Vox Stellarum: Hara Barazaiti

[Ryltar Thamior]

started working on another truescale

[Ryltar Thamior]

Latest Adamanticore . Did this as a bit of a homage to a piece of 3rd/4th ed art I've not been able to find again - yet somehow managed to remain embedded in my mind all these years. 



This was originally supposed to be a Harii - but something just ... said to me that this should be an Adamanticore instead. 

 

It's always an interesting ... ordeal managing to get the best out of the Primaris sprues - non-repeating poses , yet working *with* the legs/torso aligmnets to get something *realistic* yet also suitably dramatic. 

We'll integrate the miniature as another in the various Adamanticore astartes that've been 'thawed out' from pre-Fall Adamantia. 

[Ryltar Thamior]

[flash=250,210]

"The Door-Kicker's Ode" [Adamantine Traditional] 

"Smoke and dust

Enemies are crushed

Nothing left

Where a man once stood

I am the one

Camouflage and guns

Risk my life

To keep my people from harm
 

Authority

Vested in me

I sacrifice

With my brothers in arms
 

Through this doorway

What's on the other side

Never knowing

Exactly what I'll find

Locked and loaded

Voices screaming

Let's go!

Come on do it!

Here we go

[Chorus:]

Take a life

That others may live

Oh that's just the way it goes

It's playing over and over in my head

Where it'll end

Nobody knows

Stay the course

Reasonable force

I believe
I serve a greater good

Through this doorway

What's on the other side

Never knowing

Exactly what I'll find

Locked and loaded

Voices screaming

Let's go

But I'm just doing what I'm told

[Chorus:]

Take a life

That others may live

Oh that's just the way it goes

It's playing over and over in my head

Where it'll end

Nobody knows"

 

[Zebulon]

Enjoyable, almost Tolkienesque balladry there. Also (ahem) tune!

 

Like the mini too, and the monochromatic painting thereof :tu:

[Ryltar Thamior]

Enjoyable, almost Tolkienesque balladry there. Also (ahem) tune!

 

Like the mini too, and the monochromatic painting thereof

Churr :D - although I can't really take credit for the writing there, literally just lifted it from the track [which is, itself, sampling from The Offspring's "Hammerhead"] - seemed appropriate to the vibe, had had it in my head since hearing it in relation to the miniature. 

 

As applies the miniature .. it's been a bit of an effort attempting to get the Enforcers sprue to play ball - a similar effect to how the Primaris sprues seem to go. They're good to produce one or two decent, dramatic, realistic posings per base legs/torso , and then you're into repeats with minor cosmetic alterations. A situation frustrated further by the Enforcers having the neck / head sub-assembly thing that the Necromunda designers seem to like so much ... and only two styles of head - helmeted or the one non-helmed sort.

 

It took .. too much work tbh, cutting down and then rebuilding hte neck from a Storm Trooper head so it'd fit on the Enforcer neck insert; because it's surprisingly easy to produce something that ... looks a little off in terms of actual human anatomy at that angle and twist. But we managed. And in the process, it completely transforms the dynamic and the direction of the miniature - twisting away and shouting orders , perhaps. 

 

As applies the colour-scheme - it turned up in my head as a perhaps more 'realistic' / 'subdued' semi-urban style battledress 

[Ryltar Thamior]

Another 'Warden' of sorts for Dzungaria - (mostly) human this time.

[Ryltar Thamior]

The Battle Of Ondlangr [Part 1 - An Escalatory Overture ] 




Background - The Damyati Initiative : To Break The Manticore, To Tame A Land

Adamantia has ever been both the forge of pocket-empires, and the place where their prevarications of firmament dominion have been found to be forgery. Following the turmoil of the late 41st millennium, the distant authorities towards the Imperium's heart did as they have often done before - and sought once more to restore order there by imposing the latest in a long line of externally-foisted would-be rulers upon the Spoil. However, whereas previous attempts had seen particular hand-picked noble houses or Ecclesiarchical sect-crusades effectively sponsored to try and take and rule the entirety of Adamantia at once, on this occasion a different approach was pursued. The Partition of the Spoil into what were intended to be self-governing satrapies, newly ordained semi-feudal polities that would be welded together from the descendants of the more religiously malleable Adamantine stock that had sided with the Darianashah and others like him in the years previous (or whose ancestors had been forcibly converted during their pogroms against the Adamantine Old Faith that flourished with Ecclesiarchical backing at various points since), and certain well-chosen 'foreign' bloodlines from far afield as the solid core of the soon-to-be noble houses thusly created; girded and underpinned via the watchful eye of Terran administrators and financed in part via the delegation of external trade control to the merkant houses who had long desired grander stake in the Spoil. 
 
