Sea Elf Bolt-thrower - converted from a Dark Elf one (1991)

I've been looking hard to find a Sea Elf (slash High Elf) Bolt-thrower from WFB 3rd editions, and I was lucky. More than lucky, in fact, as fellow
Oldhammer Elf fan Tim Welch was so gallant to let me have some bits in need of love - a Dark Elf Bolt-thrower missing its original wheels and its crew. They had earlier been painted up but probably disassembled at some point. I stripped them and set myself to sculpt some new wheels with copper wire and greenstuff, which turned out okay-ish. Well, here they are.

They don't look too abysmal, I hope, as members of the Lustrian Sea Elf clan of the Silverpearl, inhabiting the Elf island off the coast of the Imperial Slann city of Osshual. Known for their craftiness in trade and diplomacy, the Silverpearls have a long history in Lustria, which they credit to their habit of not entering melee. They let other, smaller, younger and less important clans join the fray for them. The Silverpearls man the bolt-throwers.

 

The original crew sculpts looks like a proper militia, none of them having similar armour or equipment. I painted them accordingly, tying them together by the use of similar colours: a garish cyan, off-white and black. They all have a similar, pale shell on the base.

Clan Crayfish Horn-blower and Sentinel - Foundry Sea Elf Command

Following an earlier test mini, I am now starting to paint a unit of Sea Elves from my homebrew Crayfish Clan from Lustria.

The first one is a musician, blowing a horn that could be a conch-shell or the horn from a sea-beast. The original miniature didn't have the sword, that comes from the GW High Elf Hero and Noble set.

The second one is a sentinel, apparently scanning the horizon and protecting his eyes from the bright Lustrian sun, looking for the enemy. Again, the sabre comes from a GW set, IIRC the Empire Militia set. 

This should turn into some nice unit, I reckon, if the Foundry scale doesn't make it awkward when mixing with Oldhammer minis.

Clan Crayfish Standard-bearer - Foundry Sea Elf Command

The Foundry Sea Elf Command, sadly discontinued, is a great set, albeit a bit large scale-wise. This piece was painted as the standard bearer of the Lustrian Sea Elf clan Crayfish.

Here goes the fluff (miniatures are just an excuse to make fluff, which is probably my main hobby):

Six thousands years ago - about the year 2500 of the High Elf Calendar - Elves left Ulthuan for the first time, sailing the high seas. Some of them travelled south to the coasts of Lustria, and settled on an isle inhabited by sea birds, which came to be known as Lystarannal. These settlers would later become the first Sea Elves. One of their clans adopted the Crab as their device, and they became renowned as warriors and marines, clad in heavy armour, fighting under the banners of the Phoenix Kings.

Around the HEC year 4500, after they had inhabited Lystarannal for two millennia, the Elves of Clan Crab sundered: it is not clear what happened exactly, as accounts differ, but some young Elves of their numbers left Lystarannal and settled in the harbour of the Slann city of Krox. These Elves adopted the Crayfish as their device, reversing the colours of the Crab banner. Clan sunderings were not rare in those times when the Elf race was still young and multiplied easily, but some bad blood remained between the old and the new Clan, which survives to this day as a rivalry.

Perhaps the source of disagreement was the willingness of the younger Clan to serve as mercenaries for the Slann: for long millennia Clan Crayfish offered their weapons to the crown of Ulthuan as much as any Slann governor willing to pay their price.

Clan Crayfish had its centre in Krox of more than three and a half millennia. But in HEC 8066 the city of Krox was struck by a terrible plague, brought by Humans who had recently learned how to cross the Sea: the Scourge of Krox killed one third of population and left the city as a partial ruin. The survivors hunted Humans out of vengeance and often associated Elves with them. Clan Crayfish abandoned Krox to return to Lystarannal.

