VAMPIRE COUNTS DESIGNER'S NOTES
Alessio Cavatore talks about how he developed the Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts book, as well as some of the more colourful characters appearing in the new army lists.
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Alessio Cavatore |
HERE WE GO AGAIN
The idea of remaking the Vampire Counts as one of the first four army lists
for the new edition of Warhammer was essentially dictated by the range of models
available. The Vampire Counts were the last army list of the past edition, and
were released less than two years ago. The models sculpted for them are still
new and excellent, so it seemed to be a good move to publish a new edition of
rules for them soon after the release of Warhammer. The only part of the range
which we felt we had not developed to its full potential were the Vampires themselves.
So the miniatures designers were set to work and the new Vampires were created. The models are absolutely gorgeous and the 'Eavy Metal team turned them into veritable masterpieces (have a look at the photos throughout the magazine if you don't believe me!).
The massed ranks of the dead rise once more to defend their tombs against
troops of the Empire.
BIRTH OF A NEW VAMPIRE LINE
In the initial brief I received, the book was to contain the same four Bloodlines
it had had in the previous version. I thought that it was a pity not to do anything
new background-wise. The ancient texts speak of seven Vampire Masters escaping
from the ruins of ancient Lahmia. That detail gave me the freedom I needed to
expand the rich background of the Vampires and I proposed the creation of a
new Bloodline. To back up the proposal I had to come up with a series of different
concepts (sketches of new ideas, not fully developed yet) to be examined and
approved. With the invaluable help of Tuomas and Gav, who helped me keep the
focus on sensible ideas (No Hong Kong hopping Vampires!, no invisible models!,
etc.), I ended up with eight concepts for the new Bloodline. Put yourself in
our shoes and try to decide which one of the concepts would be created as a
fully-fledged Vampire bloodline. Here they are:
The
dandy, city-dwelling Vampire who hunts in high society (Tom Cruise or
Antonio Banderas in Interview with the Vampire).- A tribal bloodline from the Southlands, mostly based on voodoo magic and folklore (have you seen the Candyman series? Watch out for mirrors!).
- A manipulative, gluttonous and overweight monster and his underlings (a vampiric Jabba the Hut, Baron Vladimir Harkonnen from Dune, the gross demon in Buffy, the keeper of the Vampires' library in Blade or Fat Bloke and his WD team!).
- The leader of a thugee-like, death-worshipping cult from the steaming jungles of the East (who can forget the heart-ripping bad guy in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?).
- The fallen angel, a modern vegetarian Vampire with a conscience (Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire or Brandon Lee in The Crow. OK, I know he wasn't a Vampire, but he certainly was an Undead hero).
- A mysterious oriental bloodline from Cathay (Emperor Ming the Merciless meets Fu Man Chu. Have you seen Big Trouble in Little China?).
- The Ghoul King who reigns over his court of foul things and hides in dark crypts, shunned by the living and by the other Vampires, devoured by an eternal all-encompassing hatred (a very Lovecraftian character, I imagined it as an oversized Gollum from Lord of the Rings or, if you have watched Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, it's Dracula in his bat-monster shape, just before he turns into a rat swarm).
- The last one I won't reveal here, because it did not go into the book, but we will use it in the future as a new Bloodline. Curious? Watch this space…
So, which one would you have chosen? Well, after much indecision, the Ghoul King eventually triumphed and I developed the Strigoi Vampire (Strigoi is a deformed version of the Romanian word for 'Vampire'). More details on these accursed monsters and their creation are to be found in the following pages.
