Celebril the Elven Knight - GW Swordmaster of Hoeth (1995)

My first PC in WFRP was Gelmir, a regularly rolled Sea Elf Bodyguard, tough as a nail and covered in mud and shit as befits WFRP PCs. For my second PC I wanted something more epic, and in agreement with my GM, I created Celebril Lostirion, High Elf noble, second son of a Caledorian Lord. Having grown up listening to the tales of the great elven heroes and knights, young Celebril left his golden cage in Ulthuan, with his loyal squire Elemir, and travelled to the Old World looking for adventure. Soon enough he found plenty of adventure, and in no time, using his courage and charm, he became a Knight Errant (aka Free Lance), offering his lance and sword against the forces of Chaos in exchange of hospitality and a warm meal.

Celebril turned out to be a great character over the several years that I played him. From recovering the Bowl of Oblivion in Grimminhagen, thus earning the gratutude of the Chirch of Morr, to defending Nuln and Talabheim from cultists of Nurgle trying to spread a plague, to recovering the Seven Keys of Arianka and freeing the Goddess of Law. After the last great feat, Celebril settled in Praag where he received a minor noble title by the king and dedicated his time exploring the Mountains at the Edge of the World and trying to build an alliance between Kislev and the local Dwarfs and Dragons.

The funniest part of playing Celebril was that he had outrageous ideas, overly idealistic and completely at odds with social and political relations, but somehow he often managed to realize his plans just by bewildering his contacts. How do you argue about being practical and realistic with a High Elf knight from Caledor looking for adventure on the borders of Kislev?

To represent him I chose a High Elf Swordmaster of Hoeth, made by GW in 1995. I'm not sure who is the sculptor, but these figures are very good and indeed they survived into production until the mid 2010s. Celebril wears a full metal hauberk of elven making, with a tall helm. His sword, a weapons sacred to the forces of Law, is the Gayvenderel or Crystal Sword, particularly good in punishing servants of Chaos. He also carries a great horn from the dragon Drorrg, killed by him and his valiant companions in the last days of 2505.

Sea Elves - Marauder High Elves MM81 (1989)

Once upon a time, there were the four Elven Races.

At first they were all, in a way, similar to each other, yet each followed a different path and each became unique.

The High Elves then garbed in long, flowing robes and tall helms.

The Wood Elves hid themselves in wide cloaks with hoods.

The Dark Elves covered themselves with spiky pieces of armour and cruel trophies from their ritual killings.

The Sea Elves disappeared. They were retconned with the coming of the age of Kirby.

And so their memory was fixed. Everybody remembered them when they were young, and they wore different kinds of clothes, not unlike those worn by Men, yet different. There wasn’t one like another, just like Humans, and perhaps this was so because of their proximity to Men, from whom they drew a vitality unusual for Elves, something certainly chaotic, but also beautiful.

If you follow this blog, you know I have a thing for Sea Elves. And, in my imagination, no better miniatures represent them than the Marauder Elves. No matter how they were originally categorized: today, to me, they are all Sea Elves, because all other Elves have developed a different identity, with time.

I remember in 1997 looking at the WFRP 1st ed., in its Italian translation - Martelli da Guerra - and seeing this excellent picture by Paul Bonner, close to the section about the elven races, and thought: surely these must be them.

This image apparently doesn't exist on the internet, so I had to take a picture of it with my mobile.

High Elf on horseback, Wood Elf with the bow, Dark Elf with two swords, black make up and a tomahawk (Wardancers were still unheard of in our gaming group). So the central one, with a hood and the badass look on his face, must be the Sea Elf. It probably was not, but who cares to be corrected after 20 years? 

Elven minstrel, from WFRP 1st ed.

Elf, from WFRP 1st ed.

Elf in a Sea Elf community in the Old World, WFRP 1st ed.

