Undead Legion of Lahmia

[Asurion Whitestar]

Hey everyone, when I first got into Vampire Counts, it was with the release of their 6th ed book. I fell completely in love with the different bloodlines, at the time especially Lahmians, and to a lesser extent Blood Dragons, later on the Von Carsteins and Strigio. I was pretty into the Barrow Kings army list supplement in WD as well.

Then they released 7th edition, which promptly destroyed all that I loved about the lore of the vampires with them focusing so heavily on Von Carsteins.
8th wasn't much better either.

Anyway, with new Nagash 'expansion/supplement', and with the somewhat return of the Undead Legion, I find myself swept away with the possibilities of reanimating (pun intended) my army again.
So without further ado, I give you the following.

Disclaimer: this is pretty hobby heavy, story heavy and list light. :3
I'll be adding some pics pretty soon when I get the conversions back together otherwise all what I'd be posting is pics of the actual models.

LAHMIAN CONCEPT:

Nefertiri was the first born daughter of Ahnkanaten, a high council member of Rasetra. She was a beautiful girl and grew into an even more beautiful woman. Her beauty ran as deep as bone and she always tried to help those she cared for.
Her beauty was matched only by her intelligence, she learned many secrets of the Mortuary Cult from her younger brother Imhotep, this was forbidden but a little thing like that didn't deter Imhotep from sharing the knowledge freely with his sister. From a very young age, she had a thirst for arcane knowledge and read everything she could on the subject.
In fact, Nefertiri didn't understand when her brother Imhotep was born and taken by the Mortuary Cult in his young years that she could not go with him and was greatly irritated by this.
Imhotep knew this and perhaps that was partly the reason why he shared his teachings with her. She especially enjoyed conversing with him about the topics of the afterlife and of the soul.

Imhotep was a tall slender handsome man, he excelled in all teachings of magic and learned very swiftly how to read the fickle changes upon the god's breaths and use them to his advantage.

Nefertiri often found kinship with animals growing up, most often animals of the desert, like vipers, scorpions and even ibises and hawks. She would talk to them as if they were family members, and they seemed to understand and were always around her, keeping a watchful eye on her all the way into adulthood.

Sanura was Nefertiri's younger sister and much preferred the arts of war over the arcane. Nevertheless the two sisters got along great and often played games together as Sanura grew into a fine young beautiful and very deadly woman. Her weapons of choice were warrior-talons, razor sharp golden claws able to puncture the vital organs and arteries of her enemies with ease.
She married a wealthy and kind nobleman of Lybaras and they had twins, a girl they named Aerinatep and a boy they named Alinakenaten.

Upon hearing the early rumours from Lahmia, Nefertiri set out at once to the grand city to learn all she could of the rumour's truth, and if they were, learn all the knowledge she could of the forbidden arcane rites being practiced there.
She swiftly learned of the early Queen of Mysteries agenda by means of her animal companions and offered herself to Neferata as a servant in hopes of learning some of her powerful secrets.
She of course didn't know about her Queens true nature until after she was given the Blood Kiss. Nefertiri became one of the many princesses of Lahmia, a handmaiden and consort of Neferata's whom revelled in her new lavish lifestyle, befitting her newly attained position. But remained equally focused on her arcane education.

Nura often came to Lahmia to visit her older sister, she didn't know at first what her older sister had become but after several meetings at night and within the palace courtyards she put things together and confronted Nefertiri about her strange mannerisms and lifestyle. Tiri told her sister the truth that night and after a very lengthy conversation, Sanura left feeling more than a little uneasy about her sister. While walking back to her villa, Sanura was assailed by a small band of outlaws. They brutally bludgeoned her with maces before stripping her, and raping her cooling body before leaving with her jewellery and silk clothes.
It didn't take long for the news to reach Nefertiri from her animal spies. She blistered through the city like a shadowy bolt of lightning, finding her sister naked and covered in blood she frantically bit her own wrist and let her blood pour into her sister's mouth, but it was sadly too late to save her.
Nefertiri let out a soul-wrenching, grief-stricken scream that echoed throughout the buildings and enveloped the city boundaries.
Nefertiri carried her sister's body to one of the Mortuary Cult temples of Lahmia to be cleansed of the impurities from the attack and for the rites of the afterlife to be performed.
So enraged with what had happened to her little sister, Nefertiri scoured the city in the hours before dawn and found and killed over three dozen men that matched the description given by her animals, before finally finding the culprits. Still dripping with the smell of her sister, she flew into rage and as painfully as possible destroyed not only their bodies, but their souls as well.

