An Update on File Updates, and a Big Lengthy Exposition Post!

Hey there all! I know I've been a bit slow on the transition to the new Printed Wargames site, and reuploading the updated files to MyMiniFactory has been a little disjointed, however there will be yet another delay to that. As it turns out, OBJ files are now pretty much compatible with most slicing software, and it's beginning to replace STLs as the dominant printing format - and most importantly, when exported, OBJ files are about half the file size of an STL, meaning that's half as much for you guys to download. With that in mind, I've made the terrible decision to convert all .... 5,425 of my STLs to OBJs over the next little while, then reupload them. Ugh. Send help.

In the meantime, it's come to my attention that, for a lot of my factions, there's very little actually telling you guys what the themes are behind them. It's all well and good me telling you what units do in the world of The Promised Land, but without actually telling you what each faction itself is like, that's kinda useless information! Please do note that, yes, these are a work in progress, so minor things may change through development, but this at least is where they're each at right now.

Faction Outlines

Aventine Dynasties

Whilst they are perhaps the most technologically advanced civilisation in the Promised Land, the hosts of the Aventine Dynasties are still relatively new to their neighbouring empires. Honing and developing their military prowess for years in secrecy, far from the eyes of the already long-warring factions, the Aventine Dynasties emerged from their subterranean fortress with an unprecedented fervour, taking many of the Western territories previously under the rule of the Skjalos and the ancients of Mikaelhelde by storm. Though this expansion into an empire was not without a fight, little immediate backlash from either of the factions from whom they took territory was instigated, as their focuses could not be turned from their other wars, however after the fall of Mikaelhelde, Skjalos legionaries were dispatched to recapture the lands they had long held as their own.

This, the first test of the Aventine Dynasties in war, was decisive – unlike the Skjalos’ tenets of numbers, martial strength, resilience and savagery, the Dynasties favoured speed, flexibility and unparalleled aerial combat skill. Though they initially hugely outnumbered their opponents, those few Skjalos who survived to report their losses confirmed that a new power had arisen - one perhaps fewer in number, but one that made up for it in far superior weapons.

The Aventine superiority in technology, however, is as much a weapon as it is a weakness to their civilisation. Built upon foundations of lost technology found within their capital city, Folding Scars, their entire way of life relies on increasingly rare materials, and as such, their expansion from a reclusive nation into an empire was a move of necessity rather than desire, and their way of war is directed accordingly.

Owing to the rarity of the materials required to maintain their weapons, the forces at the disposal of the Dynasties are few, and only deployed by necessity. Each territory and settlement they intend to annex is carefully scouted and evaluated for the weaknesses in its military, its fortifications and its geographical position, long before any approach is made. Then, an offer is made: pay tribute to the Aventine Dynasties in the forms of warriors, food, materials, and the opportunity to excavate the areas for precious materials, and in return, the settlements and its people will remain under their protection. Though many accept this offer, those who refuse suffer. Some are besieged, and some slaughtered in almost their entirety to spread the fear of refusal far and wide, and others are cut off from water and supplies until such time as their leaders capitulate – or their people suffer enough that they murder their own leaders in order to end the siege.

Thereupon, life for citizens of a newly inducted district within the Aventine Dynasties remains largely unchanged but for their new tithes and the introduction of an Aventine guard who protect and maintain order within the settlement. It seems the Dynasties remain true to their word, protecting their new districts from raiders with their superior wargear, but it remains to be seen how their defences hold against the might of a true invasion force, which seems ever closer with the marshalling of Skjalos and Iokean strength to the West.

Castellans of Ouresa (February 2024)

Decades of reclusion behind the vast walls of Ouresa have made its Castellan Guard but a forgotten thought in the minds of most in the Promised Land. Or, at least, that was so until the expansion of the Aventine Dynasties. Safe behind the walls of their huge city-fortress, the Castellans of Ouresa once claimed to own sprawls of the land, so far reaching its arm that many of its citizens were born without ever really having any real interaction with their capital – almost as if it had forgotten them. Occasionally, there might be whispers of a sighting of their clockwork Knights, bedecked in all their finery, but even this was rare, and only closest to the capital. That was, until people started going missing. To begin with, only a few, but over time, it became a worry for everyone that they might just disappear without a trace, and the Castellans were silent in the face of all pleas for aid.

This silence remained until the Aventine Dynasties began their conquest of territories within the Ouresan lands – the silence was broken by the sudden advance of battalions of their automaton Castellan Knights, marching to the border. This was still unaccompanied by any living members of the Castellan, until after years of watching, and waiting, and guarding of the new borders of the Ouresan lands, the Aventine Dynasties grew too bold, and the first Castellan Lord in a lifetime was seen – red eyed and pallid skinned, with an almost feral aspect to his actions. The battle was short, and one of the first losses the Dynasties suffered – and suffer indeed it did, as those few who witnessed the event spoke of the Castellan Lord devouring those Navigators who survived, consuming the living flesh that remained.

