Hobby | Seaside Shrine (Season of Scenery 2023)

The Silverlight Sea is a major aspect of life for all of the cultures surrounding it. As such, many of the peoples have adopted various mythos and customs in relation to the sea. 

This particular seaside shrine is common of the Skal Tribes who inhabit the northeastern corner of the Heldeni Empire. Not strictly a religious practice, these mementos dot the treacherous coasts in memory of lost sailors and adventurers. 

Hobby | A Rather Unfortunate Encounter...

The Ironwoods groaned, the wind whipping around massive trunks. Miserable folk squatted next to hovels, drawing their cloaks ever tighter around them. 

Joric had no such luck. A soldier of the Heldeni 1st Army, it was his task to oversee the expansion into this forlorn place. The deep black brambles threatened to overwhelm the village, if not for the constant hacking of axes by the support corp. 

A sound carried upon the wind reached him. Deer perhaps? Easy prey would be good for the troops. Morale was suffering. 

In he went. Rules be damned, hard tac was no proper meal. Immediately, the place was oppressive. All around shadows twisted in vile shapes. As a precaution, he drew his short sword, its steel glinting in the lantern light. A small comfort in this dismal forest. 

Up ahead, he could just make out the shape of antlers. He would remember this clearing, and return with some of the hunters assigned to his unit. Before he could turn, great wings unfurled. Frozen in fear, Joric barely had time to register that he was in the grasp of a foul beast...

Narrative: Court of the White Lady, Lore and Rules for Play (Spooktober)

The grand finale to this year's Spooktober event is here, and much like last year, I'll be covering the lore of one of my Age of Sigmar armies. This is now the third part in the series, which has thus far covered the kingdoms of Heldenmarch and Ravenmarch. 

Ravenmarch, the progenitor to Heldenmarch in the Silverlight Realm, is now a cursed land in conflict with the lands of the living. However, the country is not a monolithic entity, and there are conflicts and wars, even amongst the dead. This post will dive into the history, conflicts, and even rules for brining the foremost of these factions to life on the tabletop: The Court of the White Lady.

 

Hobby Table: Shadows of Ravenhome (Reaper Miniatures Bones V) (Spooktober)

Get your spooky brushes and clippers, and welcome to the second annual Spooktober event! Like last year, I'll be focusing on miniatures and terrain that fit in well with my death armies in celebration of Halloween, one of the funnest times of the year and (in my opinion) the gateway to the holiday season. In the second post of the event, I've created terrain to match my homebrew lore: the ruins of Ravenmarch. 

Happy Birthday! Revamped Space Dinosaur Miniatures Turns 1!

Another turn around the sun and this blog has achieved its first year after its revamp in April 2020. While the blog has been around since 2016, it never has survived more than a few months of posting (2016 had a total of 8 posts). It took a global pandemic and time on my hands in a lockdown for the blog to kick into its first year of real content. Almost 70 articles later, Space Dinosaur Minis is celebrating its first birthday, which also happens to coincide with the author's own birthday, although it is far from his first of those!

After all that time, let's take a quick look at how far the blog has come, looking at some of the best posts from each month.

April 2020:

The Dreaded Hobby Backlog: The post that kicked it all off and started me back on the blogging trail. 

May 2020: 

Paint Recipe: Nighthaunt: My first big post to gain traction, and still popular to this day. I guess people like tutorials. It stayed my most viewed post for a bit. I also got a kitten this month, who loves to interfere with my hobby progress. 

June 2020:

Paint Recipe: Raptoryx: Another painting guide that remains popular. Also my first Warcry models that I painted. 

July 2020: 

Hobby Table: Chaos Lord on Karkadrak: The first post to unseat the Nighthaunt tutorial in numbers of views. Many really like the stark blue colors I use for my Slaves to Darkness army, as I still get questions about it on Reddit. Not even Nagash, whose post was a week later, could gain as much traction. 

August 2020: 

Narrative: The Kingdom of Heldenmarch: My very first narrative post covering the home brew lore of one of my armies. Wildly popular, and still to this day has the 3rd most views of any of my articles. First time using a diorama background, which is now standard for the Space Dino. 

September 2020: 

Paint Recipe: Amber Fiefdoms: The quietest month of the year with only 2 posts. This was my attempt at using white backgrounds to photograph minis before I decided it looked boring. 