It was a complex and ambitious scheme - and on paper, it may well have worked. Yet that was precisely the problem. 
 
Lines were drawn upon a map by men who had never set foot amidst the stars that they now carved apart with hololithic stylus-lines simultaneously both millimeters and entire stellar systems thick. What mattered not to the faceless factotums near Terra proved to have enormously salient consequences for those whose perspective upon events was less physically distant and for those charged with implementing the boundaries and other such structures thusly congealed. Who was to say, in circumstances wherein a paper-border was supposed to run right through the heart of a star, which incipient stellar dominion would thusly take charge of the system in question? Should it be given to one state or the other? Should the worlds within be divided up between the contenders, or even split so that both (or, in some cases, three or more) neighbouring powers would occupy each relevant planet involved? Perhaps it would be easier to simply declare the space that was under the aegis of the Line to be a 'neutral zone' between satrapies, or an 'Emperor's Chain' trade corridor. 
 
Serious thought would have been given to all of these options, all over the Spoil - and serious bloodshed would quite likely have nevertheless eventuated - but for the very cause of the problem also proving to be its (partial) solution. For just as the imprecise yet long (over) reaching hand of Imperial administrative bureaucracy had created the quandry via its inattentive attentions, the emergence of fresh challenges elsewhere saw its gaze drift waywards apace - thus leaving the project de facto suspended afore it had ever really begun. 
 
Although not before a single, relatively nearby soon-to-be-regal clan had already been selected, screened, supported, and placed in command of not one but two of the fledgeling post-Adamantia rump-state stellar dominions. These were on differing sides of the main axial of Adamantia's well-settled southern spur; and had no direct territorial contiguity with one another. Under ordinary circumstances, such a decision would surely appear reckless to the point of heedlessness - tantamount to introducing a seriously destabilizing risk of bloody failure for the whole endeavour. However, the project's hand had been forced by other considerations, including a perceived significant risk of broader instability if the more easterly territory was left 'unincorporated', due to its status as something of a center for the veneration of the Adamantia female-personification of the Old Adamantine pantheon. 
 
And, in any case, the secondment of a not-insignificant coterie of advisors, administrators, and additional troops drawn from main-line Imperial service was held to sufficiently strengthen the incoming Markhor Khanate to render their incoming regime viable even despite these challenges.

 
Prelude To War - An Uneasy Grasp 
 

Initially, the scheme appeared a qualified success even despite the shortcomings of its abrupt and incomplete scale of implementation. The Partitioned borders were by no means eagerly accepted by the petty 'Princely State' fiefdoms that had grown up in the absence of the previous centralized Adamantine authorities; but few were in a position to actively challenge their imposition. Meanwhile, the preferential trade pacts secured with the large Merkant Houses external to the Spoil and corresponding significant waves of investment meant that the nascent Markhor soon appeared to power ahead economically of the post-Adamantine polities immediately to its east. With time, it was thought, the obvious benefits to greater integration within the emerging interstellar frameworks anchored on Ghor may even have lead to its neighbours voluntarily abandoning their independent-minded ways to instead align under the Khanate's gently hegemonic umbrella. And, in many other regions of the galaxy this may indeed have proven to eventually be the case; but it was not to be.
 