It has become suspect since then that this was the reason for the disappearances of all those in the outlying lands of the Ouresan citadel. Rumours about disease or psychic degeneration abound, but amongst all the whispers across the lands, the word Vampire is the loudest, and now safely guarded behind a wall of clockwork warriors, the cattle of Ouresa are truly afraid.

Covenants of Astyri

The Covenants of Astyri are an empire of warriors enslaved and stripped of their free will by a mysterious entity known only by name, the Kolym Hysta. From what little knowledge has been gathered of the Kolym Hysta, it appears that it believes its purpose is one of salvation: to protect the people of the Promised Land. That said, the method by which the Covenants of Astyri fulfil this directive is somewhat firm, by offering protection and the promise of eternal life to settlements at the cost of their free will, and then enslaving those who choose not to accept their offer and killing those that stand in their path.

Their forces are primarily composed of legions of Hieronites, the old Astyrian term for ‘saved’, a numberless horde of people who chose not to accept the covenant offered to them, and most of these become shambling zombie-like soldiers whose flesh gradually rots away and their broken bones are replaced by mechanical supplements to keep them walking. Conscious and able to think, and feel the gradual decay of their bodies, but unable to control them, the fate of anyone to become a Hieronite is among the worst imaginable – but some too suffer worse in their un-life. Huge constructs, steel-wrought monsters designed for annihilation, are powered by the broken bodies of Hieronites, limbless and wretched. Together with their infantry accompaniment, the battle cry for a Covenants of Astyri war host is the deafening sound of involuntary screams of pain as an army of once-people advance against their will towards battle.

The Hieronite hordes, however, are not the only warriors bearing the Ochystan flags. The Covenants of Astyri is divided into Houses, each led by one who volunteered to join with Kolym Hysta – but one whose skill and cunning were deemed enough to warrant a command of their own. Those who accept the Covenant offered to them are allowed to retain a measure of their autonomy, as long as their minds have value, and those most elevated to lead their own House are still almost human. Human enough, at least, to recall the sentiments of nobility, deceit, honour, and cruelty, all conveyed through an arrogance only many centuries of life can give. These Houses reside as allegiants to Kolym Hysta, and no doubt in all-out war, would fight as one united front, but it has become apparent that each House is distinct in its ways of war, and the personalities of its leader.

The first amongst the Houses to be recognized as a discrete force was that of Kaelis, so named after its leader Naemia Kaelis. And so recognized it was, as a force unlike any other that had previously crept from the Ochystan Wastes, as an army of colossi – each warrior stomping across the ground in Hyperion Armour, supported by battalions of Kastellites.

Since then, numerous other Houses have been identified with various unique warrior and construct types and increasingly varied tactical methods, but most recently and threateningly has been the appearance of the Phykonite Ascendancy, led by the wytch-necromancer Overlord Ambera Phykon. Encroaching upon civilizations like a host of wraiths, the Phykonite Ascendancy have quickly become one of the largest and most feared aspects of the Covenants of Astyri, however they are most certainly not the true power of the Kolym Hysta. Mightiest amongst the Houses is the Ochystan Alliance, and a world apart from the rest as it appears to be leaderless, though with its unusually strong disposition towards the use of Myadean Guard, among the most well-trained and elite warriors of the Covenants of Astyri, some suspect this House to be a force exclusively under the direction of the Kolym Hysta itself.

Kingdoms of Mikaelhelde

The Kingdoms of Mikaelhelde are a faction composed entirely of Mystics - psychically attuned individuals all, wielding the might of sorcery in tandem with the blade and the bullet. Such mastery of the mystic arts have they, that few can stand against them and hope to survive, however such power is not, nor has it ever, been without dire consequences.

The ancients of Mikaelhelde are members of disparate, marauding clans – a once mighty kingdom, fractured by the summoning of a great evil, the vanity of noble mystics resulting in the destruction of their home. Naught now reside in the ruins of their city, save for the great Dæmon Strattenheim, the Shadow of Mikaelhelde, to which the scattered remnants of the city owe fealty. Some say that the shadow holds sway over them, others that they pay their tithes out of fear rather than loyalty, and others that the destruction of Mikaelhelde was deemed a necessity to bring their god into the material realm - nevertheless, it has been observed that, from those few surviving accounts that described Strattenheim, the various augmentations and mutations its Acolytes possess seem intended to represent him, with increasing numbers of limbs and a progressively less human form.

