Age of Sigmar: Remaking The Old World OR Hysh-jinks Ensue
Warhammer Fantasy has left its mark on the Age of Sigmar. There are a ton of legacy models that are there–but in need of reimagining. Today we take a look at how the High Elves might become Hysh Aelves.
If you look at the factions in the Age of Sigmar, you’ll see remnants of Warhamer Fantasy but done better. The Dwarves became the Fyreslayers and Kharadron Overlords, the Dark Elves have been split, with some becoming the Daughters of Khaine, and others left to be the shadowy aelves of Ulgu. The Wood Elves became the Sylvaneth and got a lot of wood spirits. Then you have factions like the Idoneth Deepkin that don’t exactly have an analogue in the World That Was (which is great, I love seeing the new work that GW is putting out, it’s inventive and fun, who wouldn’t want flying sharks).
But there are still plenty of factions to go through. Which is exciting–here at the BoLS offices we’re excited to see the new factions that are due out for the Age of Sigmar. And today we want to talk about the beings born of Hysh, the Realm of Light. In teh cataclysmic transition, Tyrion (and to a lesser extent Teclis) became gods of this realm of scholarly contemplation, magic, and introspection.
They used the siphoned souls that Slaanesh slurped, to create new beings. Inheritors of the aelven souls.
In Hysh luminous beings and angelic creatures of reason were born.
That’s what we think the high aelves–or should I say Hysh Aelves will be like. We don’t know exactly what they’ll be like yet, but you can expect a lot of angelic aesthetics. A lot of the old High Elf units are in the game–sort of–you can certainly build an army of Phoenix Guard and Dragon Wizards out of the Eldritch Council–but that lacks that distinct Age of Sigmar feeling.
It seems like slowly but surely they’re making their way through the “legacy” factions and updating them. So the Hysh Aelves will be angelic creatures. Beings of light and reason makes me think of the angels out of Diablo.
There’s Tyrael and then of course we have Auriel
The reason I mention these characters is to highlight their wings especially. We’ve already seen how much they love to have both flying models, and models that connect to bases in interesting ways. You’ve got pretty much every model in the Night Haunt army connected via weird wispy cloaks, or spectral tendrils. It seems like flowing/glowing wings are a given for this new faction.
Especially since Hysh has these big open aerial spaces. One of the things that defined the old High Aelves is their haughtiness and their mastery of both swords and magic. I imagine we’ll see a lot of flying strikers. Mobile skirmishers who are good at darting in. Especially if they can take some time to charge themselves up.
The new Sequitors out of the Stormcast Sacrosanct chamber are a good bellwether for this. They can decide where they’re channeling their power at the start of each of their turns, and it changes the way they work. I think this is a mechanic we’re likely to see more of. This might be how we see units like the Silver Helms redone. Returned to the game in a new form, since I think the models are gone. All the Highborn will probably make some kind of appearance, but the real bread and butter of the army will be whatever angelic beings are out there.
Just like the real fun of a Daughters of Khaine army are the Melusai and the Khinerai–sure it’s great to take a bunch of Witches and run them screaming with their knives into the enemy–but Morathi and her brood are the visual stars of the show. I expect we’ll see Tyrion or Teclis make an appearance when they get around to them, along with a bunch of units that are ready to battle the Chaos that has conquered their home realm.
What do you think the aelves of Hysh will be like? How would you put the faction together? What would you change, what would you want to add?
