The Ebon Word - A Word Bearers log

[Lord_Ikka]

 

He stepped through the whirling warp portal 

From the edge of the Eye to this barren Imperial hell

Destrang of the Ebon Word, sergeant of the Eleventh Coterie

Oath-sworn to the Iscarne

 

His blade still dripping with the blood of sacrifices

His tongue still burning with the chants of opening

He opens eyes that have seen a thousand battlefields

 

Hulking brute-servitors and feral slave-cultists in a sacred alignment

Shivering with the touch of the Warp

The vex-hagi seer, Sleanor and her capering warp pets chanting

Completing the warp gate

And there, behind the brutal servitors

Trapped in a glass coffin of medical sensors and feeding tubes

The fallen Lord Inquisitor, lured to the path of truth

Promises of immortality and health

From the honeyed mouth of Sleanor and her cult of the Barred Gate

The righteous Lord bent and broke

 

Now stepped forth the engine of his damnation

For the Ebon Word has come forth

Let the mortal worlds tremble

[Lord_Ikka]

My FLGS had a Horus Heresy speed painting challenge yesterday. Two hours, paint up a provided model in whichever Legion color you wish. I thought this would be a good opportunity to test out my Word Bearers colors for the Ebon Word. Picked one of the more "blingy" models that were offered, to both challenge myself in the time allotted and because it felt the most Word Bearer-like. Wound up winning the competition, which really surprised me, as I'm not a great painter nor do I really enjoy painting (I've come to like it a lot more, but I'd still rather building models or roll dice). I think the paint scheme is pretty spot on for what I want, aside from the right arm needing to be in Black Legion colors (didn't want to confuse the judge...), so I'm fairly pleased overall with how it went. The above write up is the setting for my diorama/Armies on Parade board, with Sergeant Destrang stepping through a warp portal from Ebon Word-controlled space onto an Imperial world, meeting with the Radical Lord-Inquisitor and his Chaos-corrupted retinue. Anyway, the project is still ongoing, and I'll probably be painting some of the retinue here soon.

[Valkia the Bloody]

Good job painting him up in that time- looking good, too.

I look forward to seeing your diorama and team created and painted up.

[SlickSamos]

I've just finished reading Mark of Calth and your descriptions and conversions definitely fit with the Word Bearers described across those short stories! 

[Lord_Ikka]

The Choral Undue
Bitter remnants of the Ashen Circle
Bound soul-hunters of the Ebon Word
Devoted to the True Faith 
Charged to illuminate the unfaithful 
To prey upon the followers of the Corpse-Lord
Through fire, blade, and bolt
To tear assunder false piety and weak worship
Old hatred, blazing zealotry
To teach the Word with violent fervor
The Choral Undue 

 

Phakurus Oxa the Epigone, right hand of the First Acolyte

 

Tus Vanu, known as the Burdened and Iconguard

 

Bloody-handed devotee of Kharneth, Rastag Karari

 

Paccur Vok, flame-bearer 

 

Kannak Ghor, cult-brother to Pharkurus and cold veteran of the Long War

 

Newblood Kor Mardos, ambitious warrior

[Lord_Ikka]

Thank you both @Valkia the Bloody@SlickSamos! I'm looking forward to continuing this project, and to that end, meet the Choral Undue, a Word Bearers kill-team designed as both a test-bed and challenge. I figured out the basing I want for the WB portion of my diorama, it being a desecrated Imperial shrine, so I will be experimenting with marble bases for the kill-team while also getting my WB colors down properly. If it all works out, I should be able to finish up the pure modeling portion of the leaders of the Ebon Word fairly quickly, as the base models are almost all perfect the way they are and the only thing I'll be doing is using a product called worbla to make parchment ribbons for the Daemon-Apostle and then maybe some minor basing stuff. I'll be getting everything done for the Choral Undue by January (as that is the time limit for the Kill Team challenge) and hope to really get cracking on the big guys after that. Anyway, thanks for looking!

[Lord_Ikka]

The Choral Undue

 

 

Phakurus Oxa the Epigone, right hand of the First Acolyte

The Epigone, student and servant
    Deemed worthy of the ancient knowledge
    Fostered on the hidden truths
    Leader of the Choral Undue

 

Tus Vanu, Iconguard

   Vanu the Burdened
    Last of his cult, lost son of the Devout of Eblis
    Ever upright in his faith
    Shackled to the Lords of the Warp

 

Rastag Karari, Karneth Butcher

 Bringing sacrifice to the Word by blood and bone
    Rastag he is known as 
    Driven by ever-growing tides of madness
    A crimson weapon of faith and fear

 

Paccur Vok, flame-bearer 

Ashes drip from his feet
    Vok, the fire that consumes
    Hunter of the Corpse-God's cult
    Breaker of the citadel of falst faith

 

Kannak Ghor, Veteran Legionnaire 

Of Colchis- born and bred and reborn
    Tempered by thousand years of battle
    Cult-brother, sworn guard, loyal follower of the Epigone 
    Cold fury and colder heart

 

Kor Mardos, Warrior-Disciple

Of the Eye and the Chaos within
    Young blood seething with ancient hates and older faith
    Ambitious thoughts that yearn for glory
    A warrior who bears watching

[Pearson73]

Great mix of parts, The Choral look brutal!