Indeed, for all the monstrosities brought forth by the Covenants of Astyri, no matter the atrocities wrought by the warriors of Skjalos, each of these pale compared to the creations of the Kingdoms of Mikaelhelde. By looking at many of them, it's hard to imagine they were ever human, mutated beyond any recognition, forms of multitudinal arms and legs, creatures brought forth from the darkest nightmares of gods and men.

Unlike so many other wasteland-bound tribes, the scattered Acolytes of Mikaelhelde do not bear scraps of weapons, rags and beaten metal armour, but instead the garb of priests atop banded metal, drilled and fasted into their bones. Their mutations, numerous and celebrated, are the blessings of their patron, and each warrior among the Acolyte ranks is an emissary, enlightening their quarries of their higher purpose - that the body parts that they take will serve the will of Strattenheim, and what remains will sow the earth upon which their lord will grow its empire.

Legions of Khurybah

The Legions of Khurybah are not manifestations of psychic will, or fallen angels, or the agents of a divine antagonist. They are those unfortunate enough to have their souls snared by Khurybah, His reach grasping hold of the dead as they part this world, dragged to the Otherside, formless, sightless, aware only of great pain and loneliness and the presence of an utter evil that visits and tortures them with distortions of their memories. Years pass, some tens, some hundreds, some thousands, before they are truly broken, little left but the desire to feel again, the need to see and touch a world outside of the utterly alone blackness that consumes them. Thus they push upwards, trying to find the bones they used to know as their own, taking back their long-ruined bodies, assembling what they can, but with so many lifetimes gone, few remember what they used to look like, and when eventually they can stand, what stands in the place of what was once human is instead a horror, warped out of its shape and size, and, even through its torn, shattered memories, it knows that it is wrong. Surely there should be something holding it together - blood, skin, organs? It used to know this.

And so, when settlements hear the unearthly screams of tortured anguish from afar, they know to be afraid, for a Dæmon has awoken, and soon it will search for the things to make itself whole again. To put back what it lost.

As the Dæmons rise, dragging the bones and flesh of the fallen together into warped, broken bodies, some find themselves with the ability to animate those still alive. Like puppets, those unfortunate enough to encounter a spirit with this power are stripped of their autonomy, simply guided by the hateful whims of their new master, and too, like them, their bones gradually warp, distending from their skin and forming huge talons, perfect for tearing apart both their friends, families, enemies and innocent bystanders without any distinction, nor any choice of their own. Though known as Hollowed Ones, or Hollows, as their appearance has earned them a reputation for being without souls, they are tortured still further than that by being perfectly conscious, and aware of their actions, but unable to change them. It tends to be their last act of defiance to scratch out their eyes with their bare hands, knowing their fate, and knowing the best they can do is blind themselves to it.

The Dæmons are not a collective army, nor a force with any particular aim or greater goal – their suffering for aeons has inured them to most feelings, and their emptiness can only be satisfied by the infliction of indescribable violence upon the living, the horrors each once-human has endured manifested in excruciation upon those still fortunate enough to live.

Marshals of Ioke (September 2023)

Marching forth from the steppes of Ioke, the Marshals consider themselves enforcers, rather than conquerors. Equipped entirely with powered exo-armour, the Marshals of Ioke are each tough, well-equipped fighters, whose highest goal is to establish peace and order between the warring factions of the Promised Land. Drawing on ancient design specifications, they have advanced weapons and armour, and though it doesn’t quite rival that of the Aventine Dynasties, it allows them to mount heavier and more versatile weapons on each of their Agents – as peace can only be achieved once the other factions have laid down their arms.

Secutor Constructs

The Secutor Constructs, though perhaps not quite as collected into a faction as others in the Promised Land, are no less a force to be reckoned with. Though on the outside, Secutor Constructs seem nothing more than huge robots, each is a unique creation, even among identical designs, and has lived many human lifetimes. Though rumoured to be the product of human experimentation with machine intelligence, the Secutors have been around for so long that the concept that they might be anything less than alive has long been forgotten. Wise and calculating, with a very human capacity for spite and vengeance, each Secutor echoes the dragons of old earth; a cunning beast with an agenda of its own, but one that can be reasoned and bargained with, and perhaps befriended through aeons of allegiance to warriors and their ancestors.

From the mighty Asamus to the smaller, but no less dangerous, Myrmia, each Secutor is an army in their own right, able to lay low nigh on any other foe, but some few greater avatars of war exist, such as the Kaliakos Anathema. These towering destroyers are entirely impervious to traditional weapons, and bear weapons able to render entire battlefields a gravesite with but a single shot. Few mortals can ever hope to even scratch, never mind defeat, such war machines, but fortunately, owing to their rarity, few will ever see one – but such a sight is utterly unforgettable.