For if the Markhor and their Imperial functionary advisors had assumed that the mere material enrichment of trade-flows and perceived simplicity of a strong hand in power were what mattered most to many of the Adamantine successor clades, then they were dead wrong. "Remain Adaman" ['Unbound', but also 'Adamantine'] had proven an enduring rallying-cry for some three and a half thousand years, with varying degrees of ferocity and intensity. It was not about to yield now to mere silver. Nor was it seen as culturally appropriate for foreigners, outsiders to the Spoil who'd been imposed from afar to be seeking to carve up and delineate sacred Adamantine space and soils in a way that seemed set to sunder the very notion of Adamantia as a contiguous cultural, let alone religious sphere. For a foreign dynasty to merely rule was one thing - as it was implicit that they were there but temporarily, acting as the latest in the long line of stewards of the realm in anticipation of the prophesyed eventual return of the Adamantine Lords at the Spear-God's Side. But to attempt to fundamentally change Adamantia as the Markhor appeared intent on doing? It was quite something else. 
 
Shortly after the Markhor had been installed upon their throne-world of Ghor, they had begun a programme of escalating religious repression. Not only of the Adamantine Old Faith, but even of various less favoured yet still demonstrably reasonably orthodox permutations of the Imperial Creed which did not find favour with their both puritan and yet self-aggrandizing theological tastes. 
 
The particular psychological foible underpinning such conduct had been noted during the initial assessments of the soon-to-be Markhor dynasty prior to their selection for the task ahead. However, due to their intended role in the Damyati Initiative it had been deemed a positive feature rather than a shortcoming. The 'de-Adamantifying' of Adamantia would by necessity require the suppression and undermining of the Adamantine Old Faith; and a rigid religious intolerance on the part of a putative incoming rulership clade would lessen the chance of their compromising or being compromised in pursuit of this. 
 
However, it was not anticipated that their disdain should extend also towards other, less exotic branches of the Imperial Creed likewise; nor that they should embark upon a heavy-handed and scatter-shot approach to giving effect to these prejudices. An approach that would simultaneously alienate a broad swathe of the Spoil's religious spectrum, whilst also uniting them in 'common cause' against their new notionally Imperial-backed overlords. And, to make matters worse, steadily erode and undermine broader Imperial support for both the Markhor House and the Damyati Initiative. After all, if the net results of backing the Markhor appeared to be an escalatory upswing in the internal disorder inside Adamantia, along with a persecution of unquestionably properly pious Imperial citizens ... what had actually been gained via the intervention? Might it not have simply been better to do as had earlier been done and reach some patchwork of accomodations with the locally native Adamantine princely states rather than attempting to supplant them? 
 
Paradoxically, it was exactly this withdrawing of support and oversight by the Markhor's one-time backers that lead to a feverish escalation in the Khanate's efforts to further their aims. The Markhor began to prepare for war, seeking to dominate and subjugate through their own martial prowess that which they now saw as their righteous spoils of sovereignty; and in so doing, bring order to the Spoil - perhaps setting the Khanate up for a future expansion into a genuine regional power, a great noble house of the segmentum. 
 
Plans were prepared for a series of sudden strikes - initially to be carried out internally to the Markhor's own territory against perceived disloyal populations, and above all the Old Adamantine cult centers still left standing thereamongst. Shortly after this, the 'fringe worlds' held in divided rule by the Markhor and their neighbours should be next to fall; eliminating the obvious risk of immediate cross-border retaliation cutting Khanate supply-lines. Quite why the Markhor felt it wise to focus so much upon a series of terrestrial actions on what would otherwise have been backwater worlds rather than choosing the more logical option of bypassing these in favour of a surprise direct strike upon Adamantine Successor State capitals, has never been satisfactorily explained. One postulation is that the Markhor's background in Guard service meant that they primarily viewed all warfare through the land-war prism in the Astra Militarum mold; and therefore did not really have a concept of operational planning beyond a determined world-by-world, continent-by-continent advance. Another is that the Markhor's intense hatred for what they saw as the insolently still surviving Adamantine culture, lead to their prioritizing attempted expurgation of what they viewed to be their new 'core territory'; with their escalating denigration of the Princely States upon their borders rendering them incapable of viewing the later as representing anything remotely resembling a genuine strategic-level threat. As the war ground on, it would be an attitude that would cost them dearly. 
 
Although perhaps nowhere more so than the now-hallowed shrine-site of Ondlangr .

[Ryltar Thamior]

Finally worked out what to do with the arm-socket on this 



And a completion of the standard itself 

[Zebulon]

Yes, very good. It made me think of the history of Afghanistan rather, I don’t know if that was the intention. That “lines drawn on a map” line also seems quite familiar, I forget where from though.