Nefertiri escaped with her queen during the sacking of Lahmia.
Leaving behind her beloved and ever loyal family. Only her brother Imhotep, her late sister Sanura's twin children Alinakenaten and his sister Aerinatep survived the aftermath of Lahmia's sacking, as all houses connected to the cursed city were hunted to cut out any surviving taint.

The Princess of Lahmia later took up residence in the World's Edge Mountains of ancient Sylvannia. Raising great walls of rock and naming the great city that evolved there Lahmizar in recognition of her roots.

Prince Ali was poisoned by one of the agents of light sent to assassinate his sister, giving his life to save hers. He was mummified within the secret bowels of their family's Necropolis, alongside his mother.

Aerin and her uncle set off to find Nefertiri after a few months in hiding. They found her by following several hundred scorpions, khepri beetles and serpents into the mountains far to the west.
Upon finding her they swore to never leave each other again. To cement the pact, Tiri turned her niece into a Vampire and would've done the same for her brother but with his knowledge from the Mortuary Cult he was already immortal.

Aerinatep was a tall slender figure, with jet black hair and pale complexion, even before turning. She was and remains as young-looking and beautiful as she did in life. Aerin followed in her aunt and uncle's footsteps and became a very powerful Priestess of the unsanctified magical arts. She was fascinated by her blood and used it to created several powerful enchanted objects to help in her twisted dark rites of soul-catching and blood magic.

Nefertiri is a stunningly gorgeous being and often appears innocent to naive-minded individuals, this is of course only her guise for the mortals she preys on. For in truth she is a terribly powerful being and practitioner of the dark arts, and would just as easily cast a deathly spell upon her enemies without a single word being uttered, as she would tear them limb from limb, rip the still beating heart from their chests in an instant, or beguile them into doing that themselves, just to offer it to her before they die.

As with all true Lahmians, she enjoys bending the minds of strong and powerful individuals to her whim, and revels in the courtly games of treason and regicide she makes her swains carry out.

- Bolstering the ranks through the millennia -

After the great awakening in Nehekhara, Imhotep travelled back to the family tomb-pyramid and gathered and awoke all he could. To his glee, his sister and nephew were alive - so to speak - and they rejoiced in the family being together again. Imhotep animated all the watchful constructs within and without with the souls of their family's warriors, he also stitched the souls of Nefertiri's personal guard, bone chariots and palace knights back into their mummified corporeal bodies. Imhotep found his childhood pet vulture amongst the mummified creatures and brought his childhood friend back to be his familiar.

Several small armies and warbands of would be heroes have met their ends at the hands of the close-knit family coven.

More notably:

A Dwarf Lord from Karak Kadrin named Grimny Ironheart marched with his army of elite warriors and Thanes to snuff out the Undead threat that had been harassing the Dwarven caravans over the past decades. When the Dwarves arrived at the mountainous stronghold they found nothing but death. The short warriors were ambushed by terrible magics and giant stone constructs that crushed their force with ease. As the stunted warriors fell, their spirits were trapped in the servitude of Nefertiri as a vast host of spectres, attacking their former comrades from betwixt dimensions.

A Dragon Lord of the elves ever seeking glory lost his faithful Star Dragon to a Necrosphinx's mighty arm blades plunged deep into the ancient dragon's heart. Although the unnamed elf escaped with his retinue of knights, his mount Arkarthinira was drained of her life blood for necromantic rituals and shackled into service as an unliving colossal beast of war. With her mighty ancient soul trapped between the living realm and that if the dead, her once fiery breath was now a breath of spiritual terror.
Her blood was used for many, many things and massive quantities were stored in the alchemical vaults of Nefertiri's mountainous palace.
The Arkar-blood was drunk by the Lahmians and to their surprise it freed them from the need of mortal blood as sustenance.
Aerinatep in particular drank vast quantities while bloodletting to create a powerful ever-flowing source of arcanistic blood to empower her Casket of Blood.

In the most recent decades, forces have come from the Empire and Bretonnia.

