Greater Daemon of Obol, Chaos God of the Old World

#28magchallenge is back with another great prompt, and of course I had to make something for it. This time participants were invited to create a fifth Chaos god. So here's my scratch-built contribution, a Greater Daemon of the Chaos God of the Old World. More pics and story below the jump...

~~~~~

Obol, The Chaos God of the Old World

Obol never lived in the Old World. He came into being in the wake of its demise, one of many new gods born out of an Empyrean set roiling with the cataclysmic obliteration of millions of souls. Though he would never have existed if the Old World continued on as normal, he is anguished more than anything that it was ever destroyed. Obol is empowered by the mortal people’s belief in the World-That-Was. Of course there are no true memories since there are none living that remember it. But there are legends that he jealously hungers after and collects. To him, the Mortal Realms are a fracturing of the true World – a refraction of a single original light into eight colors, as if by a prism. His ultimate goal is to recombine the Realms into one World.

Obol's aspect is pompous and staid. His modest domain in the Realm of Chaos is minutely divided – in cultish imitation of Old World officiousness – into dukedoms, fiefdoms, provinces, principalities, prefects, shires, demesnes, counties, oblasts and so on. These are awarded to his daemon princes, then just as fickly confiscated and reassigned to others, according to an inscrutable system of status and etiquette.

His followers are organised in a chaotic hierarchy of dukes, knights-of-the-realm, princes and princesses, emirs, marquises, burgomeisters, chevaliers, lords, viceroys, barons and yet further grandiosities. All are precisely aware of their own pre-eminence, but oblivious of their peers’. A daemon who angers Obol may find itself demoted from arch-duke to baronet, and never know the difference.

His armies favour an old-fashioned battle style, fighting in strict rank-and-file. Nonetheless they excel at strategy, discipline, and martial ability. Besides soldiers, he has a devoted following of flagellants and other cultists.

As a lesser god, Obol's greater daemons are no match for a Bloodthirster or Keeper of Secrets, but they still stand twice the height of a man and would easily dominate a lesser daemon of the major powers in combat. They take the appearance of monstrous landsknechts, wielding elaborate halberds and flame-swords. The lesser daemons of Obol are a confusing gaggle of bestial, misshapen fiends in mismatched armour.

Obol is often depicted as a gryphon with the face of a man, and sometimes as a tall man with a draconine tail, wearing a suit of armour decorated with monstrous faces. His sacred number is 1000, sometimes divided into 100 or 10.

~~~~~

Image from WikiCommons

From Pieter Bruegel's Avarice (Avaritia)

Illustrations by François Desprez from Les songes drolatiques de Pantagruel

~~~~

So Obol is kind of a meta deity. Personally I've come to really like the Age of Sigmar setting. In fact most of my projects depend on the Mortal Realms setting and its tension with the world that came before it. My Relic Lizardmen are evacuees who narrowly escaped the End Times, and settled in the prehistory of the Mortal Realms. My Moon Aelves are a faction of Jules-Vernian space faeries who couldn't have existed in the Old World. I also like the freedom the setting allows for small warband projects in Warcry. But I get why fans miss the rich setting of the Old World– I miss it too.

Like all Chaos deities, Obol has a duality. To his followers he represents the surviving memory of the Old World (he's one Chaos god who does not like Archaon at all). But he couldn't have existed in the Old World, a small pond already full of Chaos Gods, where the mortal population weren't the biggest fans of the grim world they lived in. As much as it pains him, Obol could only ever have come into being after the world he represents was already gone.

Because of that, the Old World that Obol represents is a jumble of symbols that aren't really accurate. His daemons are Boschean combinations of heraldic beasts. He doesn't represent what I'd think of as real old-school Oldhammer, which would look more like the work of Kev Adams and Bob Olley. He's more like Warhammer Fantasy seen from the perspective of Age of Sigmar.

I think alternative Greater Daemons of Obol could draw inspiration from other parts of the Old World. While this one mimics the central Empire style, I think its counterparts could take after the martial traditions of Araby or Cathay, while keeping the same body shape. I hope the upcoming Old World reboot fleshes out some of those places that were rarely seen in Warhammer Fantasy.

Painting this was both a lot of fun and a lot of pain. It's a very silly model and at times during the process I found myself hating it! In the end I embraced the silliness and I think it turned out well.

~~~~~

Now I have a handful of conversions on the back burner that were sort of becoming a Mordheim warband but might work as Lesser Daemons of Obol. If I ever finish them ;-)

Hek