But returning to Elvish lands was not easy. Clan Crab would not have their offshoot back to their lands and offered them a choice - return to the original Clan or be its enemies. A few Crayfish Elves subjected themselves to the mother Clan, but most angrily refused. Now, Clan Crab had always refused to serve in the same armies of Clan Crayfish, but now they actively fought them, provoking them into duels and slandering their reputation. Crayfish Elves were subject to every kind of abuse until the very governor of Lystarannal encouraged them to leave for public order's sake.

In HEC 8316 Phoenix King Finubar obtained elven rule on the isle of Osshual, already settled by Clan Clam. After 250 years on Lystarannal, Clan Crayfish was offered a new home and they formed an Elven Community. Today, Clan Crayfish numbers 40 Elves.

The Clan device is a green-grey crayfish on an inverted field of pale yellow and dark red. Their Head is Yvron, a mercenary veteran, nicknamed the Proud. He is relatively opportunistic and not in particularly good terms with the other Clan Heads in Osshual, although he is respectful of them. His clan is charged with the police and defence of the Community.

Undinel, Herald of Serpentsfang - Foundry Sea Elf Command

Since last Summer I have been experimenting with colour schemes for a Sea Elf force. Here's one of them - the light blue and sea green of clan Serpentsfang.

This figure is from the Wargames Foundry Sea Elf Command blister, a line with many flaws (strange proportions, missing weapons, weird body positions) but also great detail (I love their mariner boots and scale armour). Too bad they were discontinued, but if you are at the shop you might be able to get a few at half price.

This specific figure came without a weapon - i would have loved to find a trident but in the end settled for a spear, which I had among my bits. It is a female figure in armour, with a closed helm sporting a serpent crest and a harp decorated with wave motifs.

One of my housefluff Sea Elf Houses is called Serpentsfang: they are based in Dralas, in the Border Princes, and they are merchants and healers. Their device is a Serpent's Fang dripping poison, a reference to the foundation myth of Dralas - the slaying of the Sea Serpent - and a reference to the killing and healing powers of venom. 

I decided this character is wearing a ritual armour representing the whole clan in city festivals. The harp is a heirloom of the clan, the Harp of the Waves, able to conjure or banish sea turbulence. Undinel is one of the daughters of Magalhaes, the clan Head, and is also her father's herald, representing him in missions away from the city and the Community.

Galentil Wavesinger - Citadel Wood Elf Horn (1991)

These days I just can't get enough of Sea Elves, so I'm painting a lot of them: the aim is to build a warband and eventually a small army to bring to conventions. 

This particular figure was issued by Citadel in 1991 as part of the Wood Elf Command, under the name Horn 2 and the code 074213/28C. It was sculpted by Jes Goodwin. It bears many similarities with an earlier figure, part of the Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers (1987) and was possibly built with parts of that.

This Sea Elf represents a character, born in the early 2000s as a character for WFRP: Galentil. It was the last character I played before stopping for many years, and I have a relation of love and hate for him. Galentil's story goes more or less like this: he was very young and hailed from a family of dirt-poor Sea Elves from the coasts of Yvresse; shy, contemplative and possessed of a strong sense of justice, he left home looking for fame and fortune and ended up on a ship that travelled most of the Known World in several adventures. During this time he met an Elf girl, a wandering rogue and entertainer named Lilegon (another PC), who stole his heart. The two had a very intense love affair that ended quite badly as elements of Lilegon's past surfaced: unbeknownst even to her, the girl was the daughter of a Slaaneshi Dark Elf and a Wood Elf Witch; abandoned by the father and losing the mother to the Inquisition, she had been brought up by travelling artists. Finding her mother reincarnated in a lynx was the beginning of an emotional roller-coaster for the girl and a train-wreck for Galentil. When Lilegon decided to explore the heritage of her parents, Galentil left her heart-broken and became a hermit, sailing the seas on a small boat with only the company of the winds and the waves, making strange music with shells and horns. Eventually, he became a priest of Mathlann, the elven Sea God, and acquired many powers over water and weather.

After reacquiring a new balance, Galentil has taken up adventure again, hiring himself to Sea Elf crews in need of blessings and protection from ill fortune.