My image of Sea Elves was formed on pictures from that period, where Elves were not yet so remote as they became in later years, and were similar to Men. Just like there were Mountain Dwarfs with helms and chain mails, and Imperial Dwarfs dressed more or less like Imperial citizens, so - I reasoned - Elves living near Mannish communities must also wear clothes that go with the fashion. It made sense. It still does, since nothing on the subject has ever been published by GW after the early 90s. And so when I saw these Marauder High Elves (MM81) on eBay, I just had to have them. Look at them. Just look at them! 

 

Marauder High Elf MM81/2 from 1989, sculpted by Trish Morrison. An apparently simple sculpt with actually a lot of detail in embroidery and studs. I love the chainmail over leather jacket, the conical helm and the handaxe, which can be a tool as well as a weapon. Sea Elves are, after all, craftsmen and merchants.

Marauder High Elf MM81/6 from 1989, again sculpted by Trish Morrison. This one is less harmonious and dynamic, but again its apparent simplicity reveals, when painted, a lot of embroidery and studs, which I choose to paint in lighter greys and whites as if they were pearls. This is obviously a prominent Elf, with a short sword, pieces of plate armour and a long overcoat, which I painted in double colours - sky blue outside and emerald green inside, nicely contrasting the purple tights. I'll use it for one of the NPCs of my WFRP campaign: Magalhaes, the leader of the Sea Elf community of Dralas. An old (220+) Elf, always moderate and diplomatic, carefully supporting the Regent Gelmir without getting too committed to him. Keeping a foot in every shoe and a finger in every pie, just not deep enough to get burned. Quietly outweathering the events of history in the Old World and outliving all his enemies, just sitting on the banks of the river.

  

Marauder High Elf MM81/5 from 1989, like most other Elves from Marauder done by Trish Morrison. This tall, thin one is a fop, with his slashed sleeves and tall boots. There are studs/pearls on his botts and on the jacket, and on his crested helm. He wields a handaxe and I'll get a buckler for the other hand. In my campaign it represents Sidonaer, a Sea Elf rogue/adventurer who meddled too much with Men and took a number of wrong turns, so that now his family shuns him and he is wanted by several criminals for alleged wrongs he once did. A few weeks ago things went wrong again when the PCs in my group attempted to steal his treasure, which he collected in an expedition to Lustria, and ended up wounding him badly and killing his partners in business. Now Sidonaer is tending an ugly cut on his head and planning his revenge on the party.

These three are but a few of the figs I managed to acquire. I'll be posting more in the weeks to come and, ideally, I'll be assembling a warband to be used in Mordheim.

Celebril Sirdaryan, High Elven Diplomat - GW Lothern Sea Guard Champion (1999)

This miniature dates from 1999-2001, freshly bought in a blister at the Games Workshop shop in Milan. We are talking at the Lothern Sea Guard Champion issued in 1999: no idea about the sculptor, unfortunately: if you know, leave me a comment.

The figure is good. Sadly, while still painting it it fell to the ground, resulting in the sword losing its tip. Still, I was quite proud of it, when I painted it as Celebril Sirdaryan, one of the NPCs of my WFRP campaign.

Unfortunately, I didn't have much technique at the time and, looking at it today, I find it appalling. That's why I decided to repaint it a few months ago. What was wrong with it? For a start, it's too white: it was primed white and painted with a single white layer, then washed in black. It's plain, dull and dirty. The base is too simple, making he figure look even flatter.

A few words about Celebril. He's an interesting NPC, with a potential to become a PC. Born in the outer realm of Cothique in Ulthuan, Celebril came from the minor nobility, an ancient family that had not been relevant in politics for several thousand years, ruling over lands covered mostly by woodland and populated by hunters and loggers. Last of five brothers, Celebril spent a childhood listening to the stories of famous ancestors who had been seafarers and explorers and dreaming to live up to their glory, one day. Lacking connections and means, Celebril studied hard and worked harder, exercising his natural talents in talking and listening, slowly making his way up in society with recommendations from his teacher, then from a merchant of Armille, then a prominent nobleman and finally from the very king of Cothique, whom he served as envoy, inspector and tax collector. It was Falanor IV that recommended him for the service of the Phoenix King, in Lothern, where the young and ambitious Elf was put to service in a special bureau in charge of collecting delicate information - the Ears of the King. Celebril travelled all over Ulthuan and the colonies of the New World talking to traders, officials and nobles, assuming different identities depending on the need of the moment. Celebril was good, perhaps too good.