 

It is a good theme, that external intervention should be met with unease and outright opposition. My only query/quibble - the Imperium tends to have a no nonsense approach to any internal dissent, usually resulting in orbital bombardment at the least. So while it’s all excellent and well written stuff, how does that fit into the universe we are presented with?

[Ryltar Thamior]

Yes, very good. It made me think of the history of Afghanistan rather, I don’t know if that was the intention. That “lines drawn on a map” line also seems quite familiar, I forget where from though.

 

It is a good theme, that external intervention should be met with unease and outright opposition. My only query/quibble - the Imperium tends to have a no nonsense approach to any internal dissent, usually resulting in orbital bombardment at the least. So while it’s all excellent and well written stuff, how does that fit into the universe we are presented with?

Yup, legit question - and something I probably should have made clearer in the various previous commentary in the area. 

 

Basically, the way I see it ... the Imperium is a big place. And due to active necessity, large swathes of it are - broadly speaking - "self-governing". It's feudal, except magnified out on an unimaginable scale. With the larger the mosaic, the bigger the bits that aren't really actively-visible except from the localized regional centers. 

 

They're under Imperial sway, of course - and planets or systems or clusters will have Arbites precincts, Administratum basilicae, and so on and so forth ... yet whilist the Eye of Terra may be somewhat remote, it is not entirely unreaching - although the fist-fulls of fingers of Its mighty grasp may be even more rarely seen out in those parts in the normal course of things. 

 

That is to say - we often hear about how most Imperial citizens may go their entire lifetime .. indeed various planets may go centuries, millennia, without an Astartes ever setting foot on the place; however my contention is that in other places , even having the Imperial Guard come through is a relatively rare event.

 

Now yes, yes you're completely correct - when something goes overtly awry, as soon as it's found out, wheels start to grind into motion. It's just that the definitions for "awry", "as soon as", "wheels", and "grind into motion" are all quite flexible terms. 

 

In one part of the Imperium, the red-line for "awry" requiring destructive intervention may be something as high as open and overt Chaos worship - quite understandably. 

In others, the red-line is lower, but still practicable - Imperial Tithe doesn't come in? Intervention. 

And in others still, the situation is much more like .. well .. an appreciable swathe of European history - a minor confessional difference that's still *well* within the (broad) bounds of the Imperial Creed, leads to some eccentric Cardinal or puritan local lord declaring a Crusade of Faith against heresy; a trade-dispute between local noble houses that would barely cause a ripple outside the region and would pass entirley unnoticed below even the 'footnote' status of the Administratum's compilations of galactic events or segmentum happenings on Terra ... nevertheless tears apart a bloody swathe across a dozen worlds and may include quite literally apocalyptic violence if these brushfire wars burn out of hand for too long. 

 

The Badab War is a bit of an extreme example - because, of course, it DID go far enough that it turned into an actual, proper, large-scale Imperial Compliance featuring multiple Marine chapters fighting each other simultaneously. And there are good reasons for that - what had previously been a confrontation between small-scale regional powers (if memory serves, some feudal trade houses behaving poorly as they jockeyed for position ... weakening the Maelstrom Cordon war-effort in the process ... thus leading to a certain local lord by the name of Huron deciding to take matters into his own hands to re-enforce order) 'boiled over' in no small part to do with the identity of the major figure involved [Huron, an Astartes Chapter Master, because even ten thousand years later, the Horus Heresy casts a *long* shadow ...] 

 

But for the most part, I suspect that there is an awful lot of 'local politics' that goes on entirely un-cared-for by the broader Imperium; and by 'Broader Imperium' I of course mean anywhere between the duly empowered authorities to act in that region [e.g. a Sector Governor], and the actual centralized Imperial authority on Terra, the Segmentum throneworlds, etc. In much the same way as happenings inside the United States - it only rises to being a 'federal matter' when something either becomes bigger than the region, or crosses some aforementioned 'red line' for intolerable conduct [and actually gets noticed by those in whatever level of 'federal' power]. 

 

Now, as for how/why all of that relates to Adamantia ...