October 2020: 

Narrative: The Tragedy of Ravenmarch: My first themed month, based on Halloween. I had lots of fun with this month, and produced the second of my narrative series focused on one of my armies. 

November 2020: 

Gaming Table: Thanksgiving Free-for-all: I really enjoyed this game with my brothers, and due to Covid this was one of the few Gaming Table posts of the year. Hopefully this year there will be a few more of these. 

December 2020: 

Review: Space Dinosaur Miniatures: This post looked back at everything I had painted in 2020 an boy was it a lot. It felt really nice to see all of my progress in one picture, and I think this year I can beat it. 

January 2021: 

Tutorial: How to Make a Photo Booth: Here I design a new photo booth system that allows me to take nice mini photos with interesting backgrounds. From here on out all non-wip photos use this booth so I got a lot out of this project. It's also my number 2 most popular post. 

February 2021: 

Gaming Table: Dragon of Icespire Peak: I love this post as it combines my love of stories with Age of Sigmar using the 5th Edition D&D rules. Plus I got to play with my brothers again. 

March 2021:

Narrative: Understanding the Mortal Realms: Now for the last post of the first year, my most popular by a long shot, my explanation of how the Mortal Realms work in simple language. I'm very proud of this one as I designed it to meet a need I saw in the community. 

Which brings us now to the present, April 2021. Here's to another good year and I hope you're all enjoying my content! If you have any suggestions please feel free to comment below or send me an email, I'm happy to help. 

-The Space Dinosaur

Narrative: Understanding how the Mortal Realms Work in Age of Sigmar

Welcome to a Narrative post! Usually on these kinds of posts I'd talk about my own custom lore for the game, but I've noticed in a lot of online discussions that there's a lot of confusion when it comes to the Mortal Realms in Age of Sigmar and how they work. Of course there's excellent online resources for those who'd like something more in depth, but I've brought something new to the table: quickly drawn sketches comparing our Solar System to the Mortal Realms! 

Narrative: The Tragedy of Old Ravenmarch, Lore and Rules for Play (Spooktober)

The grand finale to the Spooktober event is here, and is it a big one. This is the second part of a series diving into the lore of one of my Age of Sigmar armies. 

Ravenmarch, the progenitor to Heldenmarch in the Silverlight Realm, is now a cursed land, and this post will dive into its history, conflicts, and even rules for brining Ravenmarch to life on the tabletop. 

 

Hobby Table: Heldenmarch Wizard and Helstorm Rocket Battery

A few posts back I covered the over-arching lore of Heldenmarch, and as I paint more units for the army I will include some snippets of lore on how they fit into the larger tale. I eventually intend to cover all of my models this way, but the big lore posts take a bit of time since I have to make a coherent background, draw maps, design backdrops and take nice photos, on top of painting the miniatures themselves. 

Narrative: The Kingdom of Heldenmarch - Lore and Rules for Play

Today's post is the first in a new series that covers the lore of one of my armies that I use to play in Age of Sigmar. I have done something similar in the past, but much of that lore has been developed in the years since, so now I can do the concept justice.  

Although the models are from Age of Sigmar, the lore has taken on a life of its own, with some liberties taken here and there. You could always consider the Silverlight Region to be a pocket realm in the grander Age of Sigmar scheme, which would help explain why some names carried over (cough Heldenmarch cough). I want the feeling of the Old World mixed with Age of Sigmar, so this is the result. 

Narrative: Giants of Menhir

Today will be a quick post covering a nice little picture I was able to snap after a game with my brothers. The set-up was a 3-way battle for the tower, with Stormcast/Giants of Menhir vs Anvilgard/Amber Fiefdoms vs Slaves to Darkness/Skal Flats. 

Hobby Table: Battle Pilgrims of Arioch

Although I love Age of Sigmar dearly, there is one faction from Warhammer Fantasy that I miss dearly -- Bretonnia! There is just the wondrous sight of a wedge of knights with their bright heraldic colors charging headlong into an infantry formation to devastate it. Technically, there are war scrolls for Bretonnian units, so I use those for rules purposes. They are a bit outdated in the current competitive meta, but as a narrative player that doesn't worry me too much. 

The other issue is that all of the models are no longer in production. Now, I was able to get some second hand models, but as time goes on this option gets more and more cost prohibitive. But remember, Bretonnia is just a fantasy medieval faction. I bought a Fireforge starter set called Deus Vult, which came with knights, archers/crossbowmen, men-at-arms and foot sergeants. 