Citadel Wardancer "Elrim" (1991)

Wardancers are one of the specific things of the Warhammer setting. I don't know from whom the original idea came from, but certainly there was a big influence from punk iconography, much like with Trollslayers, with a heavy sprinkling of glam. Admittedly, David Bowie and Iggy Pop would not look awkward among a crowd of Wardancers. In a way, not even Syd Vicious and johnny Rotten from Sex Pistols, or Paul Stanley and Ace Frehley from Kiss wouldn't be out of place. 

Glam is all about androgynousness and gender confusion, and who better than Elves can play with that? Add some tight and colourful clothing and the trick is done. Truly, Wardancers are fun to paint.

So meet Siwai'em Ké, Sea Elf Wardancer (that's right, up until WFB 3rd edition Sea Elves also had Wardancers). Part-time member of the crew of Euphrosine the Cormorant, part-time boyfriend of Thalia the Cormorant, Euphrosine's sister, and survivor of the great raid of the Shrine of Rigg. Also known as "the Bastard" among Thalia's friends, with no reference to his known or unknown parentage.

The miniature is one of the great 1987 Wardancer sculpts from Jes Goodwin, referred at least in one catalogue as "Elrim".

Temple of Doom at BOYL 2019

During BOYL 2019, Steve/Thantsants ran a skirmish game of WFB 2nd edition, based on the Shrine of Rigg scenario from the 2nd Citadel Journal. There were several warbands assaulting the Temple that night - two groups of Sea Elves (me and Richard/Lenihan), one of Slann (Greg/VanLoon) and another one of Norsemen (Sebastian/Tytus). Paul/Golgfag1 was playing the Amazons viciously defending their sanctum.

The story below has apparently been heard in a tavern in Ulthuan, as drunk captain Euphrosine was telling it to a small crowd of worshipping young clan-elves, dreaming of matching her deeds in the lands of Lustria.

The Temple of Rigg in all its glory

The Temple, spread out on a table. Best 3D dungeon ever.

 "So I had been planning this heist for a while, right? I had been trading with Amazons before and made good money, selling iron and bronze and buying hides, herbs and pottery, but I figured out that they held far more valuable treasures somewhere in the depths of their temples... no, I am not talking about gold and silver: it was knowledge I was after! The secrets of the Old Slann, artefacts from their High Age; I always knew the Amazons had a few hidden away. So I worked my relations for months, until I secured a deal with the High Priestess of the Temple of Rigg, Samantha. I and my crew sailed up the river Amoco, then headed up the Cadiz and finally reached Lake Lokka, where we dropped anchor. I took with me three selected companions: my sister Tasha, a wardancer named Siwai'em Ké, and a young scoundrel from the Old World, Sidonaer, whose ability in picking locks could be useful. They camped outside the Temple, while I was invited in to talk with Mother Samantha: negotiations dragged well into the night and I was invited to stay until morning. I said I wasn't particularly tired, so I had leave to stay in a reading room with a book, a treatise on geography that was mostly full of misconceptions about the coastlines of the western continent. Not far from me, in the library, a few novices were holding a poetry lecture: the harsh sounds of Amazonian language never appealed me, and anyway I could hardly understand the meaning of the verses.

Left to right: Siwai'em Ké, Thalia, Euphrosine, Sidonaer

Poetry lecture in the library

Tasha, Sidonaer and Siwai'em at the feet of the Shrine

Euphrosine at the window of the reading room

I waited until it was midnight, then I went to a window and put a candle on the ledge: it was the signal. A few moments later, a grappling hook flew into the open window and I clasped it to a table. One by one, my companions climbed into the room, trying to make as little sounds as they could. Unfortunately some pesky Amazons guards us, and came to investigate: sadly for us, they were Koka-kalim, the fanatical addicts that make up the élite guard of the temple. Two of them jumped from the stair onto Siwai'em, who killed them both but not before being grievously wounded by their sharp blades. Another fanatic pointed a metal rod to my sister, shooting a small, heated bolt that barely missed her head and left a mark on the wall. Its loud boom echoed through the temple - we were discovered!