 

The basic setup is that it *was* an Astartes-headed stellar domain following the Chapter's founding in late M35 - the general disorder accompanying the Age of Apostasy rather faciltitating what would otherwise be a notable departure from the usual status quo [other than Ultramar - wherein, on a much larger scale, this is all pretty much 'life normal']; and, not coincidentally, making it an oasis of stability and order relative to much of the rest of the Imperium at that time. This is partially because the entire thing has been pseudo-engineered by shadowy Inquisition / AdMech backers - some of the same sorts behind the 21st Founding shenanigans, Afriel Strain, etc. ; and therefore actively facilitated, fostered, and shielded in a manner that would be rather unlikely to recur elsewhere. 

 

And then, of course, over the next span of centuries ... envious eyes and legitimate scrutiny start to take an impact. Culminating in a more *overt* [rather than covert] exterior involvement in the place. A full-on Crusade happens - driven by the usual suspects ... Mechanicus and Inquisition with their own covetous eyes upon the tech and other resources of the Spoil. 

 

This smashes apart Adamantia as it was - it's the Fall or Sundering that I keep making reference to, circa M38. 

 

Now, following that ... the region doesn't just go away. The people who 'broke' it aren't really too interested in 'putting it back together' [and not least because some of those former are the Minotaurs] - they just move on to their next various schemes (up until it turns out they haven't actually gotten *everything* out of the Spoil, hence the .. renewed interests that turn up later on). 

 

What moves in? What begins the long, slow process of rebuilding some form of authority and structure after it's all been reduced to ruins previously? Same thing that always moves into a disaster-zone in such circumstances. Petty warlords, profiteering merkants, a few genuine good souls on missions to Save The World, the occasional exterior oversight from whatever large-scale supra-national or institutional thing thinks it *should* be there ... and an eclectic combination of migrating tribes and the locals/natives desperately struggling to maintain/keep/retain/retake command of their own destiny. 

 

Now, there's been about three and a half millennia since the Sundering for the region of Adamantia to forment and ferment we might say; and over that time, there's been several attempts by interested power-players from both nearby and further afield to 'do something' with it. I've previously written about a few of these examples. They don't tend to last for too long. The foreign-sourced 'interventions' [the Darians, etc.] tend to bleed themselves dry attempting to occupy areas that are somewhere between Scythia and Afghanistan or suffer 'mysterious' failures and assassinations as the result of the Harii, the Dead Stars, and other such watchful protectors of the Spoil. The domestically-elevated puppets don't tend to do much better. The only long-term powers that manage to maintain a reasonable continuity of rule are the small Princely State type fiefdoms - realms that are very much of Adamantia, presided over by Adamantians (or, in some rare cases, neighbouring groups that moved in and actually *did* acclimatize - rather like some of the Hunnic regimes in NW Indian sphere] , and don't tend to ammount to too terribly much so don't wind up getting squashed by the exterior regional powers as a potential putative threat. They scrabble by and they scrabble along, occasionally scrabbling against each other - and with the Gathering of the Clans we began all of this with , effectively being one of the mechanisms designed to keep that last part in a more active check. 

 

It's important to note that none of this - for the most part - is taking place 'outside' the Imperial aegis. Nobody's rising up and attempting to cast down the Eagle [again, with some *occasional* exceptions]. The 'official' Imperium doesn't much care what's going on in Adamantia over most of this period because ... well ... it's just re-arranging some deckchairs and who's sitting in them. There's no cause to convene a Crusade, send in dozens of regiments of Guard etc. During early M42, things start to  get a bit different because it's become apparent that there are, indeed, rather important resources for the ongoing war efforts to reclaim the Imperium from its *own* Sundering about that time. But that comes a bit later following what I've written about two posts up.

 

But in the period prior to that - the Imperial authorities involved are basically just the shadowy sorts that have had some sort of nefarious not-quite-interest in Adamantia [or, more specifically, what lies *beneath* Adamantia] or a general and dispassionate desire to 'reform' a troublesome and sub-optimal 'mountainous' [metaphorically speaking] portion of the Imperium into something more generally useful. 

 

Or they're Imperial figures that are roped in to assisting some neighbouring group that wishes to garner powerful backing via hook or crook to do the 'colonization' efforts themselves. 

