+++ Dawn Cometh - A Word Bearers Log +++

[Noctus Cornix]

That is some seriously brutal looking icon bearer! Great work!

 

and yes, there is That tingling to do Word Bearers! (...and Night Lords...and Iron Warriors... aaaand.... maybe a cold shower .  )

 

Thank you kindly, brother! I'm incredibly happy with how the banner bearer came out. I've been really excited to show him off ever since I finished painting him. 

 

And yeah, that's a feeling I know all too well, dude. I will very likely be making a few Night Lords and World Eaters to go along with my Word Bearers at some point. It's not something I intend on doing any time soon, but we'll get to it when we get to it. 

[BadgersinHills]

Looking lovely.  Lore adds a lot to the wonderful miniatures. 

[Noctus Cornix]

Looking lovely.  Lore adds a lot to the wonderful miniatures. 

Really glad you like the lore and the models. :)

[Noctus Cornix]

AND SO IT CAME TO PASS 

 

that these words spoke in wrath dispersed to all corners of the land, proclaiming their message and blasting all minds that heard it. 

 

Neighbour turned on neighbour and in sudden fury fathers dragged sons onto the street and there murdered them.

 

From the Liber Kharneth

 

 

 

 

Brother Gh'uul of the Word Bearers Legion

       Devout Warrior of the Grievous Will's Host

III Choir of Lord Vor'Gath's Quorum

Pict-feed taken at the 'Grief of Herodin' Culling

 

In accordance with the most ancient of scripture, he has fasted from ten millenia, subsisting alone on the flesh of men.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by Noctus Cornix

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Fine work on Gh'uul's model. Does he honor Khorne above the others (though he will still honor Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Tzeentch, as appropriate for a Word Bearer)?

[BadgersinHills]

Great posing! :) Really inspirational. :) 

[Deadass]

I'm absolutely loving all these subtle modifications to the new CSM kit in combination with your gloomy writing! Really makes me wanna pick up my Black Legion again.

[ColonelGathers]

What an inspiration! Love the atmosphere in the models and your accompanying writing as well. What's your recipe for the red?

[Noctus Cornix]

On the Jeharwanate and their Origin

 

According to sealed Imperial records, the Jeharwanate are among one of the oldest Warp Cults encountered by the Imperium with their

first records dating back to the infamous Betrayal at Calth. While their first known sighting was amidst the fires of Calth's burning, 

the Jeharwanate have faithfully served as the zealous slaves of the Word Bearers Legion for generations throughout these long ten-thousand

years. Unlike the typical insurrectionist forces of localized cults that rise up in worlds targeted by the Legion, the slave-warriors of the Jeharwanate

sail the black sea with their damned masters and serve as unwavering enforcers. When the Word Bears decree the construction of their accursed

cathedrals, it is these sickly pale creatures in ink-black masks that serve as Taskmasters. Many Hosts within the Legion still have thousands of 

generational slave-warriors that make the same oath of life and soul as their ancestors had for ten-millenia.

 

The Jeharwanate, like many of the the Word Bearer's black traditions, is steeped in the origins of old Colchis. The term Jeharwanate comes 

from an ancient tradition that had lost practice some time after Lorgar Aurelian came to power within the world's theocratic government. 

Roughly translating into Low Gothic as 'The Ring', Jeharwanate is an ancient practice of slavery with rather specific and even somewhat

confusing parameters. The act of slavery is commonly understood as the valuing human life as an economic property, typically obtained

through raiding or conquest and forcing the would-be slaves into subservience on pain of death or worse. Jeharwanate, however, was the

practice of slavery at entirely one's own volition. While this may seem confusing to one's readers, it is important to understand that every tribe

and sect across all known Colchisian history recognized Heresy as the most egregious of sins. Because of this, Jeharwanate was the rite

of any individual, family, or tribe to decry their faith to be false and that of their master to be the true faith. To claim Jeharwanate was 

to plead for a master's mercy and ask for them to accept such sinners into their homes.