Quickly, I and Sidonaer despatched the last Koka-kalim while Tasha blocked the door leading to the library using the furniture. Another two guards came up from the lower floor but Tasha wisely had put off all candles and torches so the guards, lost in darkness, could not shoot at us and were quickly eliminated.

Tasha puts out the lights

Two guards peek blindly in the darkness of the room

Siwai'em was bleeding on the ground: Tasha had been doing her best to help him and was freaking out. That was when I realized she was in love with that mohawked bastard. I don't usually mind my sister's business, but seriously? A wardancer? She was the youngest of us girls and certainly the most naive.

We propped Siwai'em's back against the wall and put the bolt gun in his hand, telling him to watch the stairs while we moved on; we would be back for him later. We were about to remove the furniture for the door, when we heard more guards approaching, some trying to bash the door down, others running on the floor below. We hid behind the overturned furniture, lying in ambush with all lights put off, when we saw the least expected thing: other Elves!

Tasha helping Siwai'em

Five Amazons and one of the Elves on the ground already. Not a smooth job.

Ready to ambush whomever comes up the stairs.

It was Tirnahan of the Deep and his crew, a bunch of adventurers and ne'er-do-wells we met before. It turns out they had decided to raid the temple on the same night but, discovered, had negotiated safe exit by hiring themselves out as mercenaries. 

"We're Elves, too, and we are friends!" I shouted "Put your weapons down!"

"You are intruders and raiders!" shouted back Tirnahan "you put down your weapons! You are surrounded"

I never trusted Tirnahan, and I told myself I had been right.

"I will put my weapons down" I said, loudly, but then I added, in Elvish "I know where the valuables are. We can split them even"

Not solidarity, but greed had the best of him. After a short hesitation, Tirnahan turned his sword against his Amazon companions. In that moment, the door of the library went down and two Koka-kalim charged: I shot one dead with my crossbow and the other attacked Sidonaer, who quickly bested her. The other Amazons, novices with no combat training, surrendered and became our hostages.

We took them with us to the library, where we helped ourselves with huge and ancient books. Eerily enough, from the lower floors we heard the sound of battle: someone else had decided to attack the temple that same night, and was keeping the other guards occupied for us. Truly, our enterprise had been blessed by the gods.

Into the library, at last

We left by the window, climbing down with the rope we came in, and lowering the wardancer carefully with the rope around his arms. We reached our ships shortly before sunrise and, wishing each other good luck, we sailed immediately. Behind us, the sound of battle was fading around the temple, as more Amazons were rushing to their holy site.

My ship reached Ulthuan days later with a bolt gun of High Age manufacture and four, large books written in Old Slann and Amazonian language. The Magicians of Saphery paid more than their weight in gold for those. It was a good raid, and a very profitable one. It can't say it was clean, and the Amazons have put a price on my head for certain, but none of ours died, and that's what matters.

I never knew what happened to Tirnahan and his crew: they probably split the profits of their venture and each went his own way. Sidonaer bought himself a ship with his share, while Tasha and Siwai'em left together, looking for more adventures. She came back broke, a few years later, and since then she refers to him as "the bastard", which he certainly was, but at least he taught her something. Never fall in love with a wardancer. As for myself, I had a few marriage proposals from other captains but I turned all of them down: I am quite happy with my freedom currently. I have spent my time building a house on the coast of Saphery, and reading about some Slann temples, hidden in the jungles of Palombia. Now, there is an interesting story about them, but I will only share it if you swear you'll never tell it to anyone, until we're out of them...

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.

Brandir the Adventurer - Citadel Elf Warrior (1987)

Some NPCs are so good they eventually become PCs. This is the story of one of them, Brandir.

Brandir's story begins with that of his older brother Gelmir. The two are born, together with a third sister, from a poor Sea Elf family living in the miserable village of Grilm, on the coast of the Wasteland. Father dies at sea when the children are young. Mother is slain by Greenskins during a raid, while the kids hide under the bed. The three survive by begging and stealing.
 

