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The Wolves of Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard


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Thought I'd post my Renegade Great Company project log up here for some feedback from Vlka Fenryka enthusiasts.

Inspired by the Dornian Heresy and in particular this piece of artwork from it:

 

http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/7940/wolfpackc.jpg

Property of the orignal artist. All rights reserved

 

I wanted to build and paint an army representing a Great Company that's fallen into Khorne's clutches.

Recently been playing a narrative campaign with a Blood Angels player so the background for my army was written with a built in excuse for why the Blood Angels would be especially hostile to Vandrad Gorebeard's Wolves. So, here's some background and Jarl Vandrad himself.

 

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6510/navvp.gif

 

Vandrad Alfgeir Kollsvein was chosen as Jarl of For-Twa when his predecessor fell in battle storming the palace of the renegade Deacon Lothar Marbad. It was Vandrad that led the assault in the wake of that loss and it was Vandrad that threw the Deacon from the balcony of his palace to his death on the marble paved courtyard below. There was no opposition to Vandrad's promotion and he took the Blackmane as his sigil - the savage wolf being an apt symbol for Vandrad and his Great Company's style of warfare.

 

As Jarl of For-Twa, Vandrad's saga was quickly filled with the legendary deeds of himself and his Great Company, such as the Scouring of Demeter, the Siege of Tethys and the defeat Archon Mormacar Foros of the Kabal of the Murderous Refrain just a few amongst many. Then in 726.M41 For-Twa was declared lost in the warp. Something had gone wrong during their transit to the Antissa system to turn back an Arch Enemy invasion and the Vlka Fenryka reeled from the loss of an entire Great Company. There were many grim whispers about the loss, to a Fenrisian there isn't a worse death than to be lost at sea, no glory in a death outside of battle. Over time a new Great Company was raised anew, it was a hardship on The Rout but it would not be the first or last time that they had had to recover from such losses.

 

In 883.M41 reports reached The Aett that the Knights Sanguine had been betrayed by a Great Company of the Vlka Fenryka. The Knights Sanguine had fought a century long battle to scour Antissa IV of the Arch Enemy when it had become clear that the aid promised by the Space Wolves was never going to arrive. The reports listed the perpetrator of this fell act as a Vandrad Gorebeard. The Blood Angels demanded satisfaction for the loss of one of their successor chapters, the forces committed to Antissa having been the last of the Knights Sanguine's dwindling strength.

 

Vandrad spent the best part of the next century raiding shipping routes and forge worlds within short warp transits of the Maelstrom. The atrocities carried out by him or under his order were as terrible as the great deeds of the Vandrad of the Vlka Fenryka's sagas were great. Denounced by Logan Grimnar and The Rout. Hunted by The Blood Angels. Scourge of the Imperial Navy. Jarl Vandrad Gorebeard continues to be a thorn in the side of the Imperium. A bloody, merciless reaver, his Great Company although thinned in numbers from the strength that left the Aett over two centuries ago is still formidable. Vandrad's fleet has grown, those vessels captured in their raids pressed into service against their former masters and he has gathered his strength at Antissa IV, the scene of the betrayal of his sacred oaths.

 

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/6510/navvp.gif

 

Vandrad Alfgeir Kollsvein

Jarl of For-Twa, Gorebeard, Wulfen King

 

http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3300/dscn1173i.jpg

 

http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/3673/dscn1183p.jpg

 

http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/2192/dscn1158gv.jpg

 

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/8537/dscn1175v.jpg

 

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/4078/dscn1176x.jpg

 

http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/7577/dscn1177pa.jpg

 

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/1096/dscn1178b.jpg

 

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/705/dscn1179hh.jpg

 

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/895/dscn1180c.jpg

 

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/7207/dscn1185de.jpg

 

Rules-wise Vandrad Gorebeard is my counts as Logan Grimnar. Primarily I was playing a full Terminator Wolf Guard army but with the addition of a lot of Grey Hunters and other friends I'm playing a more balanced mix of the two.

Some more background to Vandrad and his Great Company.

 

The 8th Great Company of the Rout, Jarl Vandrad Alfgeir Kollsvein’s Great Company had been making warp transit to the Antissa system in response to an arch-enemy incursion. The Thousand Sons had assaulted the system’s primary planet and the Vlka Fenryka were quick to make a response to calls for aid, their hatred of Magnus’ spawn no small factor in their decision. Somewhere along their course through the sea of souls they’d strayed too close to a warp anomaly known as the Pirices Gap. The warp was uncharacteristically calm around the Pirices Gap, the cause of this was unknown but the Navis Nobilite knew to keep a wide berth of the area. Some cruel machination of fate had seen Jarl Vandrad’s Strike Cruiser, The Wulfen’s Fang shunted into the Pirices Gap when the navigator on rotation had suffered a violent and ultimately fatal seizure whilst interfaced with the cruiser’s warp drives. Its warp drives misfiring The Wulfen’s Fang found itself becalmed in the depths of the warp. Lost and alone.

 

An iron discipline was maintained for the first few days in which the ship was stranded. The next few days were punctuated by a series of brutal murders on those decks reserved for the multitudes of human ship serfs and Kaerls. These were nothing in comparison to the hunts carried out by their post-human masters. An attempt to restore order perverted into cruel, violent sport wasting a great many innocent lives. Those not already caught up in the violence found their dreams haunted by it. Grey Hunter and Blood Claw alike dreamt of rage-fuelled rampages, bloody hunts and feasting on the warm flesh of their prey.

