Tuesday, August 14, 2012

On the workbench: Morokanth!

Until last week I was planning on bringing a previously used army to the Berkeley Hordes of the Things tournament in a couple of weeks' time.  However, a sudden rethink made it feasible to get my Morokanth army finished in time for the event.

The Morokanth are non-humans who herd men on the plains of Prax in the world of Glorantha.  My army uses the very limited stock of suitable castings from Citadel and Tabletop Miniatures and my ambition all along has been to have no two identical figures in the army.  This has meant a good deal of conversion work and, up to now, the inclusion in the army of non-Morokanth allies in the form of Rhino Riders.

The breakthrough has been to plan some more Magician elements in the form of tribal shamans.  This figure is to be one of them:





He started off as the Tabletop Miniatures casting with two maces.  I repositioned his right arm and added a coup stick made from brass rod, cotton and Green Stuff.  I also added a Green Stuff ear-ring.  These pictures don't show it well but I'm pleased with the subtle shading on his tunic.

Next up is a figure that will probably join an additional Morokanth Warband element.  He's a conversion of a relatively common Citadel casting.  I've given him a long spear from brass rod with the head from a Tabletop Miniatures slave impaled upon it.  I've also done a head swap with another casting and added a Green Stuff neckerchief to disguise the join. 



Finally, for now, there's this rather plain figure.  It's a much rarer (as far as I can see) Citadel casting.  It was the donor and recipient in the head swap for the chap above.




    

6 comments:

Kaptain Kobold said...

How do you herd humans?

(I'm assuming that some Gloranthan obsessive has looked at the biological and logistical problems involved :) )

Counterpane said...

They aren't full humans. During the Great Darkness there was a lottery to decide who become the people and who the beasts. Mostly the two-legged people won so humans herd non-intelligent bison, rhinos etc. however, in one case the four-legged people won so now intelligent Morokanth herd beast-like herdmen.

And yes, several Glorantha obsessives have looked into the practicalities. It mostly involves keeping your herds in higher ground that's hard for mounted nomads to access.

Jane Williams said...

Gloranthan obsessive, singular???
Drastic Resolutions (Darkess) has two articles on the subject
http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=11307

106 Sandy Petersen on the Morocanth Sandy Petersen
106 The Fifth Tribe Jane Williams

BigRedBat said...

Great stuff!

I can't help but feel that there is a genetic link between Morokanth, and Wombles.

Simon

Kaptain Kobold said...

So do these herd-humans give birth to young that can move with the herd almost from the word go?

:)

But why am I quibbling biology with regard to a world which has a bat a mile across in it?

Jane Williams said...

As far as I remember (it was a while ago), when I wrote that article I looked at the habits of the great apes. I'm pretty sure it involved the young being carried by their mothers, but the whole morocanth tribe is far less mobile than most other Praxians in any case.