 

The Markhor fit into this as being part of that aforementioned Damyati Initiative that's ... the product of both sorts of less-direct Imperial attention. It's not about crusading through and smashing up a bunch of actually-still-Imperial 'hill clans' - because the resources aren't really there to spare for such shenanigans , even were it for some reason considered a desirable and defensible expenditure of men and materials. So instead, the idea is that somebody else - the latest in a long line of groups to be not-quite-on-the-books 'selected' to hold a baronet [or, in this case, khanate, satrapy-rite] over a portion of the region is empowered to get in there and start slowly congealing Adamantia [or part thereof] back into something more orthodox and more easily controlled. 

 

Which, to put it bluntly, is going to go about as well as this sort of thing seemingly almost *always* does in Terran history for the past four thousand years or so in the relative region I'm basing all of this off ...

 

[oh, also, you're on the right *general* track with the Afghanistan point - but not quite :P ] 

[Ryltar Thamior]

And, in terms of those guardians of Adamantia that tend to take a bit of an unimpressed view about the foreign upstarts showing up from time to time ...

[Zebulon]

Something, somewhere a little more... Mesopotamian perhaps?

 

I won’t apologise for having prompted you to write all that additional information as it was a good read, but I do apologise for not having a more in-depth response to it.

 

I like the not-enforcer (or is he a not-Van Saar?) and his halberd/glaive type weapon.

[Ryltar Thamior]

[Ryltar Thamior]

A Second Manyu 





Once again, one of the Blackstone Fortress cultists, suitably Imperialized - and also covering over the rather unfortunate gaps that are all over the snap-fit models. 

[Zebulon]

Yeah those BF cultists are great value little models, I hope they keep them in-print for a while. I find that cutting the snaps and gluing does reduce their gappiness.

 

The subtle details to imperialise them work well.

[Ryltar Thamior]

House Asynjur

[Ryltar Thamior]

The forges of Chitra-Tvashtar never sleep .. ongoing progress at adding vehicles to the Spoil. 




am just about finished building at 1/35 scale M113 for a ... not-quite truescale Rhino - we'll call it an explorator pattern or something. 
 

Am also most of the way through painting a (regular) Rhino - pending working out appropriate identification markings by picking my way through Scythian Tamga markings etc. 
 

And I *finally* got the tracks sorted on that 1/35 scale Bradley I've had on the agenda for some months now. 

[Lucerne]

The forges of Chitra-Tvashtar never sleep .. ongoing progress at adding vehicles to the Spoil. 

 

 

 

am just about finished building at 1/35 scale M113 for a ... not-quite truescale Rhino - we'll call it an explorator pattern or something. 

 

Am also most of the way through painting a (regular) Rhino - pending working out appropriate identification markings by picking my way through Scythian Tamga markings etc. 

 

And I *finally* got the tracks sorted on that 1/35 scale Bradley I've had on the agenda for some months now. 

Mind doing a side by side (primaris would be nice too, for scale) for the not-quite truescale and the regular metal box?

[Ryltar Thamior]

At the risk of making myself feel like a used car salesman ... per your request: 

[Ryltar Thamior]

[Ryltar Thamior]

Undecided as to whether an Ondlangr Defender or Adamantia Aeternia - not that there necessarily has to be a difference

[Naryn]

Ooh, love both of those guys. The second especially is a great subtle conversion, very nice work. Love how much that head contributes to the pose.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Finished basic paintwork on the truescale not-quite-rhino - lense effect isn't *quite* showing up in pictures, but they look rather glassy IRL. 

 

I've done some basic markings with the shields on bow and stern - bronze (adamantine) colouration, for Adamantine units; silver detailing on the sword and skull, for type of unit it's attached to. 

 

Although those large grey spaces clearly require more - stenciled lettering, numbering etc. once I've thought a bit further about how to implement that and what it is that I want to implement. Large icons on the sides always seemed a bit odd, because they'd be fine aiming points of reference for enemy gunners. 

I should also *probably* work on installing pintle-mounted weaponry - and, for that matter, a somewaht more modern Adamantine equivalent to a havoc launcher. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Good job on the M113-turned-Rhino.

[Ryltar Thamior]

Another defender for Ondlangr