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Agreed, Rick Priestly came up with the term Dawi Zharr in the 5th ed book, White Dwarf presents.

Though I have often been called a mother... of CD was usually not the context.

Indeed.  Carthaginians and Babylonians were some very vicious and brutal people.  Of course what we know of them has been written by their enemies and eventually conquorers.  However, it also must be said that Babylon was the center of commerce and wealth of the region in their hayday.

But the great thing about fantasy worlds is we can take what we want from history and recreate it to our own desire.

Helna conversion prior to painting.  Of course she was a corrupted dwarf from Kazad Karan as the story goes, but later became the Prophetess of Hashut.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30...1453895080

Hehe, no offense should be taken on an internet forum... ;-)  By all means, I have some slaves in my army that are rather... riske, it is the centerpiece of my central unit (saves on mini figs in tourney's and the judges love the extra flavor they add to the army).  It is a bunch (4) of mostly naked women in chains on an altar.  It's part of the evil dwarfs.  

Also, I believe the original theme for 5th ed CD that Rick Priestly did was Babylonian/Syrian, and the hobs were of Hitite variety since they were the horse archers (and yeah they kicked butt!).  With the thrown in worship of Hashut as a fiery bull.  In most ancient eras bull worship was akin to the worship of virility as well as strength and blood.  So I patterned my CD and their fluff as a intensely religious race with hedonism as part of their worship along with ritual sacrifice and humiliation of the supplicants.

Hmm I could have sworn the horse archers that terrorized the indo-european world were the Hittites....  I'll have to revisit the history books to find out who they were.  Damn getting old sucks... you only have so much room in the brain to remember things...

found an article rather quickly which talks about the Hittite archers, but puts them in the chariots instead of horseback:

http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/19...forgot.htm

At that very moment a thunderous sound issues from the direction of the walled city. From a large stone gateway pours a host of Hittite troops in the light, two-wheeled Hittite war chariots that are feared throughout Asia Minor. Unlike the older chariots of the Sumerians—heavy, wood platforms with solid, clumsy wheels—the Hittite chariots are graceful and highly maneuverable. Their wheels are rimmed and have six spokes. Each chariot is drawn by a pair of spirited horses, whose driver handles them with the skill that has made Hittite horsemanship admired over the entire Middle East. At the head of the chariot shaft between the horses is fixed a large copper crescent. It is a good luck charm—and as the sun glances off it as the chariots charge into battle, it helps terrify the enemy.


Each chariot holds three men—the driver and two warriors. Some are dressed in belted knee-length woolen tunics. Others, bare to the waist, wear what resembles a kilt. The warriors wear tufted, bronze helmets and carry short curved swords and battle-axes. They also have bows, and quivers of arrows are mounted on the sides of the chariots. A shower of arrows upon a foe terror-stricken at the sight of the chariots often brings victory at the first charge.

It would be like a car crash...

Enemy units within 12" receive -1 to hit all targets in shooting, and -1I in close combat due to the distraction.

Hello Kera and Sojourn, a special item I dug up just for you all   

This is the loremaster journal written by Gav Thorpe during the Storm of Chaos global campaign.  Herin lies proof that chaos dwarf females exist... ;-)

Missed a daily update? Fear not, the Loremaster's words are too valuable to discard. Here you will find all of his daily rantings...I mean, updates:

Download the map of Middenheim (234 KB PDF)

Day 50 Results: Unimpressed by the challenge posed by Styrkaar and his horde of Slaanesh, Grimgor has quickly tired of his fighting at the Southern Causeway. Turning to the east, he has once again assaulted the army of Kordel Shorgaar in an attempt to break through to the east where he has a chance at confronting Archaon himself. As yet, it appears the Lord of the End Times is content to allow his lieutenants to defeat the troublesome greenskins. However, if they are unsuccessful, he may be forced to turn his attention away from Middenheim to deal with this savage threat.

Unsure as to the intentions of their Orc “allies,” the Men of Middenheim and a large contingent of Dwarfs from the Middle Mountains have been biding their time at the walls. With the greenskins moving on, this force of Defenders has pushed forward again to occupy the gate towers at the foot of the Causeway. A swift attack by Styrkaar may well catch them unprepared as they try to reconstruct defensive positions from the ruins left by Grimgor and his horde.

At the Western Causeway, a counterattack led by Baron-General Adelbert Wessbecker has succeeded in outflanking the legion of the Daemon Prince Shadowstalker. Unknown to the Imperial commander, his attack was aided by a dark ally who emerged from the catacombs of Ulricsberg. Clan Virulus, pursuing their own agenda, cut through the Daemonic forces surrounding the Western Causeway and battled their way through the beasts that were attacking the South West Cliff. Though his ultimate goal is unclear, it appears that Grey Seer Skritchit thinks it is in the interests of Clan Virulus that the Chaos attack fail.

The counterattack had fallen to Wessbecker due to a disturbing event the previous night that involved Count von Raukov. One of his closest aides, Jeffrey Tier, was revealed to have been tainted by Chaos and was used as a vessel by Daemonic forces to attack the priests who were in the midst of a ritual to banish the Daemonic horde. Several priests were slain or wounded before the dragonbone-tipped arrows of the Elector Count slew the possessed man.

While Clan Virulus is heading southwards, another Skaven force has moved to the southwest and has launched several raids on the camps of the Kislevites and Bretonnians guarding the approaches to the city. Verminous Fang has been busy creating an alliance with the Prophet of Hashut Helna Blackhand and has collaborated with the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer Vhaark. The woes of Alexi Makerev, architect of the North Kislev Alliance, have been furthered increased by the arrival of High Zar Dahn Chytzen and his Iron Wolves. The Champion of Chaos has vowed revenge on the Boyar after his Kislevites and their allies broke Chytzen’s force during the relief of Bohsenfels.