 

If a potential master is to accept, then the slaves would be under his or her care. This involves a host of responsibilities that are generally uncommon among the general

practice of slaver. For example. A  master is now the patron and pastor of his willing slaves, and he or she must provide his slaves with daily teachings of the the

master's faith. In this, the master becomes more a shepherd than a slaver, teaching and guiding his flock of loyal sinners into a new life of enlightenment and 

contrition through service. In return, the Jeharwante were often treated with a level of respect and deference that other slaves were not. After all,

better the heretic that seeks to atone for his sins, rather than one that only seeks deliverance from his punishment.

 

The 'Ring' of this practice comes down to a stipulation of the practice itself. As a slave under the rite of Jeharwante,

one of the slave's most pressing responsibilities is to ensure a genetic lineage, marrying other slaves and producing children who will also

become for their master. This is, in essence, a generational process that moves at a slow pace of service and teachings. Each and every 

child of these slaves is to continue as their parents and serve for the sins of their ancestors. It is only by the decree of the master that a bloodline

may be absolved of their sins and their service complete. 

 

While there is no exact source as to why the Warp Cult took the name of Jeharwanate or their true origins, it is this humble scholar's belief that the 

origins of this cult might be Colchis itself. Records indicate that a vast swath of the planet's recorded population was altogether missing from the

planet at the time of the XIIIth legion's exterminatus of the planet. Perhaps, in reconciliation for their sins of once worshipping the God Emperor

and returning to their old traditions, many people of Colchis offered up their lives in service for their perceived sins of Heresy.

 

If this is true, then the Jeharwanate, these twisted and pale things, are, in fact, what remains of Colchis' people,

the loyal slaves that have served their cruel masters for generations across ten thousand years.

 

 

 

Unknown Cultist of the Jeharwanate

Enslaved to the will of the Word Bearers Legion

Pict-feed taken at the 'Grief of Herodin' Culling

 

" I've seen what awaits us on the other side. There is no heaven. There  is no great reward for our devotion. All that awaits us is the ravenous hunger of our sins... That's all we deserve."

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Noctus Cornix

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the cultist.

[Kordhal]

Having just gotten back on BnC after a long hiatus, this thread has reminded me why this is such an ace forum. Fantastic models, and am really loving all the fluff, especially the musings on Chaos and the warp, and the chicken or the egg problem in regards to the origins of the gods. Plus you've really nailed the savage and zealous feeling of the Word Bearers. Can't wait for more, and to read more heretical musings on the warp. 

[Hungry Nostraman Lizard]

That is some badass fluff, I must say. I adore that you named the warp as the Black Sea. Badass, and the cultist is great too. Expensive conversion for a 3 point model or so...  Isn't a militia squad of 20 something like 60 points? Anyway, that's the Necromunda gang with replacement head and gun from the cultist 3 pack?

[Vazzy]

Excellent work as usual my dude! Looking forward to more astartes

[Pearson73]

That cultist is ace, I like the head a lot and the loin cloth makes the model really pop with those bright colours.

[Noctus Cornix]

Thank you so much for the love, guys. It really means a lot to me.  Honestly, I was a little worried the fluff for the Jaharwanate wouldn't be very coherent. I wrote it at like, 5 in the morning and I was starting to second-guess myself. Glad it seemed to turn out alright. Looking back at it, I noticed a couple grammatical errors and spelling mistakes that I'll need to fix atleast. I should have another update later tonight... But, for now, Q & A time!

 

Fine work on Gh'uul's model. Does he honor Khorne above the others (though he will still honor Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Tzeentch, as appropriate for a Word Bearer)?

At this point, if you keep asking, eventually I might say yes.   No, mate. He doesn't honor Khorne more than the other. 

 

Great posing! Really inspirational. 

Thanks, Badgers! 

 

I'm absolutely loving all these subtle modifications to the new CSM kit in combination with your gloomy writing! Really makes me wanna pick up my Black Legion again.

Do it! I'd love to see your work, man!

 

What an inspiration! Love the atmosphere in the models and your accompanying writing as well. What's your recipe for the red?

Glad you like my work and my writing. :) The recipe for the red is a somewhat lengthy process... but here's how it goes.