Count Sigmund Hart of Averheim, at the request of his stunning young daughter Viktoria came with his fabled Knights of the Order of Lunas. The Lunas Knights were charged with eradicating the undead in the mountains north of Black Fire Pass. They were no match for the vampires of Lahmizar and were added to the ranks of undead as scores of mortals did before them.

Sir Remy Etienne of Quenelles, set out with a small band of questing knights, a few Pegasus Knights and a hundred Knights of his realm, following a vision from his beautiful young daughter Ariadne. All pathetically followed by small pack of Grail pilgrims.

They searched far and long, crossing the Empire of Karl Franz and into the World's Edge Mountains. There they finally found the holy relic, a giant shimmering goblet alight with a mystical glow - unbeknownst to the holy knights, it was Nefertiri's blood mixed with wine, laid there as a trap for such noble humans of the west - the entire questing fellowship shared the golden goblet's contents at twilight. The remainder of the knights celebrated wildly with bitter wines and strong ales, the grail knights not wanting to taint their glorious attainments only drank from the ever-flowing goblet to which they shared their victory only with their steeds.
The lower knights drank themselves swiftly into unconsciousness, but as they slept, their betters turned through the night, and the hunger set in.

The newly empowered grail knights looked over their encampment with salivating eyes and in the moons' light, they killed and drank from every knight, their undead steeds brutally attacking the sleeping stallions and lapping the life blood from the rocky ground. Only a handful of knights woke from their alcohol-fuelled slumber, but were almost instantly cut down by the rampaging undead thralls, indeed all the few managed to muster were deep breaths of inhalation, in preparation for wailings and warnings, but were killed before they could exhale a single breath.

Before long their very essence started to change, their strong sense of knightly honour was perhaps the only trait to remain unchanged, but no doubt they were darker individuals, caring not if they fed on the living, so long as they slew them with honour, to never repeat their horrifying actions from their rebirth.

The Blood Knights followed a calling from their new Queen of whom's cursed blood ran through their veins. They arrived at Lahmizar and Tiri named them the Wardens of the Night.

The pilgrims that followed the knights did so to the fateful outcrop where the fellowship of knights only a few weeks earlier found the unholy chalice. Having come across a relative field of death and decay, and crazed with starvation that many of them fell to, the pilgrims hastily ate the flesh of the slaughtered nobility, hungrily picking at what meat remained amongst the maggots and tattered and rotting clothing. This cannibalistic ritual was the last catalyst for full insanity taking over. Perhaps it was the action of consuming human flesh, or the blood soaked soil that they bathed in was rich with the magic of Undeath, or perhaps they were but unconsciously following their deity knights into undeath as sheep follow a shepherd.
They slowly made their way to Nefertiri's mountain palace and the survivors now serve their beloved knights as almost living retainers. Grail Ghouls that still religiously follow their Blood Knights everywhere.
Of those pilgrims that fell from disease and famine, they were carted as a mass of decaying dead and upon reaching their new mountainous crypt, Imhotep fused their corpses and souls together in a single entity to forge a monster born on rickety wheels and a platform from which to unleash minor curses and cantrips for his apprentices.

The other sorry knights of Quenelles were reanimated as dark shadowy knights, the steeds almost spectral and able to cross any terrain without hinderance. While some of the more tormented souls were wholly spectral, but still managed to maintain a hold of their semi-corporeal weapons. Their eternal torment magnified by their Vampiric queen's will, and upon stepping into the physical dimension they would burst into soul splintered flames.

Viktoria and Ariadne were blood sisters, after sending a few hundred more men to their deaths at Lahmizar they headed back to their queen and accompany her atop her Coven Throne.

_________________________________
Model list.
Units:
Characters
6+ Lahmian Vampires (incl; 5th ed Neferata, 6th ed mounted/foot versions with cat and asp, 5th ed twin swords)
1x Vlad and Isabella set (5th ed)
5+ Von Carstein Vampires (6th ed mounted/foot versions, female 7th ed)
1x Strigoi (6th ed metal)
5+ Blood Dragons (Lord on Winged Nightmare, foot/mounted 6th ed with dragon lance [not the Flayed Hauberk models], on foot 5th ed)
3x Tomb Princes/Kings (current metals)
2x Khalida (1x is converted to a BSB)
2x Liche Priests (both on foot, 6th ed and current converted finecast)
1x Necrotect
3+ Necromancers (all on foot; metal 5th and 6th ed and current plastic from corpse cart)
1x Bretonnian Lord on Hippogriff (Louen Leoncouer, converted with Blood Dragon Helm, all Lions removed from heraldry)
1x Bretonnian Lord with axe (6th ed metal)
1x Bretonnian Lord with Dragon lance (6th ed metal)
2x Fey Enchantresses (6th)

