if I'm designing it, I'm making it according to good logo design rules:

1. Works in Black and White.
2. Scalable(can be engraved in a Sword or put on a banner)
3. Simple and easily recognizable.

I might even simplify the bear symbol for being too busy.

yeah, makes sense it was way to busy. I think just the fist and the sunburst would make a good one then. Simple and appropriate for the faction.

Thinking on the earlier mentions for the Lizard banner, and how horn's would be too bland, perhaps something similar to my MSPaint monstrosity in layout? Horns to represent the herd, land with the waters of life underneath, and either the sun or moon between the horns for the sky? Got the inspiration from reading on Tengrism, but am too shit to draw up a logo to save my life.

make it the moon, we already have the sunburst in the empires thing, wouldn't want there to be too many similarities. Which raises the question, what will the Preservers symbol be?

maybe something like this with a sword or a spear between the wings.

Well, the one I floated before was stars over mountains or deserts with a road. They are the shining examples that must protect the ones below, and the road is how they do so. Pic attached. Went with 4-pointed stars for the four orders of the Preservers. Yea or nay?

I like that actually. It's different, and it has meaning.

Regarding central asian symbols, I think I've found a website with some examples. Too many pictures, but should help in thinking up symbols.
face-music.ch/highaltai/ornaments/ornaments_en.html

okay, so another thing to think about while making the symbol would be the presence of certain things. Like how there's Diluvial, Primordial, and Celestial in their ranks, it should also be reflected in the symbol.

Also the meaning behind the Mongolian Soyombo symbol could inspire you in making the symbol.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyombo_symbol

Ok, we'll make this simple. Post your symbol designs like they're Drawthread request, with combining pictures and a short text blurb explaining what you want. If everyone likes the particular idea, I'll go with that, adding my own twist where I feel appropriate. I'm heading off to bed, but somebody keep this thread warm and bumped for me.

Ehh, already did a mockup-ish symbol. The three things in the middle represent the three elite classes, the star (or dim sun?) for the Celestial, the mountain for the Diluvial, and the river/tracks/path for the Primordial. The three symbols are flanked/secured by two antelope horns, representing the herd, for the herd secures the future of the Ivory Horde.
Anything to simplify/critique/offer an alternative to?

Well, it's not quite screaming Lizardmen to me. In fact neither is the Gauntlet for Visamti.

The Yonas symbol works because you immediately associate it with the bears. I think I'm going with the mask symbol for Visamti because you easily associate that with the Archon. The Gauntlet and sun could just as easily be associated with Zelthen's Light.

A lot of symbology and meaning does you no good unless you manage to convey the main piece of info as well: who does this symbol represent?

I like the way this one turned out. There's a nice movement from below to the top. Maybe something like a half-moon instead of the star? A bit of lore I seen before for moon-worshiping in another setting was that the moon must be stronger than the sun. After all, the moon can be seen both during the day and at night, where-as the sun cannot. It could also tie in if the sun is the symbol of the Visamti, the weak humans who ruled over them, then CLEARLY the moon must be stronger, as it shines when the sun goes dark. If you also bring in the stars from Zelthen's symbol as well, they only appear at night, and can't show their face during the day. Only the moon is mighty enough to be in both.

Problem is, the Lizardmen are too far removed from 'mainstream' Lizardmen to be recognizable as such. But if we delve into their nomadic society, these could be recognized.
Other hordes from other skirmish games are too 'savage' in comparison to the Ivory Horde, and as such their symbols are also too savage.

Maybe a white/black circle?

Really all I'm suggesting would be a lizardman's head or claw imprinted somewhere on it. That'd probably be enough.

i don't know i mean there whole shtick is "kill all humans" Seems pretty savage.

Lizard claw added. Now it looks like the Soyombo symbol of the Mongolians.

It's not terribly busy, and could show a decent progression. Walk the path, climb to reach the heavens, where the Lizards will reign forever over all in their band. Any other user's thoughts?