Black Primer

Khorne Red

Nuln Oil wash

Mephiston Red highlights

Carroburg Crimson wash (after this wash is about when I start painting everything else)

Nuln Oil wash over everything
Mephiston Red targeted highlight

 

Having just gotten back on BnC after a long hiatus, this thread has reminded me why this is such an ace forum. Fantastic models, and am really loving all the fluff, especially the musings on Chaos and the warp, and the chicken or the egg problem in regards to the origins of the gods. Plus you've really nailed the savage and zealous feeling of the Word Bearers. Can't wait for more, and to read more heretical musings on the warp. 

Wow, that really means a lot to me, Kordhal. Chaos has always been one of my favorite aspects about the Warhammer universe, but it always felt so barren of purpose.. Chaos simply being 'evil' never made the most sense to me and it's creation has largely been unaddressed even to this day. For me, this glaring patch of missing information has made it difficult for me to really connect with the Word Bearers, who are my absolute favorite legion, so it was frustrating when I just couldn't find a way to connect on any meaningful level. So I decided to make my own answers. I know that none of it's canon, but it's my perspective on the subject and I find the possibilities really fascinating to explore. 

 

And hearing the words 'savage and zealous' when used to describe my Word Bearers makes me all the happier! 

 

That is some badass fluff, I must say. I adore that you named the warp as the Black Sea. Badass, and the cultist is great too. Expensive conversion for a 3 point model or so...  Isn't a militia squad of 20 something like 60 points? Anyway, that's the Necromunda gang with replacement head and gun from the cultist 3 pack?

Okay, I will entirely admit that the idea came from AD-B. In his short story, 'Throne of Lies', there's a Night Lord's Flagship named 'The Serpent of the Black Sea', which I always thought was the sickest sounding name for a ship. I don't know if this was his intent or not, but I found the concept of referring to space as a black, limitless sea as incredibly evocative. So I decided to use it. After all, the Imperium refers to their void fleets as the Imperial Navy. Would it not be the task of the Navy to sail the black sea? :)  Another thought I've mused over was to refer to warp-travel as sailing the colourless sea, but I never decided on whether I liked that or not. Might do some more research and come up with something more interesting.

 

Also, shhh.... It's not the points on paper that counts, but the points on the inside when you think about the rule of cool.  Also, I just sort of had the bits on hand already... The main body is from the House Cawdor gang from Necromunda. The arms and gun is from the Genestealer Cultists neophyte box. The head and backpack are from the old renegades and heretic cultist upgrade pack that Forge World used to sell. While I'd love to make more of these, you're entirely correct that it's pretty expensive to make... so I probably won't be making more than the 10 I've already made. Maybe in another life when I'm independently wealthy. :D

 

Excellent work as usual my dude! Looking forward to more astartes

Well, you won't have to wait for long, brother! 

 

That cultist is ace, I like the head a lot and the loin cloth makes the model really pop with those bright colours.

Appreciate the love! I wasn't completely happy with the flames on the loin cloth so I actually went back and did some minor adjustment to it after I had posted the pictures. Might take another picture to show the adjusted results a bit later on. 

[Noctus Cornix]

Contrition and Excision

 

The Purity Seal is one of the oldest sacraments in the history of the Adeptus Ministorum, and has sown throughout the Imperium into even its more autonomous branches. The origins of this sacrament is first officially recorded during the later years of the Horus Heresy when the Warmaster and his blasphemous kin had thrown off their guise of rebellion and flew the black banners of the Chaos Gods. The Purity Seals were first known to have been worn by the codified 'Nullifactors' of the loyalist Legions that sought to banish the Neverborn predators that stalked a burning galaxy. Such rites of purity and superstitious belief was slowly adopted by more and more of the Legions and Imperial Army, despite the continued suppression of religious doctrines under the Imperial regime. It spread like a wildfire that none of the Primarchs could hope to suffocate, nor would many even chose to, knowing that they could not afford the luxury of culling their own forces with Horus' tide of traitors on the horizon. 

