The ‘Askurgan Trueblades’, an order of vampire Monks trying to stave off Bloodborne-style bestial transformations through blood-deprived asceticism, will debut in Warcry Bloodhunt, according to a GW preview at the Las Vegas Open. A live stream of the event on January 27 also showed off their rivals in the new box set, the Khorne-worshipping ‘Claws of Karanak’.
The Soulblight Gravelords Askurgan Trueblades originate in the realm of Ghur, and according to a Warhammer Community article that accompanied the live stream, “hunt the great beasts of the realms” rather than preying on human(oid) victims. Though afflicted by the vampire curse, they aim to fend off the beast within with lives of self-denial and discipline.
They’re not always successful, as the Bloodborne-looking ‘Curseblood’ in the midst of the gang attests. But according to the live stream commentators, the Trueblades are sometimes able to recover their human forms and minds after succumbing to the beast – the grungey goth chap with a bat on his shoulder is a ‘Pariah’ who has made such a return.
The Claws of Karanak are a band of Khorne-worshippers who venerate the three-headed daemon warhound Karanak and live as tireless hunters. The warrior bounding forwards on his hands is a ‘Hound of Wrath’, according to the live stream commentators, clearly on the way to a beastly transformation of his own.
The box set will once again be set in Ghur and features more terrain for the fleshy Gnarlwood, this time with impromptu bamboo stockades as well as unsettling trees. The Ghurish Warcry scenery is mostly organic surfaces, making it a great target for contrast paint.
While revealing new Seraphon dinosaurs (this time with feathers), GW updated its roadmap of battletomes coming in 2023. Two death battletomes and two Chaos battletomes are due in Spring 2023, so it seems likely that both the Trueblades and Claws of Karanak will soon have rules, letting you use them in your Soulblight Gravelords or Blades of Khorne Age of Sigmar army.