Day 49 Results: Ulric’s Thunder has been silenced! Despite the valiant efforts of Enthardon – Prince of Nagarythe – and his bands of Shadow Warriors, sinister assailants have struck from the depths of the Ulricsberg catacombs. In the darkest hour of the night, the stealthy saboteurs crept into the massive warehouse that serves as bedchamber for the Giant Thunderball. As the gentle behemoth slept, the shadowy attackers placed warpstone-laced cursestones upon his gigantic form. The city awoke before dawn to enraged bellows and the cacophony of splintering wood and stone. The warpstones had mutated Thunderball; his body becoming a writhing mass of pustules and tentacles; his small mind broken by the corrupting influence of the raw essence of Chaos. As what was once Thunderball rampaged through the streets, he was attacked by gunners from Boris Todbringer’s household but was eventually felled by the intervention of Valmir von Raukov. He shot the Giant through the eye with his Dragon Bow, felling him. Without Thunderball, Ulric’s Thunder cannot be loaded, for the loading mechanism had long ago been cannibalized for its materials during the fortification of Middenheim.

indeed.  We had quite the fluff war going in that campaign. It was a lot of fun.  Has GW done anything like that since?  I noticed a long time ago they took down the community forums.  That is about the time I lost all interest in supporting them.  BTW, I have my sneaky agents (gits) deployed and getting info on any CD rumors, hopefully we will get some positive news instead of the same old smoke.

Oh Yeah!  I love the slayer army!  Still have all the models

Ungrim Ironfist has always been my fav of all the dwarf models!  

Dwarfs have always been my favorite army (which is why I have about 20K of them... lol)

Check out my army thread.  I converted a chaos dwarf sorcerer to be Helna Blackhand of Clan Blackheart.

Yeah it was a really tough conversion as I had to cut off the head, hollow out a bit of the neck, and file off the beard.  I took the head of a rafm mini I had lying about, and stuck it together with greenstuff for the neck and hair.  I then nipped off the skull staff and gave her an axe and in her left hand, I gave her a beast skull painted gold out of the vampire box on a small rod.

hehe, there's a reason for slaves!

Actually here's a bit of fluff that was in the old Z&H stories that sort of covers that (from the Albion Campaign after the attempted assasination that left Zhorvan crippled in his right arm):

The steam rose in another large cloud as the slave poured the hot water into the large half-barrel in the middle of his tent, and Zhorvan smiled in anticipation.  It had been too long since his last bath, and his hair and beard were in such a disgraceful state!  He was hardly presentable as a High Priest, but with the long anticipated chance to relax in a tub of hot water would hopefully cure all that.  When the barrel was almost full, Zhorvan stripped down and somewhat awkwardly climbed into it.

The heat saturated through his skin, slowly banishing the aching cold that had settled in his bones.  The servant rinn worked feverishly to remove the binding coils that held his long black hair into rigid circlets that ended in golden talismans of the Temple and of his people.  Impossibly long hair spilled outward in a cloud of dark ringlets, nearly covering the surface of the steaming water when she was done.  Carefully, she combed through each, ensuring there were no snarls, and that each lock was cleaned with soap and scented oil.  

Zhorvan sighed in contentment as he slid into the hot water up to his chin when she had finished braiding the coils to keep them from snarling while he finished his bath.  Slowly the ache receded from his shoulder, replaced by the growing buzz in his head from the combination of ale and lotus as the rinn systematically called for different parts to wash.  

It was full dark by the time the rinn had finished her chore and began coiling his hair again, treating it with warm scented oils.  If it weren’t for the dull throb in his shoulder, he could almost have felt normal again, but stepping out of the hot waters into the frigid Albion air brought all of the misery back in a single moment.  The rinn could not dry him off fast enough as he gestured for his clothes.  Before he was securely wrapped in layers of warm cloth, he was shivering again, and the ache of cold weather settled in his bones once more.

(In the fluff for my army, the CD Sorcs were rather vainglorious as well, hence Zhorvan as a political as well as military leader always had concern over the way he looked and presented himself.  Kind of like today's politicians... lol)

Hehe, actually the girl was probably 1/4 his age.  Zhorvan long ago found a high elf tomb where an artifact was placed under guard of a wood elf army (a legion of high elves that remained behind after the war of the beard).  It was called the Gem of Life, an artifact said to hold the soul of the noble lord who wore it and bestow upon his descendants the benefactor of his spirit and power.  Zhorvan defeated the army and took the gem as his prize, sacrificing many slaves to Hashut to twist it to his dark purpose.  He recognized instantly the incredible nature and power of the gem could be used to prolong his life and stave off the curse of stone.  He only ages 1 year for every 10 because of the amount of souls he stored in the gem. (as many as it would hold)

This, however, earned him the emnity of all High Elves as they felt the terrible rending and the howls of the stolen souls of elven princes.  One such prince, Melanar met him in battle with the sole purpose of destroying either the gem or its wielder, Zhorvan Blackheart.

Melanar was successful in shattering the gem in single combat, nearly sacrificing his life to do so.  The backlash of power left Zhorvan scarred for life, an odd mettalic ring around his neck where the chain used to set, and the left side of his beard and hair is stained white.  Though he managed through magic to remove the scarring on his face, the hair and the collar remain defiant to his efforts.

This tale is outlined in the Gem of Life Saga which was a joint fluff effort by Andrew Tickle, myself and Joergen Bloodaxe.

Thank you Kera for the kind words.  I hope you enjoy the read!