 

The truth, like so many that belong to the Adeptus Ministorum, is that its origins lie in the traditions of the arch-traitors themselves. The use of purity seals and prayer scrolls was a common sight amidst the XVIIth Legion through most of the Great Crusade, Word Bearers adorning their armour in Colchisian script pronouncing adoration to the God-Emperor and his 'holy' will. Even when they had cast off the yoke of the Imperium in favor for their Dark Monarch, the Word Bearers still adorned themselves in more grotesque forms of worship. They nailed prayers in black tongue to their armour or scraps of flayed skin with inked prayers. They carried their faith with them into battle, roaring and chanting as they made their savage and bloody war.

 

Within what would be known as the Host of the Grievous Will, the sacrament has taken a more refined approach. Within the Host, the rite is known as Vakra Kha'Tzee-dha*, which can be roughly translated from the blasphemous Black Tongue into the Consecration of Contrition. The more common term used in the Host refers to the sacrament as 'Mourning Flesh'. The particulars of this process are rather simple. Of the billions of slaves that toil beneath the ruthless guidance of the Word Bearers, many are destined for a brutally short life of manual labour, toiling away at the construction of vast cathedrals and basilicas. For those slaves unfit for manual labor, there are more even more unfathomable sentences. For some, they are destined to become part of the Choir of Eternal Grief, brutally tortured and forced into the indoctrination of the Host's cruel faith and understanding that their only purpose in life is now to atone for the sins of their continued existence. These malnourished supplicants prostrate themselves in claustrophobic shrines by the thousands, eternal weeping tears o black ichor from the unnatural elixirs their masters feed them. They pray for days at a time, begging to the Gods and the Great Will for their punishment and the release of death. They will never leave their shrine once placed their, hooked to blasphemous technology that will keep them alive for far longer than they have any right to live, while Jeharwanate scribes will ink tattoos of black-tongue onto their backs. 

This is their only purpose. 

 

On the eve of battle, the artisan scribes will take curved blades and skin the supplicants, cutting neat strips of bloody skin from their backs to have these sacred prayers bolted onto the Word Bearers' armour and the hulls of their Daemon Engines. The unholy concoction of their sustenance will ensure that many of the supplicant slaves survive this excruciating process and eventually have their backs fully healed for the process to begin anew.

 

The healing process is far more torturous than any pain the knives could have inflicted.

 

 

 

*'Va' being the root word for 'sacred' with the suffix 'kra' translating the root word into a verb. 'Kha' is the prefix that can roughly translate into denoting an event, while the conjunction of 'Tzeen' (the will to change) and Dha (Heavenly) can best be understood as describing a transition towards faith. Given the bizarre nature of the totality that religion had over the people of Colchis, this transition is always understood as associated with guilt or penance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brother Rikaard of the Word Bearers Legion

       Devout Warrior of the Grievous Will's Host

III Choir of Lord Vor'Gath's Quorum

Pict-feed taken at the 'Grief of Herodin' Culling

 

Born of Khur, He still carries the jawbone of a Monarchian Saint upon his warplate, as he has since losing his own mouth of which to speak.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Noctus Cornix

[BadgersinHills]

Great stuff!!  

[Naryn]

Gorgeous modeling and painting on that guy! I love how you've used the blood to make the trophies more visually arresting, and the way it's covering the chainsword. Glorious work!

[Xin Ceithan]

You really have a gift for writing beautiful blasphemies!

The mini is nice, too. ;)

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on Rikaard's model

[Zebulon]

Again, stunningly well-written horrors. I salute your ability to craft such jet-black imaginings. The darkness is impressive, unrelenting- just as it should be.

 

It also makes me remember why I spent so much time as purely into the loyalists - I am not sure I have the propensity to cruelty required to really embrace the dark side... ;)

[Vazzy]

Excellent, Excellent works my dude. Can’t wait to have these boys square off with the Shattered Suns again soon.

[Hungry Nostraman Lizard]

Fantastic work.

