Topic: The Province of AVERLAND (+ The Moot)

[Eltrummor]

Lucas Reinhart leading The Knights of the Blazing Sun

Hello there fellow Averland-general! 
First of all, that was great fluff, and you got a hand for writing. And the knights was pretty good aswell, too bad I could not see the Helblaster.  But, with all respect, I would like to give you some tips on painting those knights! First of all, did you shade your knights? Maybe it's the light on the photo, but it does not look like you did. Shading is painting the model with a runny color, like Nuln Oil http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800004a&prodId=prod1500264a. Shade paints got pretty much the same consistence as water, and shading, they flow over other paints and into the recesses on your miniatures, defining details and accentuating recesses. They create the "shadows" in a miniatures face. Try it out! And next time, you might want to try to paint the feathers more! Yellow is a difficult paint as it often turns greenish when mixed up with the black prime, so keep painting again and again!

[Eltrummor]

Now, I'm gonna bore you with some homebrew fluff about my army 

Jacob von Schlecterhauph and the Order of the Sacred Sun

Jacob von Schlecterhauph claims Siegriech of Averland, an Emperor around year 50 IC, to be his ancestor. Born in the rich noble house of von Schlecterhauph, Jacob got the best of everything, including military equipment. Jacob was a boy who always were ready for the new adventure, wether it was shooting some ducks with his toy crossbow or climbing as far as he could on a mountain Jacob loved the smell of danger, action and ofcourse the thrill of adventure. This appetite for adventure lasted through his late teens, when he at the age of 19 led a small mercenary unit of heavily armoured swordsmen named "the Sons of the White Lion" (referring to the White Lion of Wissenland from where mot of the soldiers came form) during a war between the Tilean citystates of Miragliano and Remas. It was here he met the Estalian explorer, mercenary and madman, Gonzalos de Castello. Gonzalos had great plans for himself, dreaming of finding a city made entirely of gold in the Lustrian djungels where he would establish a colony in the name of the Estalian king. Jacob, always ready for the next adventure jumped on to de Castello's boat, leaving his swordsmen behind. The "Sons of the White Lion" later were all slayed by Araby mercenaries in the south of Tilea. But by then, Jacob von Schlecterhauph feet were for the first time touching Lustrian soil. The 3000 men established a camp and things were going nicely. They had a large amount of food, the djungles didn't seem to be inhabited and Jacobs only problem was the hot lustrian sun. They were in the west of Lustria, since Gonzalos had heard about a large river who went through the whole of Lustria, and he thought that it would be the best place to search for the Golden City. But the problem were that there were no river in sight, wich made some of the boatsmen afraid. They asked de Castello what to do, and he just laughed at them. "We'll find it", he said. "We'll just have to take a little walk through the djungles and we'll find it", he said. The little walk lasted for ten months, and after the first six month, they ran out of food and water. By the end of the ten months the 3000 brave men were 250 exhausted and hungry men. But they had found the river. When hearing the waters drippling, the men turned into crazy. They ran as fast as you can after nearly eating nothing in ten months. When arriving to the water, the men looked up in the skies and praised there gods. Jacob just whispered "Sigmar..." followed by "Myrmidia..." and fell down in the water by exhaustion. The group later splitted up, Gonzales de Castellos group should explore the river and find the Golden City, and the other group, led by Juañ de la Miró. Jacob got sorted into de Castellos group. They sailed in their small boats for long until they found a Lizardman village. The Lizardmen showed up to see if the explorers were a threat, wich they obviously werent. The tribal chief were going to execute them all, but his priest demanded him to show some mercy on the starving men. They were allowed to stay for three weeks, and after that they sailed away. The 100 remaining men were happy 'cause of the hospitality, but that's not what there were no sympathy in the Lizardmen they were about to meet. They met some skinks in canoes who put them under hard pressure from their poisoned blowpipes. The men managed somehow to keep them at a distance with crossbows and handguns. They fled deeper into the waters of the djungles. They were starving for a week, and when they saw a Lizardman village, they attacked, crazed by hunger and thirst. Half of the men were fighting the saurus warriors, and half of the men were just raiding the civilians and the village. Jacob were one of the ones who stayed. With the sergeant-at-arms, Miguel Ramirez, slayed, Jacob von Schlecterhauph took command of his men, and they managed to defeat the saurus. Jacob, in a frenzy after the battle and because of the thirst rushed into the village. He found a small little hut, were he looked for water and food. Too bad for him, there were already an estalian there. The estalian drew his sword and pointed it at Jacob, who managed to parry his attacks with his shield and slayed the estalian. He then drank and ate all he could. Knowing he couldn't return to the party, he went for a walk in he djungles. This walk would be the darkest period of his life, he was so crazed by hunger and thirst he ate soil. After puking because of the dryness, he urinated on it to give it more of a flavour. After some months he made it to the Estalian colony of Santa Magritta.

After he sailed home, he went to back to Averland as a rugged veteran. He took service in the (Mad) Count Marius Leitdorfs army and he quickly made it into the order of the Knights of the Blazing Suns, without doing the traditional step of being a Pistolier, since no one were able to tell him that he had not proven himself yet. Five years after his return, with the orc invasion of Vorgaz Ironjaw incoming, he were trusted enough to lead a little unit of some knights as a preceptor. During the Battle of Black Fire Pass, the elector count were slayed. This inspired Jacob to create a new order with some trusted men dedicated solely to the purpuse of defending Averland, named the Order of the Sacred Sun. Becoming a knight of the order is hard, your family must have been Averländer for atleast three generations, you must be recommended by a preceptor, you shall never have killed a fellow Averländer and you must be trained and tested for a year (or more, it all depends on when the preceptors trust you) until you're trusted enough to swear to protect Averland with your blood and soul. It became tradition for the von Schlecterhauph noble house to join the order very fast. Now, being the Grand Marshal of the Order of the Sacred Sun, Jacob wants to become elector, claiming he's the last relative to Siegriech of Averland...

I actually run Jacob von Schlecterhauph in my army, he sometimes counts as GotE or Grand Master of the Order of the Sacred Sun, depending on what I need him for.