Skjalos Guard

The Skjalos Guard are the warrior caste of the Skjalos Empire and were once the greatest military force in the Promised Land. Following the fall of the heirless last Emperor, however, the Empire has been in consistent decline, and after the power grab of the nobility that once were vassals of their Emperor, the civilisation was split into territories. Though the Skjalos Guard are still a united force, they still follow the orders of each fiefdom’s noble, making for a very splintered and often directionless army, whose only aims are to retain the Sykaran borders and hold off invaders.

Master-Vigilant Anar Kaion commands the Skjalos Guard, and his tactical skill is unmatched in the realm. He is responsible for defending the Onokyan Wall from any invaders, and he leads his men with a decisive hand. In recent years the Skjalos have had to face new threats—the revenants of Astyri and the Marshals of Ioke —and Anar Kaion has been on the forefront of their battles. The nature of open warfare among the Skjalos is by no means conventional, despite the scale upon which it can wield an army - where many would assail their opponents with an indomitably large army, the Skjalos conduct war in small warbands. Born and bred in the harshest of climates, the Skjalos Guard are naturally suited to stealth and infiltration; an enemy will be entirely unaware of their impending doom until such time as a battle cry sounds and Skjalos warriors will appear from all sides, brandishing carbines and combat blades and charging forward. By this, many would-be invaders have been slaughtered long before their attempt to breach the walls has even begun.

The Skjalos Guard is a huge war machine in of itself, predominantly comprising the warriors of the Slaughter Corps, however there are a number of more specialised divisions within its ranks, such as the Hazard Corps. Assigned to the toughest environments, the Hazard Troopers are predominantly dedicated to specialised missions rather than conventional battles, and in particular guarding the wider world from Dæmonic invasions at the very gates to the Otherside. Equipped with heavy-duty atmospherically-sealed armour and reinforced plates, they are trained for the most dangerous of environments and situations. Though they are seen on the battlefield on occasion, and in various assaults on perilous locations, with all their preparation and heavy weaponry, their true purpose is to protect the incursion gates from any lurking evil, a task that required both courage and sacrifice to deny a footing on the world above from Dæmonic incursions.

Available to all divisions of the Skjalos Guard are the vast variety of tanks. One such vehicle, the Åselon, functions as both a bodyguard and support unit for the Skjalos armoured companies, and as an imposing enemy in its own right, especially in squadrons. Following traditional Skjalos doctrines, upon receiving orders to attack, Åselon squadrons maintain fire until there is nothing left of the enemy - utter destruction is the Skjalos way, and this is carried across their entire empire, earning their reputation among the most feared warriors across this desolate promised land.

Taekolta

Of all the civilisations in the Promised Land, the Taekolta are one of the few not interested in imperialism. Spread across the wilderness, tribes and settlements of the Taekolta live apart, each Kolta (or ‘people’) with their own leaders, warriors and independence, and survive in no small part by preying on nearby towns and raiding their crops and animals, and occasionally their people.

Though visions of their attacks look like a crazed assault by barbarians, each raid is carefully planned, with Wardancer shock troops charging from cover supported by rifle fire and distant sniper rifles, with the use of sorcery enhancing their speed and putting them into an inhuman frenzy of savagery and bloodlust. It is also not unheard of for their commanders to display the mutilated parts of their enemies in battle, as trophies to remind their conquests of the fate they might suffer should they try to resist the tithe the Taekolta believe they are due.

Though each community, or Kolta, acts independently and in the interests of their leading Diadoki, all are subservient to the rule of the Meridarka, the commander of the united tribes. While there are a few Koltas that have engaged the greater powers in the Promised Land, such as the Skjalos and the Marshals of Ioke, most Taekolta leaders favour raiding small communities, particularly those near the forests where they make their dwellings. Indeed, though a great part of their culture is about martial skill, and glory and social standing earned through the blade, though of course the Diadoki maintain a sense of practicality by not taking on too dangerous an enemy settlement in one go.

At large, the Taekolta maintain a keen spiritual link with the world and with the greater entities within it: the Incarnate Taeish, in particular, the manifestation of the cycles of life and rebirth, and the aspects of mysticism within that cycle. It is perhaps this that has granted the Nikyar Priesthood within their ranks the powers they have – the power of creation, and of bringing new life to the fallen. Those few the Taekolta have captured and dragged back into the darkness of the woods do not disappear, but return as horrifying creatures, mutant undead filled with dark sorcery, the spirithosts. Likewise, though somewhat apart from the Taekolta, the Dæmonica known as Argol also commands the respect, and sometimes the lives, of many tribesmen (including on occasion the loyalty of an entire Kolta) - the progeny of Taeish, an unholy creature born of human and Dæmon able to walk the earth and unleash horror upon anything in its path. Fortunately, the number of Dæmonica are very few, for they are almost gods upon the battlefield, able to single-handedly take on any number of foes and turn them particularly violently into a slurry of gore and viscera – indeed, so far, without any hint of an ability to permanently die.