The latest wave of miniatures for Warhammer rival Warcrow is available to pre-order right now, and I want to shout out a few of the miniatures that have particularly grabbed me - the new officers and special character for the Scions of Yaldabaoth. Warcrow doesn't have any truly 'evil' factions but the Scions are the most extreme, a radically free society of elven wizards that co-exist with the mutagenic mist blanketing the world of Lindwurm - and the miniatures designers working on the game have cut loose with the sincerity of a teenager drawing the sickest OC ever in the corner of their school workbook.
The nearest equivalent Warhammer: The Old World faction to the Scions would be the forces of Chaos. Both factions make unrestrained (some would say unsafe) use of the power of magic, and are totally unphased by radical body alterations. But the visual inspirations for Yaldabaoth feel quite a lot more modern - which isn't a diss on either setting (I love all wardollies equally), but it's interesting to see two different approaches to a similar idea.
So first up is Samara Dìthean, a new named character officer - he's actually an updated version of a playable character which appeared in the Warcrow Adventures dungeon crawler board game. Dìthean is an angellic being with one ravaged wing, dark energy consuming one of his arms, and unhealed mastectomy wounds on his chest.
It's the kind of design I expect to see in one of three places: dark fantasy anime, a big baggy hoodie worn by a goth, and Deviantart. And I don't mean that as an insult - I think Sephiroth is peak character design and Evanescence's Bring Me To Life slaps (the Synthesis remaster without the rapping, natch). This mini has some grade A melodrama, and I love it.
There are also two unnamed Yaldabaoth officers, and these two minis are equally anime but in a very different way. They're both aberrations - one is tethered to a pair of floating eyeballs, the other has stigmata spurting black energy halos and a bonus set of arms. But just look at their tailoring! Their clothes are crisp and clearly from the same designer The tall girl on the right is absolutely serving.
The designers at Corvus Belli who make the Warcrow minis are avid fans of realistic fantasy armor (as we covered in this interview), but they've put the same intensity into designing these clothes. The results would fit right into a manga series about teenage martial artists battling a secret society of demons, and I love it.
These figures are up for pre-order now - if you pick them up, or already have your hands on the Yaldabaoth minis in the Song of the Dormant battle box, we'd love to see some pics in the official Wargamer Discord community.