One day, it happened that his supervisors recommended him for a very delicate position: he was to be sent in the service of a Sea Elf adventurer, Gelmir of Dralas, who had gained himself a position of power in one of the Border Princedoms in the Old World. Posing as an expert in diplomacy, Celebril would support Gelmir, an unofficial ally of Ulthuan, and at the same time he would spy on him sending regular reports to the Ears of the King. Celebril had been immensely excited to travel so far from home, and very proud of the opportunity, but only until he learned that all the other "experts" travelling with him had been sent to Dralas as a mean to get rid of them. There was a pedant bureaucrat, an effemminate archmage, a creepy loremaster, a rowdy musician with a human mother and a painter with a tendency to be excessively promiscous. Still, Celebril tried to make the best of his opportunity, serving Gelmir as best as he could and, at the same time, becoming the best friend of everybody at his court so that he could learn all the secrets worth to be shared with the Ear of the King. This, until Gelmir seriously started to doubt Celebril and decided to send him as an envoy to his main rival, Prince Ettore Malatesta of the mountainous and wild land of Artesia...

Celebril is young but ambitious, smart and exceedingly skilled in talking. He dresses in elegant and precious clothes as befts an envoy of the Regent of Dralas, but he can keep a low profile when needed. He can fight, of course, and carries a sword, but he is always mindful that words can be deadlier than a blade, if spoken to the right people at the right time. He is, most of all, one that dreams big, and tries to make the best of every opportunity, something which has won him the sympathy of Gelmir.

I decided to limit the repainting of this figure to the minimum, by simply adding blue to the overcoat. The white undercoat and other white elements were painted grey and then highlighted in white. The skin was washed with red ink and then highlighted with skin colour. Similarly, metal was blackwashed and highlighted again in the same basic metal colour.

To add some complexity, I covered the base with sand and repainted in green, and added, as a final touch, some gold on the covercoat representing precious embroidery.

It's amazing how much can change with some simple improvements!

Review: GW High Elf Prince and Noble (2/2) - The Noble

A few month later, we conclude the Review on GW High Elf Prince and Noble, talking about the second miniature of the box, the Noble (the link to the first part is here).

Like the mounted Prince, also the Noble is highly customisable with different heads, shields, banners and weapons. And that's very good.

One thing is clear from the beginning: besides being sculpted by the same guy, Martin Footit, this figure is very different in two interconnected elements. First, whereas the Prince is a very dynamic sculpt, the Noble is extremely static: feet to the ground, arms to the side, looking forward, almost waiting for a faraway enemy to approach. It reminds me of the very old '80s High Elven infantry of the early editions, in a way, and it's obviously related to them. To me it's not so enticing: Elves are supposed to be nimble, fast, not statuary, but that's me.

Second: the Noble is as solid as rock. Once you put it together, it's unlikely that it will break or snap, like it happened several times with the Prince. It's plastic alright, but it withstands manipulation and this makes me very happy since I'm planning to use this figure in my next D&D game as a PC.

The PC in question is my Noble Elf Fighter (right, what a surprise!, you might say). Valandur Isirmo of the House of the Ivory Tower of Elventown in the Mountains of the Stars.

Don't you recognize me by the colours of my livery?

Valandur is a young Elf. Not young by Human standards but, as Elves reckon, he's just entered that age when young Elves discover the world and act naively and stupidly and recklessly and just as a Human male on the last year of high school or the first year of university.

