Age of Sigmar - Relic Lizardmen

Since there's some Lizardish rumblings coming from Games Workshop, I'm gonna reveal an Age of Sigmar project I've had on the backburner for a few months: Relic Lizardmen. While AoS's Seraphon are their own thing, and Daemons of Order is a cool idea, I'm aiming with this project to rehabilitate the Lizardmen of Lustria as gribbly monster-people: dinosaurian, antediluvian, insectile, chimeric, malarial, amphibian, bug-eyed, hexapodal, photosynthetic, piscine, exotic, Mesozoic, grotesque, earthy. Unlike the Chaotic beastmen, the Relic Lizardmen aren't mutants but an evolving and proliferating species of terriffic biodiversity. That doesn't jibe with being made of starlight and moonbeams, so instead these Lizardmen are a remnant group, living fossils that survived the destruction of the Old World.

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When the Old World fell, not all of the Lizardmen could flee off-world. One of the youngest Slann – guided by a vision – led his few surviving subjects to safety through the Winding Gate deep in the catacombs beneath the temple-pyramid of their city. With Chaos upon their city, the survivors were scant few and painfully injured. Outside, the great beasts of the city and the majority of its military guarded the city until they fell with it. In the tunnels, Kroxigors carried with them the waters of the spawning pools in great clay urns and eggs of the Lustrian beasts in stone caskets. The sacred texts and plaques were abandoned – the plans of the Old Ones had reached their completion in this world. The name of the city was lost with the Old World.

The exodites’ journey through the Winding Gate was decades long. Though they never left the tunnels, their path seemed to take them through places that were not underground. All the while, their Slann priest’s power sustained the integrity of the Gate and they could never stop to rest.

Their journey brought them finally to a strange plane - some forested corner of the Realm of Light. It was unlike Lustria, but it was a place where they could survive. The spiritual burden of the journey had killed their Slann priest - perhaps long before they had even exited the Gate - but his innate power lasted within his remains and continued to guide them to this new place. The waters of the spawning pools filled new wells and lakes and began to bear life again. The lizardmen took to their new corner of the New World alone, without the sacred purpose the Old Ones had granted them in the world-that-was. The Gate closed behind them, or was forgotten, or fell into ruin, or departed by itself.

Millions of years passed.

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Three skinks

I've wanted to do this project a long time, even before the excursion to Mordheim that I've been posting this year. I always loved Lizardmen, although I was never enamored of the models. For this project I aim to not use any of the Seraphon/Lizardmen range and instead kitbash other models. I've been inspired by the #AoS28 reimaginings of old Warhammer armies, especially by the work over at Ex Profundis (check out Bruticus's Swamp Aelves). The fantastic Monster Brains blog is another touchpoint from which I've sourced loads fo gribbly monster pics. While my Relic Lizardmen are gonna be gnarly, I'm planning to paint them very colorfully. This is gonna be a small project but hopefully unique.

I have a couple small units almost completed converting, and some more models on the way. Until I get round to photographing them, below is a small moodboard collection I've been referring to.

Image: John Martin

Image: Maria Sibylla Merian 

Image: Leonard Baskin

Image: Josep Baqué

Image: Hannes Bok

More model pics to come soon!

Hek