[Lord_Ikka]

In blood they are baptized,

In blood they are bound.

Though torment and suffering shall they learn

Through loss will they know the Truth.

They praise the name

Iscarne, Iscarne, Iscarne!

 

Seekers of faith they were,

Bringers of Truth they now are.

Taught the lower mysteries, the simple words and phrases

Their psalms binding both time and place.

 

These lesser flesh-things

These mortal followers of the Golden One

Their power is pathetic, their faith is shallow

They shall learn

Oh, shall they learn.
Their lessons will bring forth the triumph of the Word.

- Iscarnian helots, cultists of the Ebon Word

 

[Lord_Ikka]

I promise I haven't forgotten about this project. I've managed to complete almost all of the models so far in terms of building- just need to finish up the Iscarne himself (parchments pinned to his back using Worbla modeling sheets) and the Inquisitor. I actually have all the Inquisitor's bits, just need some time to figure out the exact mechanics of how it will fit together and how to get it to work while painting everything. In the meantime, finished off these four cultists who will be on the Ebon Word's half of the board and this month will be painting up both the Hounds of Abaddon watcher and the Witch and her familiars. If I get all of my painting for this month done, I'll start up on some members of the Ebon Word- probably my extra DiscoLord first to make sure I have the recipe down, then on to the actual members of the diorama.

 

Also have some practice particle board/rando minis to try out making an actual diorama board, as I haven't ever done that before. Can't post them here, as they aren't 40k models (some very cheap minis from a defunct game called Arcane Legions to be set against some D&D monsters), but hopefully they'll give me the experience to make this display piece work really well.

Edited May 2, 2023 by Lord_Ikka

[Lord_Ikka]

Well, I've been pretty terrible about keeping this whole project going. Hobby butterfly effect has really hit me hard this year, so the Ebon Word got nothing done at all... Until Tuesday, when I was looking at the worbla pieces I had cut out a few months back to make the Iscarne's prayer-parchments. They were taunting me, pleading to be heated up and placed properly. So I did. Finally finished the modeling portion of the project (the Ebon Word part at least, the Inquisitor is still in pieces) and all members of the warband are primed. They won't be painted right away, as I have some more time-sensitive projects to paint first (a friend's Helverin, the finishing touches on my Inquisition army), but by the beginning of the new year I should actually be touching paint to models for the Ebon Word. 

 

 

This return to the Ebon Word coincided with me having kind of a hobby crisis, in that I am close to finishing off active 40k projects and didn't know what direction to take in the next year. I have maybe six months worth of backlog, depending on how fast I paint, and so was looking at whether I wanted to start a new 40, army, new Necro gang, or new game (Trench Crusade). Decided to back the Trench Crusade kickstarter, but only got a single model instead of going full-force like I initially wanted to. In the past four years I've painted around 725+ 40k miniatures alone, largely due to the 12MoH that @Grotsmasha puts on keeping me focused and on track. This has reduced my rather large pile of shame to something quite small and manageable. While I love the 12MoH, and will hopefully always be able to participate in it to a small extent, I think it has warped my definition of hobby success; in that I have been so good at getting a large number of miniatures painted I now view the amount I paint as the goal, rather than either the quality of the modeling/painting. So I talked to the wife, more of a laying-out of thoughts and issues, and came to a conclusion. I'm not going to start up anything new in the new year, unless it's been gifted to me for Xmas or the like, and I'm going to focus on some of the current stuff I have had laying around for a while. So the Ebon Word/radical Inquisitor will be worked on and finished, as will the prototype D&D/Arcane Legion diorama stuff and my remaining Battletech minis that aren't finished. It was quite a nice feeling, getting some of my hobby frustration/anxiety (maybe, don't really know what it was?) out and deciding on a course to go ahead. See you in the next year!

 

 

 

Edited November 16 by Lord_Ikka

[Firedrake Cordova]

Nice conversion - you can barely tell it started off as an Ogroid Myrmidon  

[Lord_Ikka]

It was really a fairly simple and straight-forward kitbash. The Myrmidon looked pretty much how I wanted him to look anyway, he just needed a crozius/mace instead of a spear (broken Xmas light serves as a nice weapon head) and some sort of ranged weapon as, at the time, Daemon-Princes were allowed a warp bolter weapon. Now, I'm not sure if they have it in 10th, but it still is fun and makes him look more 40k than AoS. The worbla, or fritos-stuff as my wife called it, was interesting to use- once heated it was slightly tacky and easily modellable. pretty intuitive to make cloth/paper folds and twists.