Valandur is a nobleman, of course, from a prestigious house of a prestigious city of the most prestigious race, the Elves. The Sun Elves, of course, not the other lesser ones. But in spite of his origins he's not a cunt like everybody else where he comes from. 'Right, not as much as everybody else in Elventown. In fact, Valandur is on a quest to prove himself.

It so happened that he quarreled with another young Elf of his age, the odious Prince of the Elves, none other than Legoland the Handsome, son of the King. If you look on an elven dictionary at the word pharagrand (high elvish for "cunt") you will see Legoland's portrait. He's just this guy. Valandur hates him.

Long story short, one day as Legoland was coming back from a hunt with a dead wyvern as trophy, and people were throwing rose petals at him from the balcony, words escalated and Valandur said killing wyvern was for noobs, and that he could easily slay a dragon. Legoland's reply was a slap on the offender's face with his pailette-covered white glove. Challenge issued.

Young Valandur had no choice but to go, especially since the episode happened right in front of Morwen Elentilas, the proud lady whom everybody was courting and whose attention none was getting.

And so Valandur hit the road, and he started a life of adventures along with other valiant companions - Rothgar, a Dwarfish barbarian; Negal, a halfling assassin; and Loras, a half-elven rogue. It was a hard life of travel through the wild lands and battles with monsters and outlaws. But it was fun, and soon Valandur developed a reputation for being as easy to provoke a challenge as he was in spending all the money he had. Offering toasts at all the patrons of inns was one of his favourites, especially right after a bar-fight. Expensive clothes, fine food and wines, fancy accomodations and the expensive love of an elven princess-turned courtesan, Ahlahna of Neverwinter, made sure he money never stayed long in his pockets, but everybody knew his name, though, and that was the important thing!

At last, the party met a Dragon, a green one, and by sheer luck they slew it. Valandur had the head preserved by a taxidermist and turned homewards. As soon as he arrived in Elventown, he was welcomed by the people with cheers. He rode on a cart, covered in shining armour and garish clothes, the Dragon head behind him held by a stuffed Owl-bear. He threw coins at the crowd getting even more cheers.

Legoland didn't like it, and liked it even less when he got his own glove thrown at his face. The King had to accept the gifts graciously and commended the valour of Valandur. It was the elf's moment of glory, but it wasn't finished: the elder Elves, less interested in showing off and more into power-mongering, made it so that Valandur and Legoland were both candidated at the position of Speaker to the next Great Moot of Elves. And how would they settle the opposition? By vote? By a speech? By a gallant joust?

It is SO on.

Valandur and Legoland were so high on testosterone that they could only choose a fight. The two rivals met each other in the Arena, each covered in tight, bright garments, shiny pieces of armour and battle make up (rimmel, phard, bright-red lipstick and random hearts and spades drawn on cheekbones). Their nervous, darting muscles had been oiled with the special glitter-oil of the Elves.

Valandur was obviously better with the spear, his fighting technique mimicking a dance, but Legoland was a spellcaster and could strike at his opponent without even touching him. But eventually it was Valandur who had the upper hand, and Legoland found himself disarmed. Proudly refusing to yield, the Prince choose to fight without a weapon: in return, Valandur threw away his spear and jumped at him with his bare hands - well, not so bare, since he had Gloves of Ogre Power. A few good strikes, and Legoland was thrown to the ground, where he bit the dust.

The crowd exploded with cheers. Valandur was raised and paraded around the Arena by his supporters. When even Morwen threw her scarf at him, he jumped on the terraces and rewarded her with a full kiss that drew even further cheers (and a few deadly stares by her relatives).

And so the legend of Valandur began.

It wasn't easy to capture the full razmatazz of a character like Valandur with a static miniature like this. I decided to go for few, bright colours - white, blue and green, with some touches of yellow. The first hand was disappointing.

