Designer interview on how they designed the new Helsmiths of Hashut units. There are some new lore bits, like how the trinkets by the waist of the infantrymen signifies some sort of debt the Helsmiths currently owe.
Good to see that GW included the last names of the people featured in this video. I hope this is a sign of proper crediting to come from them further on.
It's a figleaf of an excuse and one that appears to come from the fans. Former GW staff have been explicit about GW's concerns over 'celebs' building up a rep and then leaving the company to start their own businesses, a la Duncan Rhodes.
That and the fact that some of the times names were stripped were in contexts where it just wouldn't matter, unless GW were trying to diminish recognition of individuals in favour of the IP (e.g., artists' credits, early AoS novels).
Something to add is that its not just management thing but also started with Rick Priestley iirc not wanting for "cults of personality" to be related to the writers/artists, he himself did follow this principle on his later works relating to GW products (way way way before it was the norm) (eg. Removing his own name in the list of credits by choice) (I remember this by memory from an interview, this was mentioned specifically regarding a Space Wolves codex, iirc 4th edition but I need to check again the specifics)
So its something that a singular guy believed that management co-opted, I utterly disagree personally with it but there is a logic to it that isn't just mustache twirling management
Exactly look at Trench Crusade. A good portion of their success has been partially due to the fact that its creators are ex-GW talent. Their names gave the setting/game more legitimacy, legendary GW artist (Mike Franchina), games writer (Tuomas Pirinen), and sculptor (James Sheriff).
It is a nod to dread fleet, one of the two ship combat games from WFB. In Dreadfleet there was a dwarfen engineer who fell to chaos (so not a typical chaos dwarf). Said chaos dwarf forged a giant mechanical kraken as a submarine/battleship and turned to piracy. It was one of the offical ships for Count Noctilus armada.
If I recall correctly the dwarf did went east to study under the regular chaos dwarfs but I cannot remember proper.
Dreadfleet was a game about a bunch of unique flagships fighting each other. An alliance of sorta Order factions against a group of evil guys working with Count Noctilis, a former Von Carsteins vampire.
One of the guys who worked with Noctilus was a Dwarf who was corrupted by Chaos (notable not an actual Chaos Dwarf from the Darklands, but one from the mainstay empire). His flagship was a giant daemon engine he created called the Black Kraken. It was a one-off thing that makes it surprising they remembered it (since Dreadfleet was infamous for selling extremely poorly to the point GW execs gathered the entire company to watch their stock of the boardgame get put into a garbage crusher as a messed up message to them). But its really cool that the Helsmiths have an ocean based contingent inspired by him.
Doesn't mean the Helsmiths themselves have mecha Krakens mind. The reference is just to explain why they are in the ocean. But it's very possible to have a daemon engine inspired by it in AoS given how much we already have ocean based creatures in rosters like the Idoneth.
Do you have a source on that stock crushing thing? I know it sold infamously poorly and was recalled, to the point of having a kind of hangover in GW memory, but that bit's interesting.
The source is Peachy back when he was a host on the Painting Phase podcast on Youtube. He used to be one of the guys who did painting tutorials for Warhammer Community stuff, but before that he was an army painter who would do the big army painting jobs for the marketing pictures.
I forget which episode it was specifically (I'll try to find it for you when I have time!), but he was the one that shared that story and how it kind of crushed morale at the company.
They mentionned that the Ashen Elders, Daemonsmiths and Despots are all vying for prominence.
My guess is that the Forge Anathema is the city of the Daemonsmiths, likely with Urak Tarr as the de facto suprême ruler, Ur-Zorn the city of the Elders (probably lead by lamassus in secret) and Muspelzharr controlled mostly by War Despots. Hopefully that duardin they showed next to the map is a named character from there and not just artwork of a random razer.
Like the small neat bit of lore that those 'tokens' typically worn around some of the model's cloth belts are in fact more then just decoration, they showcase a sign of debt owed to another
Its kind of odd the color schemes do not match the Realms they are in. Like the Red one should be Aqshy and not Shyish and the Purple one should be in Shyish. Or the Turquoise one should be Ghyran.
But I am headcanon it that this represents the Helsmiths being so out of tune with the Realms as they only see it as something to despoil they are rejecting the usually color schemes logic we get.
I kind of like it because it shows that realms don't have a monopoly on a certain color (shyish and purple, Ghyran and green, etc). As someone who enjoys the lore and painting, that's nice to see. Obviously we can paint our minis however we want but when you're into the lore, examples of this are always welcome.
It is kind of neat, the conflicting colours showing the Helsmiths desires to exploit the realms rather then belong in them (aside from Muspelzharr, a place perfect for evil industrialist duardin)
Plus it's kind of nice them not having the typical colours, else they might end up looking like say Lethis 2.0 but Duardin
But I am headcanon it that this represents the Helsmiths being so out of tune with the Realms as they only see it as something to despoil they are rejecting the usually color schemes logic we get.
That’s the vibes I get too, I think that was even touched on in TWW that their diplomacy only speaks their language because they demand others to conform to them.
And like even when Hashut got to Ghur his first thought was “F you all I’m magically chaining beast spirits to clay golems to make robots in this stinking animal realm!”
Freeguild: “just go with the Realm’s flow, dude.”
Helsmith’s: “Curse you, no one tells ME what to do!” (Extra points of you read it in Flintheart Glumgold’s voice)
Since they have a major city in Aqhsy and one in Chamon, both realms claimed by Hashut, I hope we get some lore about them fighting Blades of Khorne and Disciples of Tzeentch since they also claim those realms.
If I'm right that the Forge Anathema has a special emphasis on Deamonsmiths and the Muspelzharr on War despots and regular warriors, that even gives us a nice warrior/sorcerer matchup in each realm, which is neat.
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u/Captaniser 1d ago
Good to see that GW included the last names of the people featured in this video. I hope this is a sign of proper crediting to come from them further on.