Core
Tomb Kings mainly, with some Vampire Counts parts thrown in.
6+ Chariots (normal and Warsphinx howdah and crew)
20x Dire Wolves (6th and current mix)
8+ Skelly Cav (bow or spear)
64+ Skelly Archers/Warriors

Special
1x Warsphinx with Prince.
6x Fell Bats
30+ Tomb Guard (current plastics)
25x Grave Guard (6th ed metal)
25+ Bretonnian Knights (5th/6th ed plastic Knights mix)
1x Tomb Scorpion (Tomb Asp: from Tomb Kings Necropolis Knights box, 2x left over)
3x Necropolis Knights
3x Great Bow Ushabti
2x Corpse Carts (actual plastic and the other converted from Bretonnian grail pilgrims)

Rare
10+ Blood Knights (Bretonnian 6th ed metal Grail knights and 5th ed metal/plastic mix)
13+ Wraiths (6th ed metals, with some conversion work)
5x Banshees (5th/6th ed metals)
2x Vargulf (current metal and reaper Zombie Werewolf)
1x Black Coach (current metal pulled by current plastic Bretonnian Pegasus)
1x Necrosphinx
1x Terrorghiest (Nethyrmaul reaper bones dragon)
1x Necrolith Colossi (will be converted from a Skeleton teaching aid)
1x Casket of Souls (converted with Dark Elves CoB cauldron, metal 6th ed Tomb Guard and twin sword Lahmian Vamp from 5th)

_________________________________

Army List

Lords-
Nefertiri, Shadow Queen of Lahmizar (Vampire Lord)
General
Lv 4 Wizard (Vampires)
Mounted on Coven Throne (with Viktoria and Ariadne)
Equipment: Heavy armour and shield.
Magic Items: A Talisman of Presevation, the Nightshroud & a Sword of Striking.
Vampiric Powers: Master of the Black Arts & Aura of Dark Majesty.

Imhotep, Eternal Liche King (Master Necromancer)
Lv 4 Wizard (Undeath)
Magic Items: The Cursed Book & an Obsidian Loadstone.
Power: Master of the Dead.

Heroes-
Sanura, Tomb Princess and Icon Bearer of Lahmizar (Wight King)

Special-
Alinakenaten, Warrior Prince on his Warsphinx (Khemrian Warsphinx)

Rare-
Aerinatep, Princess of Blood with her Casket of Blood (Casket of Souls)

[Asurion Whitestar]

I should have added, any comments and or suggestions, did I say anything that doesn't make lore sense?

And also thanks and well done if you managed to get through it all.. It's pretty large.

[John Rainbow]

Prince Ali

Fabulous he!
Ali Ababwa
Genuflect, show some respect
Down on one knee!

Sorry this is all I can think of at the moment. This totally got the genie stuck in my head

[Asurion Whitestar]

Prince Ali

Fabulous he!
Ali Ababwa
Genuflect, show some respect
Down on one knee!

Sorry this is all I can think of at the moment. This totally got the genie stuck in my head

That's what I was going for :3.

[Giladis]

I find it interesting and compelling but the names just don't work form me. They break my suspension of disbelief.

[Asurion Whitestar]

I find it interesting and compelling but the names just don't work form me. They break my suspension of disbelief.

You find them believable..?

Thank you for your input, what would you change with the pronouns..?

[Giladis]

I generaly try to avoid using real world names in WHFB since those names usually have a luggage of their own and create certain ideas and images in the reader that might not match what you had in mind.


For example when I was creating names for my TK army back in 2003 I took an Egyptian royal listing and then deformed to a lesser or greater extent given names.

To an untrained reader listener those names would sound ancient egyptian without actually being ancient names. That allows me to create what ever image I want to attach to the name without any wider available perceptions carried with the name.


I hope it makes sense what I am writing

[Asurion Whitestar]

Which names are giving you nightmares..?

I'm not sure that many people know of Imhotep the Polymath.