Even though I started with dark and dull colours, the figure isn't really helping to look lively. It needs a certain effort. I painted the armour in metal with black details, decorating some elements in green (the green dragon). The clothese are blue and white. In order to avoid too many colours I kept the gems as mily opals and onlu added some ochre yellow here and there. But before the end I had to add some gold here and there to brighten up the whole.

After a general wash and at least two layers of highlight, something started to come out. But it was the third highlight layer that did the job.

Final vote: 7/10. Good, but not great - there a lot of better miniatures for Elves, even in the GW range. I really do hope that AoS will refresh the image of the Aelves by more than adding an "A" in front of the name, but looking at what they're doing lately, I must say I am very hopeful. We shall see!

Review: GW High Elf Prince and Noble (1/2) - The Prince

This is the first pure plastic miniature I purchase and may I say "I do miss the metal ones".

I mean, what are the benefits?

Are they cheaper? No. They cost exactly the same as before, if not more.

Are they more handy? No. They have almost no weight and are easy to topple.

Are they stronger? No. They break at any gentle pressure.

Are they durable? No. Try to remove the paint with some acid and you'll remove the plastic too.

Are they more environmentally friendly? Granted, lead was poisounous, resin was a bit better, but don't tell me plastic, a byproduct of oil industry, is green.

For the consumer there are really no benefits. There are, of course, a lot of benefits for the seller. First one, plastic is way cheaper if manufactured in large quantities. A plastic moulding machine is expensive, but plastic itself is really cheap; there are huge fixed costs, but the variable ones are almost nothing. And that's why small companies are still using resin, and the giants like GW moved on to plastic. The second benefit is that plastic is really light, and that matters when you ship stuff abroad.
 

But here we are, opening the box of the High Elf Prince and Noble (Product Code 99 12 02 10 008, year 2013). Inside the box there are two sprues, containing all the pieces for two miniatures. The first thing I really like is that there are a number of double pieces, namely heads and weapons, but also cloaks, to let you customize the miniature. This makes a lot of difference, and I really like it.

I'll be starting with the mounted Prince and leave the Noble for a later time.

It takes some time to put together the final thing, but at last we get there. On one side, the horse; on the other, the Elf Prince. It takes a long but pleasant time to paint this miniature: there are plenty of small details and the structure makes it relatively easy and fun to paint them. Well done, Martin Footitt! But then one thing happen: the horse breaks. For the first time.

The thing is that this bloody horse is jumping, and is connected to its base by a single leg, a plastic leg. If you hold the base with a finger and the tail of the horse with another, no matter how gently, snap! It's broken. So it's glued again.

I decide to keep it simple and use red and white as the primary colours of my Prince, modelled after one of the PCs of my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Celebril of Caledor, Knight-Errant, Noble and Bane of Chaos. I paint the armour as shining metal, with a steel base and silver highlights, using gold on details. The horse will be white as well, with a light golden tail, replicated on the helm of the hero.
 

The interesting part is the blade. In the WFRP campaign, Celebril wields a magic sword, the Gayvenderel or Crystal Sword. To give the effect of crystal, I painted many layers of glaze going from black to white with a glass colour in the middle, a mix of Vallejo Pastel Green and Grey Blue. I finished with some parallel strokes to represent the uneven structure of crystal. Overall, considering it's a first try, I am quite pleased. Less pleasing are the spikey grasses I add on the base - could have been better, but at least they match the colour of the horse's tail.
 

Isn't it a beauty? It is, after I glued the leg of the horse twice more.

Final judgement? The miniature looks great, but it is so weak I am really afraid when I hold it, and also I will never let my kids (or clumsy friends) near it. Using it in a game is out of question. This kind of miniature can be only kept on a shelf for display, and that goes against my idea of having miniatures. So it's a 5/10. If it was metal, it would be probably an 8, but the stupid fragility of the thing is unforgivable. Dear GW, make your miniatures in metal again or, if you don't want, consider avoiding jumping poses. I know I will, with your future products.