Paint Recipe: How to Paint Warcry Raptoryx

The Warcry starter set (which unfortunately is no longer for sale) came with a veritable pile of goodies. Two starter armies, two sets of beasties, terrain, tokens, and game board filled the box to the brim, and I have, very slowly, been clearing out the contents of said box.

Here we have the paint recipe that I used to paint the set's Raptoryx, weird hybrids of turkey and dinosaur. They can be captured in a Warcry campaign to become a part of your warband, and in Age of Sigmar games they can be a part of a Slaves to Darkness army.

In my own home cooked lore, they aren't necessarily creatures of chaos. They live high in the mountains, and members of the various Skal tribes will capture them as part of a coming of age ritual, and mark them with metal ringlets before releasing them as proof of their deeds.

Narrative: Ambush in the Forest

A hiss of tortured metal tore through the evening air, its echoes lingering for longer than it should. Higgs knew, one of his men would not be returning. Not in any recognizable manner, at least. He risked a glance out into the void that was the coming night. Shapes fluttered in the periphery, restless shadows unnatural in their movements. A pale face blossomed from the night, its skin devoid of flesh. Witch light fluttered and danced amidst empty eye sockets. Clutched within skeletal hands was a cruel scythe, blade covered in the ichor of the recently departed. The creature's mouth opened, and silence overtook the forest. Then came the rest. 

Narrative: Silverlight Map Second Edition

A while back on this blog I made a post about my home-brew lore for my Age of Sigmar miniatures and games that I set in the Silverlight Realm. I have very much enjoyed updating the map and lore as time has progressed, and I have now developed what I call the second edition map, along with new lore to match.

The Silverlight Sea and surrounding land masses. 

Age of Sigmar Soulbound: What it Provides for Narrative Gaming

Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound, the new RPG set it in the mortal realms, is now out today as a PDF, or, if you want a hard copy, it is for pre-order. Link here. Although I don't really intend to use many of the combat mechanics, preferring to use the normal Age of Sigmar rules slightly modified, the wealth of lore and background material provided is a treasure trove for narrative gamers.

A Freeguild contingent races to fend off an invader. 

What Soulbound offers narrative gamers are stories to spice up a game and give it a reason for existing. All throughout the book are little hooks tied to a realm, an organization, or a deity that can easily be adapted from an RPG into a game of Age of Sigmar. 

Pictures throughout are there for visual interest, so enjoy!

Hobby Table: Dire Wolves, Necromancer, and Skink Starpriest

The last couple of days have seen 7 new models completed. For the first round we have some Legions of Nagash models, or, in my little corner of the universe, these troops hail from the ruins of Ravenmarch. This is the eastern half of Heldenmarch, and the two were once a whole country until the folly of the Amethyst Cult drove the kingdom in two. This lore is reflected in my necromancer, whose robes of purple, which once were a symbol of the Amethyst Cult, are hidden beneath tattered robes.

A necromancer wills his dire wolves to attack. 

Narrative: Using Scenery to Tell a Story

Often times in wargaming we use our scenery as an ends to a means. Does it provide an even playing field so that neither side gains an advantage? Are there ample Line-of-sight blockers that give strategic advantages? Not that any of this is bad, but to me terrain can be so much more, especially in a narrative context. The terrain can help to drive the story of your games, giving players objectives beyond winning. Even if a player loses the match, the events that unfold can give them a tale to tell for a long time afterwards. 

A cemetery sits peacefully next to a shrine of Azyr. 

Hirschenwald: Holds of the Ironweld

The lands of Hirschenwald sit safely nestled between mountains to the west, sea to the south, Heldenmarch to the east, and above all, the great Ironwoods to the north. Once a part of Heldenmarch itself, as can be attested to by the name, Hirschenwald is now a strong kingdom in its own right, plying in the trade of venison and iron oak. The latter has brought the attention of the Ironweld Arsenal, who, for all intents and purposes, now manage the country.

The Lands of Heldenmarch

Welcome back to the Silverlight Region in the Realm of Metal! Today we will be covering the land of Heldenmarch! Composed primarily of men of Sigmar, the country of Heldenmarch has carved out a swathe of relative peace in an otherwise chaotic land. However, within its borders are still plenty of dangers...