Incoming bears
I just retouched these four, but I'm planning to do the rest tonight.

In hindsight, I could have given this bear the stone axe.

I like. Having the claw up top suggests the lizards eventual ascendance over all.

Actually, I have ideas for the rest that I'll post here and fetch some coffee before continuing working on them.
Feedback would be much appreciated.
..he says while posting at 2 in the morning.

Remaining bears:
Skirmisher = Javelin weapon
Elite Skirmisher = Javelin weapon + warpaint?
Tree whisperer = Green Magic Paws + Wall of Wood?
Earth Shaper = Amber Magic Paws + Alter Terrain?
Earth Shaker = Amber Magic Paws + Tremors
Shaman = Red Magic Paws + Warpaint?
Cloud gatherer = Neon Magic Paws + Mist Noxious cloud?
Storm caller = Blue Magic Paws + Hailstorm Lightning?
Wandering Male = Stone Axe? + Shaggy? + Bloody Teeth?
Experienced Wanderer = Stone Axe? + Shaggy? + Bloody Teeth?
Lord of the Wilds = Heavy Warpaint + Stone Axe? + (undrawn)Armor?

I was planning on drawing up simple wooden armor but didn't have time last night.

This one's my favorite.

Damn, the thumbnails still look too damn similar.
I might need to armor them just to tell them apart.

Armor ideas:
Basic = Naked
Ironpaw = Wooden Arm Armor
Vanguard = Wooden glaives and Arm Amor
Veteran = Wooden Armor full set
Skirmisher = Wood and Bone armor
Elite Skirmisher = Wood and bone armor with skull helmet
Mages = Various scraps of bone armor
Wandering Male = Ragged armor
Experience Wanderer = Patched Armor
Lord of the Wilds = Full set of painted armor

I like it. Deer skull with antlers skullcap requested for at least one of them please.

>Deer skull with antlers skullcap requested for at least one of them please.
Sure. Seems like a fine chapeau for an Experienced Wanderer to me.
Or probably better yet the Shaman.

Thank you.

This is great! Thanks, keep up the amazing work.

Well the good news is that I drew the armor.
The bad news is that I won't be able to equip the ursine buggers until Thursday.
But, there is a very real possibility that we'll have enough Tokens for some bear-on-bear violence by christmas

This is great, I'll do some editing and remove the background so we can just copy and paste it on.

Groovy.
I was gonna shop on full antlers too, I ran out of paper.
Anyone can feel free to chop and shop these beers.
There was a less clean image of the weapons and hands last thread too.

I'll see what I can do.

>There was a less clean image of the weapons and hands last thread too.
>I'll see what I can do.
Here is the image I was talking about.

Will Do, right after work.

I'm digging this symbol. I like what this user is saying: I think the only change I can think of is turning the claw mark down. This way it shows the Lizardfolk ruling those below them, and kinda matches with the antler horns to make a point on the top.

This. Not having to worry about turnovers is goign to be huge. Most of your units should be getting 2-3 actions on your turns, and having high quality units means more punishing reactions.

Has anyone fluffed out the competing factions in Vistami?

Think I might write something up in a bit.

One of Yonas clan should be practicing some form dark druidism, they decides against hibernation instead they raid others for slaves that they bury alive to land to give it life force so they can grow they food in it so long they feed land constantly. This sacrificial systems is't problem free every year they would need more and more bodys to feed the land and if they let land go barren it's cant be revived anymore, If land that has tasted blood goes barren dark things start happening. Other Clans shun this practice and even fear it.

Empire that is ruled by immortal ruler that has had many many children there tend to be some relay remarkable children, thees remarkable spawns of immortals should be reverted like saints. Artisan union of Vistami praise one of sons that was most amazing demons smith land has ever seen. every great child of Archon has died mysteriously when they gain enough fame.

