Ordo Sabbathi - Background

With the release of Warlords of Erewhon, some of us are building up new forces or pulling out old favourites to get involved and have a go.

I've had some crusades boxes kicking around for a number of years, so this seems a good time to use that stuff. Had been weighing up whether to use these as yet another line regiments army, but the appeal of larger level skirmish pushed me more into that direction.......

Ordo Sabbathi

The brethren of the Ordo Sabbathi form one of the more hardline offshoots of the various holy warriors dotted around the Empire, being anti witch and anti heresy puritans, but respected for the ferocity they display in battle.

Not a large order, by any means, but one that is highly effective in battle, honest and known to be trustworthy. The Brethren themselves may be few, but the sergeants, men at arms and retainers provide numbers when required as well as maintaining the properties and administrative duties required by the Order.

The local provinces, although glad to have the protection that comes from being relatively close to this order, keep a deliberate distance after a number of villages in the past, who had given shelter to travelling Brethren were found to be harboring witches and put to the torch, the inhabitants interrogated, killed or taken to Vinum Keep for sentence to be passed

Accordingly, the Red Road, leading from the Ordo headquarters out into the main crusade roads, contains few villages or inns situated along its length. Crusading parties are often to be found travelling backward and forward, so the populace will use this route as it offers general safety over the lesser used roads within the region, as the Brethren will mingle freely amongst the caravans and provide protection from marauders, if required.

In truth, people are not unhappy if the Order is passes through, they just don't want them hanging about too long........

Vinum Keep

The home of the order is reflective of the order itself, with its sparsely decorated, unyielding walls providing a stable, defensive, bastion in the area. Ostensibly open to passing travellers, few people choose to spend time or to do business here, but it is not unheard of for travellers to arrive in order to consult the vast libraries held within the Eastern Tower.

The Keep is famed for one reason other than its warriors - its wine, which over time has lent its name to the keep itself, a fine claret produced from the vineyards that flourish in the area and bottles of which are highly coveted by epicureans, accordingly commanding a fierce price on the market.

Initiate Rites

For a novice to be fully accepted and sworn in as a full Ordo Sabbathian, they must under take a personal crusade, leaving the Keep alone, and sworn not to return until they have sought out and destroyed The Witch. These young warriors, often the most zealous of the order, will be found in regions far from the homelands, wherever their wanders have led them.

Some return with an entourage, who are taken into the various ranks of the militia, some return with potential apprentices and novices. Others return alone. Many do not return at all.

Older members may undertake the personal crusade at a later stage in life as well, if visions, prayers and the omen indicate it is time. Some will leave with a specific purpose, others to wander seemingly at random until they feel their task is fulfilled.

Cemetery of Soare - Setting

The cemetery of Soare........the city of the dead.........the houses on the borderland.

During the events of '99 and the proximity of the Curs'd City and the dangerous environs surrounding that place, the people found it had become too much to stay there. Whether roaming bands of fanatics, howlers and beasts, or the soil itself becoming corrupted and the water contaminated, they had to move.

In their desperation they chose Soare. Its walls would provide a degree of safety, its environs unpleasant at first, but they would get used to living with the dead. They would have to.

Unpleasant, but practicable............

Soare its'lf is two days journey from end to end on foot, as the crow flies, covering a range of terrain, from the more densely constructed tomb regions, to the open meadows waiting to be built upon but not touched, to the forest encroaching on the Eastern Quarter, to the thickets and mist.

Two days.........by the crow, but the road twists, breaks and splinters. Losing someone is easy and they may never be found, as there are more inhabitants of Soare than just the restless dead..........who knows what beasts have made home in the unmapped sections? The path is long.


The people had no choice. They had to go somewhere...............

20 years on, villages have risen, not entirely isolated, but solitary. Much of the open land has been cultivated.........but the depths still contain dangers.

Let alone should other travellers decide to enter the walls of the grand city.

In past times, the records of Soare construction were lost when the City fell, the reasons why were lost but remain visible to those who care to look upon the ley of the land, the ancient waters found within and the green chapels of the woods.

A determined crusade could clear the walls and create a haven, but who will lead, gather and coordinate the people? They have enough strains for daily life in this strange environ.

There are many entrances to this borderland.

Bo'is thee Hidden Faced

Bo'is begane the shumble towards his elevated Greater Uncleaner position as a rakehell and roustabout, back in the mists of yonder faire shore, for he was not born of Nurgles creation, but created through his wanton disregard for all advice and contracted thee Nurgles Rot from slattern.......through his bodily kvrrption into a horn'd Plaguebearer and final entry into Nurgles legions of vilenss and debasement.

However, Bo'is was never content with his position as a mere tallyman of the Green Boil and forever looked upon the hideous visage of the Great Unclean Ones surrounding his domicle, the favoured status and rankness they held and desired this for hymself. And so began the walk of excremented verbiage to attain favour and grouwth withi' his Gods eye, surely inflating his own ego as he rose in ever higher power - not by ability, nor by graft, but by trickishness and sheer grotesquery, being found amusing by the Great Sore and indulged in this behaviour, elevated finallie to his desired station of Greater Uncleane One.

In time, this was not found to be enough for Bo'is, who happily inflicted the sufferings upon lesser beings in the indulgences of his followers and equals, but this being of foul ego was not happy and became more and more lack and light in his work, until the eventual disaster of Dantzick, where his failure to entertain the Red Legions of Khorne to do their letting resulted in the banishmente and destruction of thee Chaotic alliance, the loss of a full Blue Legion of UnChange and the ruin of long centuries of work, with the particular loss of a blessed pox being the final humiliation...............found himself no longer in the favour of his deity.

Shamed by this humiliation...........Bo'is retreated to the shadows and found Nurgles displeasure resulting in a mockery amongst thee gardens of the warp. Wishing to regain his previous status, Bo'is reappeared at the head of a blubbery rotting legion of followers, his visage covered and unable to show his old, proud, now hideous, face no more..........less Nurgles wrath be further incurred and to be excluded from roaring as part of the collective invasion of chaos.........

Nice model this. Big, but a real centrepiece to the table and certainly draws the attention. I painted this in about an hour total.........working in 5-10 minute segments throughout the day as and when I could. Lots of washing, lots of sponge painting and lots of quick wet blends. So........fairly happy with it.

I felt I didn't really like the original posing of the model, as his sword was being waved above his head and not really being keen on that, I posed it to fit some of the classic GW artwork.

The hood was added to fit the character of Bo'is, made fairly simply by cutting away a section of face on one of the heads that had a hat of some variety, making a putty veil and shaping this to fit. Came out pretty well considering its the first time in about.......................8 years that I've worked with green stuff in any way.

On which note, ten years ago, I bought a load of the GF9 green stuff that comes in two tubes. I used it a lot at the time and had about 2/3rds left of each tube. Pulled it out of storage for the first time this decade and it was still good! Take that as a recommendation :)