Then, at some point Brandir's story takes a different turn, a grimmer one than his siblings who will eventually get saved and adopted. Little Brandir, while in the gutters of Zeaburg, is lured with an apple by a smiling man and invited into a private house. He gets a hit on the head and drops unconscious. He is taken away. The man is a thief and smuggler, and he also, in his own way, adopts Brandir, but he is far less kind than Elmerin. Brandir learns to steal and stab and trick and becomes, willing or not, part of Johann the Lame's band of footpads and cutthroats. They spend most of their time in Marienburg but travel the Wasteland when times are hard and the guards are on their trail.

Years pass, and eventually Johann the Lame gets old. Brandir has little love for him and, at the first good chance, he takes over the band and offers the old man a kind choice between retiring to a dilapidated country hut with little to no pension, but alive, or retire at the bottom of a canal of the Kruiersmuur, with no need of any pension. Johann makes the wise choise.

A few members of the band, the old ones, leave, but new ones join and soon Brandir's band increases its business substantially. The Elf is young and less cautious than Johann, taking risks that offer high returns. He seems blessed by Ranald, and his reputation grows, until one day he is introduced to an ascending merchant, going by the name of Johann Hess.

In order to make his family rich, Hess has his fingers in many pies, including illegal ones. Smuggling is one of them and, with his activities growing, he needs to outsource the extra job to smart people. Soon Brandir starts making a lot of money, especially with those new shipments of closed crates coming from Norsca. All marked with a red X and solidly nailed so no one can spy their contents.

It is when some members of his band start displaying strange signs of mutation that Brandir decides to do what he has been explicitly asked not to do: open one of the crates. It is full of shards of black, iridescent stone.

That is his last delivery. He goes to see Hess and tells him he's not feeling well and wants to leave the business for some time. But Hess guesses Brandir knows more than he says. The same night, coming back at his band's den, Brandir finds assassins. He barely escapes with a few men, but loses all his savings. At dawn he silently navigates the marshes on a rowboat, headed at Lame Johann's hut. It's empty, the old man must have died years ago.

Enraged at Hess's betrayal Brandir plans revenge, but he decides to wait - too many people are looking for him in Marienburg. He spends some time in the town of Bokel, across the frontier of Nordland, but he soon finds out the Warpstone has tainted him: he has started losing all the hair on his body.

It is several months after his flight that Brandir returns to Marienburg. By now he has become completely glabrous, even losing his eyelashes. He wears a hood over his head or, sometimes, a wig. He calls himself Gelmir, the name of his lost brother. Working isn't easy when nobody knows you and, desperate for money, Brandir enters a gambling house planning to get something to start again. But the games are rigged, and the house belongs to Hess. Soon he has an outstanding debt, and Hess's thugs are on his trail once again.

With two companions he boards a ship bound for Erengrad, where he hides for a while. It is here that his brother finds him: hunted by Hess, the real Gelmir find the impostor, recognizing him as his long lost, and now mutant, brother. Together, they vow revenge on Hess and on his network of warpstone smuggling, funded by the Skaven. And so it begins Brandir's life as a PC.

 

The miniature I choose for Brandir is no. 9 in 1988 Citadel Catalogue, Elf Warrior Category. It is marked as "Elf" and dated 1987, so it probably debuted on an earlier White Dwarf, The line is designed by Jes Goodwin and Aly Morrison: it's not clear who sculpted this particular figure but my guess is Jes Goodwin.

There are lots of things to like in this sculpt. The simplicity first of all. Lots of empty areas to freely paint. Then the shady look - there is something thievish with this hooded Elf, shield raised and sword reared, leather jacket, bag across the shoulder and a rope hanging from the side.

Missing the original shield, I recycled a 15mm Medieval shield which looks enough like a buckler, where I painted the device of Liria, a free city of sea merchants on the eastern borders of Tilea.

Comments? Did you also happen to turn NPCs into PCs? Leave some feedback below!