The Age of Myth

As men ventured south across the Auric Sea, they eventually settled upon the shores of what would eventually become Heldenmarch. The twin towns of Muldorf and Rothenztyn quickly sprang up, flourishing with trade to the lands of the north. The undisputed leader of this band, Hemt Grimst, sought a more defensible land. Each winter, a massive flock of ravens clouded the sky. Grimst followed the great migration, finding that the ravens roosted amidst a circular band of hills. A new city, whose name has long since been forgotten and is now only referred to as Olztyn, began to grow between the hills, its walls becoming a legend in time. As time went on and the population grew, the country became known as Ravenmarch, with the Grimst family ruling well over its inhabitants.

The Age of Chaos

Prosperous as the kingdom of Ravenmarch was, nothing could have prepared it for the arrival of Chaos. An enormous warband swept in from the East, quickly burning Rotheztyn and Beograd to ashes. Sigmar's closing of Azyr left many with no hope. Desperate, the people of Udenheim turned to necromancy to raise heroes of old and regiments of honored dead to defend them. Abhorred with the abomination that the town became, Vathek Grimst shut the gates and cursed Udenheim to be known as Hexenheim. Soon after, Nachtbriar became embroiled in necromancy and chaos invasions. Enraged, Vathek rode out upon his dragon, but was slain in the ensuing battle. The carnage was so great that a great tide of death magic roiled out upon the whole of Ravenmarch. Ironically, Vathek rose once more, embittered at what he now was. 

Vathek's son, Triglav, took command of what was left of Ravenmarch and her armies. His kingdom burning, he ordered the living to escape to the east while he remained with his father to defend the fleeing population. Triglav, Lord of Embers, was the last living king of Ravenmarch, and for millenia his armies kept the tide of chaos from devouring his people. The nobility settled near the River Argent, and in honor of those early leaders, the town was named Ravencourt. Repulsed by the undead forces of Ravenmarch, the Chaos invasion swept south and westward, remaining an oppressive cloud over Ravencourt for centuries. 

The Age of Sigmar

With the coming of the Stormcast Eternals, Chaos was largely eradicated from the Eastern Silverlight Sea. Overjoyed, the flourishing people named their country Heldenmarch. Ravencourt became a bustling capital, and the new town of Varheim to the south rivaled the fortifications of ancient Olztyn. Explorers ventured beyond the River Argent, settling in what would become known as Stagmoor. The Stormcast eye Ravenmarch with suspicion, but the people of Heldenmarch still look fondly upon their ancestors who protected them for so long. Occasionally, a fool-headed ruler will seek to claim the lands of Ravenmarch for the living once more, but are often met with serried ranks of undead. Triglav is content to let Heldenmarch remain free, but with the coming of Nagash's necroquake, the dead no longer rest as easily as they once did...

Garbed in the black and yellow standard uniform of Heldenmarch, halberdiers guard the South Gate of Varheim. 

Blog Update - Silverlight Map

While I've enjoyed posting my random musings on this blog, it's come to my attention that having a blog with no real direction or aim to it leads to a decided lack of interest on my part. To be fair, I've never really wanted to make this a major hobby, but I do like writing from time to time.

Recently, my wargaming attention has solely been focused on Age of Sigmar. The lore for Warhammer Fantasy and now Age of Sigmar really fascinates me, and in this new setting the ability to create your own lore really gets the creative juices flowing. So from here on out, this blog is dedicated to exploring the lore of my particular chunk of the mortal realms in which my various armies live and fight. From time to time, I'll post some material from other universes, but the bulk will be AoS.

Enough of the introduction, on to the interesting things!

The Silverlight Sea and surrounding land masses.

Situated in the Realm of Metal, the Silverlight Sea is so named for the glints of silver that crest each wave in the sea. To the east are the varied factions of men, aelves, and dwarves. The north is dominated by the Ironwoods, a forest known for its oak trees made of solid iron and the Spiderfang grot tribes that call the forest home. The west is made of rugged lands filled with orruks and Chaos tribes, most notably those of the Skal Flats. A small Kharadron trading port resides atop the great eyries here. To the south is a small island where there is a strange floating ziggurat. Most important of all is the Silverlight Realmgate, guarded jealously by a contingent of Stormcast Eternals hailing from the Realm of Aqshy. 

In the coming weeks I will be covering each of the regions in more detail, as well as presenting histories and the painted armies that go with certain regions. Until next time!