[Gederas]

Lovely, lovely Word Bearers. I'm going to be stealing ideas from your dudes here. One question:

Are the skulls from the Skulls set or are they from the Skeleton Warriors? Or are they resin? Or some combination of the three? :lol:

[Noctus Cornix]

The Psalm of Ethereal Pain

 

This record is an attempt to put into words a madness I cannot quite fathom... a blasphemy so fundamentally adverse to my very core and everything that makes me human. Recent investigations have brought a great deal of knowledge to us on the nature of those who willingly serve the foul ruinous powers and the blasphemous lives that they eek out in service to their cruel masters. I use the term 'willing' one loosely for these slaves to darkness know only two paths. They may walk the path of damnation, or be dragged into eternal torment. It is heretical, I know, to show even the barest hint of sympathy for such malformed and degenerate creatures, but recent findings have turned even my heart to stone and twisted my stomach into a wretched knot...

 

I have not eaten in three days... And I have not returned to my hab since because I cannot bare to look at my children while this nightmare remains fresh in my mind.. It would be something of an understatement to assert that the teeming billions of servants and slaves that serve the arch-heretics of the XVIIth Legion are bound in a complex web of oppressive traditions and rituals, for so integral to their lives is that foul faith that they practice that it is almost inseparable.. However, there is one rite so anathema to even base human decency that it is difficult to even fathom that such creatures even retain even a shred of their soul..

The Psalm of Ethereal Pain.

 

It is Filicide, plain and simple. This cruel gesture is nothing more than the murder of ones own child before they are given the chance to live. It is a debase offering that I cannot possibly fathom in even the darkest corners of my mind. 

 

For those in service to the traitorous Legions, the murder of a child is, in many warbands, an offence punishable by death. This is not some gesture of kindness or good will,  for the Astartes and their human enforcers are utterly apathetic to their slaves. Instead, it is more of a practical concept, for the Legions have need of male aspirants and there is rarely a warlord who would find themselves unwanting of more slaves and trained crew. This 'protection' of almost tribal law rarely ever extends past the child's age of twelve, and usually only considered for healthy children. It is a utilitarian cycle of need that falls back to our most basic nature as humans. To continue, we must safeguard the future. 

 

For those children who not torn from their mother's arms and dragged into among those would-be aspirants, the short and brutal life of a slave is all that will ever await them, to eek out a meager existence, to serve and die for their uncaring masters.

 

For those who serve the XVIIth Legion, there is no such law of protection, and there is a far crueler alternative to a life of slavery.

 

Within some makeshift shrine, a parent may drag their child to an altar and there murder them. With a knife or stone, they will cut them open and end their lives in a slow and horrendous fashion. The investigations provided... a great deal of detail to the exact nature of this ritual..  but I will not commit it to record, as my stomach churns at the very thought. Their blood will be used to draw savage symbols of the black tongue and their little bones will be carried by their parents from that day on. It is an offering most foul, and one most pleasing to those Dark Monarch that they worship..

 

The reasons for such a horrendous thing are numerous. For such a depravity to please the Gods, many will take the lives of their children simply to please their foul Gods, ending their genetic lineage for but a glance from black eyes in the night. Others will be called to as an offering by their masters, a test of fidelity that they will so gladly give. 

 

One reasoning comes from the record of a captured slave that had had committed the ritual himself, murdered his child by his own own hand. According to this captive's record, he claims that he did it "for her own good." To ever imagine a human being killing their child and then sacrificing their souls in offering to the predatory sentience beyond the veil as for the child's own benefit... it is beyond comprehension. And yet, the captive never wavered even after repeated interrogation. Despite the evident guilt for such a sin, the man remained committed to his insane belief that what he had done was the best for his child.

 

"She was a good girl.... And I wanted her to remain that way. She always loved to sing in the daily sermons... Now she sings into eternity, free from... all this."

 

 

Unknown Slave-Warrior of the Jeharwanate

Enslaved to the will of the Word Bearers Legion

Pict-feed taken at the 'Grief of Herodin' Culling

 

" At night, I sometimes hear my son's screaming beyond the dream. I hope, when I leave this waking world, that I can tell him how much I love him... to.. to tell him why I had to kill him..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely, lovely Word Bearers. I'm going to be stealing ideas from your dudes here. One question:

Are the skulls from the Skulls set or are they from the Skeleton Warriors? Or are they resin? Or some combination of the three?

 

Most of them are from the Box of Skulls pack from GW. (Best box they ever made, by the way.) A few of them are from AlternativeMinis on Etsy. I'm very fond of those skulls.