One factions should be cult like faction that revers first born Archon as their savior. Only elite and oldest people remember this golden heir that was to move empire forward after Archon become decadent, there were even talk of coup to replace Archon but one day First born disappeared. Few in empire know what happened, ruling elite send demons to kill first born, but even fewer know what happened after this, followers of first born used demoninc magic to keep first born alive but he is locked deep in catacombs of capital city, he's body couldn't handle demonic magic and went in coma. First born is still alive but in coma and followers of first born to this day are looking suitable host body for first born and are currently eyeing princess Rialta.

So, say we actually get everything ready, get all the models, and finish up statblocks... what then? We should have someone run a campaign for the setting, maybe stream it over twitch... I would, but work is crazy for the next two months for me.

Well, as I understand it, the system is designed for wargaming.
(I gotta read up on the system)
There was mention of using it for an rpg, but we decided on one thing at a time.
Unless you were talking about a massive war campaign, then never mind, good idea.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

Fanning the fading embers...

The system has a setting and scenarios set in place to run through the game. Basically think of it as a sort of CYOA that ha that tells a story. Goblins vs. Dwarves. If Dwarves win, they go on to fight the undead, if not, the goblins go on to fight the halflings, deciding various turning points in the course of a war or adventure. It's something like a one man D&D party.

If anyone is in New York City (or close by, I live in Jersey City), and is loving this setting, I would like to meet up and play a few games.

Is there a PDF of ASoBaH floating around? I wouldn't mind helping with crunch.

There's a link to the PDF Share thread and a link to the Hammer and Anvil supplement here: The core book is in Da Archive.

Also check the previous threads for the statblocks, though with the supplement those are subject to change.

Looking over the statlines and thinking about it, a lot of playing Preserver's is going to be managing the 5 or so guys you have, and knowing the enemy armies well. You have to know which of them are worth going after with Order Knights, and which you should engage with Knights or Aspirants. In addition, taking advantage of your special abilities whenever you can is a must, since you have to try and at least knockdown in every round of action you go for. I wasn't too fond of them before due to the way I normally run lists, but I want to give them a shot or two to switch it up a bit.

I'd offer to do one of these, but I'm enlisting at the end of next moth, and will have to survive that first.

Really digging those Yonas tokens. Might have to drum up a list for them too.

So, a quicker mock-up I went with for the Inverse symbol is pic. Went with a Septagram, mainly because I never see them use, and the alchemic symbol for purity because lel. Purposely draw it out of proportion because they don't care so much about the perfect nature of the world anymore. Read: I'm shit at drawing properly Might stand a bit of dressing up, a different type of engram, or different symbols in it. Thoughts?

I was also thinking about potential symbols for the minor factions. They might not be used until expansions, but could be used as emblems for them in the interim so they have SOMETHING to help break up the texts in lore.

>Berustia (Lyonessen? Sirasea? Both were alternates I liked the ring of)

Maritime symbol. Anchor with harpoon crossed over. Nets or tridents may work as well. Maybe a cutlass? A thought was anchor with harpoon and cutlass crossed to reflect how they make a living from whaling, sailing and raiding, but it may be too busy. If going for a coat of arms-like one, a motto like "Masters of the open waters" may work. Something with a bit of bravado and pomp.

>Restavian Remnants

Since we were basing them with French Gallic roots, perhaps a fleur-de-lis or lion rampant was the original country emblem. Whichever one it is, enclose it in a gear, to show that they are still proud of their past, and embraced technology to grasp the future.

>Sorcerous Enclave

Whichever emblem we went with for the Restavians, as they were each a part of the same country in the past. If you want to differentiate between them, have the animal facing the other direction, and include a token of magery. All-seeing-eyes, celestial bodies, or books and candles would be a start.

>Dwarfs & Giant nomads

It should be a debased form of whatever emblem they might've had to begin with. A kite shield with hammer for the original, and a blaze or split lines showing how they fractured? Maybe an anvil instead? Some thing that was a symbol of strength, and splintered like their strength is now. Considering that the armour fragments the Giants wear is made from stone, a chisel and mallet might work too.