 

The navigators sealed themselves in their chambers, terrified of what might happen if they remained trapped much longer. The malevolent intentions of the warp were clearly pervading all aboard the ship despite the tranquillity of the warp around them. They laboured to get the warp drives to respond to their psychic coaxing to either get them underway or translate back to realspace.

On what this ships chronometers record as the first day of the 10th week since the ship was first becalmed, Jarl Vandrad took decisive action. After so many weeks of violence and bloodshed aboard The Wulfen’s Fang, Vandrad’s acts at this point seem trivial in their morality but it was the darker purpose they served that sees them held in infamy now.

 

Vandrad forced his way into the navigators’ chambers. The three surviving navigators were already resigned to their fate, kneeling and accepting of their deaths, by the time the bulkhead finally buckled. The horrendous peal of agonised metal being hammered repeatedly by the ceramite bulk of Vandrad’s terminator armour had been ample warning of his murderous intent.

Once he gained access, the Wolf Lord butchered the navigators – offering up their souls to Khorne, the name that had haunted his violent dreams for weeks. He feasted on their organs and made a shrine of their skulls in gory ritual.

 

The psychic screams issued by the navigators in the death throes caused a series of ripples within the warp. Sat at the epicentre of this warp activity Vandrad ordered the warp drives of The Wulfen’s Fang re-engaged. The ripples were enough to finally propel The Wulfen’s Fang out of the Pirices Gap. Vandrad took the very dangerous option of continuing upon the cruiser’s previous course. Sailing the sea of souls blindly without the eyes of its navigators to steer it the ship was subjected to the full ferocity of the warp’s roiling storms. Eventually an emergency translation was ordered as the Gellar Field had gotten dangerously close to being breached as it strained against the predations of the daemons swimming the warp. Despite the risks involved The Wulfen’s Fang translated relatively close to its intended target, re-emerging into realspace at the farthest edge of the Antissa system.

 

Vandrad pledged his loyalty to Khorne. The Imperium had spat on the Wolves for centuries, treating them with suspicion and scorn in equal measure. Vandrad had found a master that accepted them for what they were, that nurtured their urge for the hunt, that cultivated the violence blooming in their souls. It was a far from universally accepted truth that it had been Khorne that saved them being stranded in the warp but those that were vocal in their disbelief were quickly put down. The only remaining opposition were the Rune Priests aboard The Wulfen’s Fang, already ostracised from their battle brothers by their use of the Wyrd they were relatively easy prey for Vandrad and his Wolf Guard. By the time The Wulfen’s Fang came into auspex range of Antissa IV the serfs, Kaerls and the remaining Space Wolves had sworn new oaths to Jarl Vandrad and Khorne.

 

And some more pictures

 

First off a quick mock-up of the theme for my Wolf Scouts:

 

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/1169/dsc023882.jpg

 

 

And a hint of some of the stuff on the to-do list but there's actually a fair few bits missing from that including a Forge World Dreadnought, Thunder Wolf Cavalry and some assault marines to join the chaos marines in donors of body parts to kit out the Grey Hunters, Long Fangs and the odd Power Armoured Wolf Guard:

 

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/5885/dscn1072e.jpg

 

 

A WIP picture of Hauk Greyfell:

 

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/9540/dscn1020m.jpg

 

 

A WIP picture of Halvor Ulf Halvorssen before his arms were pulled off and used elsewhere:

 

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2/dscn1069g.jpg

 

Hauk and Halvor are Vandrad's right and left hands so to speak. Hauk is a Wolf Guard Battle Leader and Halvor will be my counts as Arjac Rockfist. Going to rebuild and finish painting Halvor next seeing as I've already done a fair chunk of the work!

 

 

Also a few random pics of various Wolf Guard Terminators in a multitude of states of not quite but nearly ready to be paintedness:

 

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/3354/dsc023942.jpg

 

http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8831/dsc023922.jpg

 

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/6558/dsc023902.jpg

 

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/9366/dsc023892.jpg

 

http://img689.imageshack.us/img689/5584/dsc023912.jpg

 

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/7459/dsc023932.jpg

@Wolf Lord Conan: Thanks.

 

An awful picture from before Vandrad was painted but you can see a WIP Wulfen in the background

 

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4208/dscn1073f.jpg

 

Going to clip the horns and greenstuff a bit more of a mane for the wolf man look. Well that's the plan, luckily I have plenty of spare heads for these so with some practice I should be able to get a look I'm happy with!

Thanks for the comments everybody

 

@Jonny Wolf: In regards to falling to Chaos we already know that they can - Skyrar's Dark Wolves and the Space Wolves that sided with Huron's Red Corsairs when they captured the Wolf of Fenris and turned on their fellows are two examples off the top of my head. They can recount their oaths like any others. What sets them apart is the Canix Helix protecting them from the mutating effects of the warp but instead it acts as a catalyst to the 'curse' of the Wulfen.

Do not debate SW's and if they fall to chaos here. If you review the OPs fluff have the mindset that you approve of wolves falling to chaos or turning renegade. We have already debated this so use the search function if you feel you need to see that discussion.

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