Vastarian: Houston 2024 Day 3

With immense mental fortitude, Saint Voskhodh - the Voice of the Outer Dark, clawed their way back from the brink of doom, escaping the damning clutches of the Empyrean, intent on activating the lighthouse at Ravachol.

It is hard to fathom, but it has been over a year since we, with the help of Bill Ford, hosted our first Inq28 narrative event: Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious! While we covered the first two days of the event (see here and here), life intervened, and we did not share what happened on the final day. We wanted to rectify this and start sharing how the event concluded! On the final day, all the participants played multiple simultaneous games, culminating in the final confrontation at the hyperradiant lighthouse in Ravachol, Vastarian. We plan to post numerous updates documenting the chaos of these games, aiming to give readers a glimpse into the multiple narratives unfolding. Hopefully, this time it will not take an entire year to finish!

Vastarian: Church Raid

The Cult of the Lantern (created by rojasnoirlac) has made its way to Ravachol, Vastarian.

Recently, when Bill Ford was in Maryland for a work trip, we had the good fortune of meeting up with him and Dave Taylor! Not wanting to miss the opportunity to roll some dice, we were able to set up Bill’s Chapel board and play a game within our Vastarian setting! Below are some photos from the game with a loose narrative conveyed in the captions.

Vastarian: Houston 2024 Day 2

Death Was The Colour.

Here at Between the Bolter and Me, we have spent the entirety of 2024 working on Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, our Warhammer 40,000 setting. During that time, we have been encouraging others to get involved with it as a collaborative worldbuilding effort. The setting revolves around the cathedral world of Vastarian, which is home to hundreds of disparate Imperial religious sects, each venerating the God-Emperor of Mankind in their own unique way. The opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, a great tear in the fabric of the Milky Way Galaxy, has resulted in a psychic awakening across the populace of Vastarian. Each religious sect on the planet now believes that they alone were blessed with a psychic emissary touched by the Emperor himself. The tenuous peace on Vastarian has now devolved to bloodshed and persecution. During this psychic turmoil, the purifying radiance of the Emperor, the Astronomican, plummeted as if it were a tallow candle guttering in a tumultuous wind. In desperation, many of the Spyrehead conclaves on the planet pooled their resources and delved deeply into crumbling treatises on the nature of astropathic beacons and put into motion a fantastical gambit: fortifying the principle lighthouse in Ravachol as a psychic conduit to amplify the waning Astronomican.

In an effort to continue developing the setting, with the help of Bill Ford we hosted our first Inq28 narrative event at Asgard Games from November 15-17. You can read about the first day of the event here. The second day was the core of the entire event, where participants played three games that would lead up to a final game the following day (Day 3). There would be no way for us to capture every game played during the event, but we want to share pictures and write some evocative captions to help convey what happened in the games we were involved in. We hope you enjoy them!

Vastarian: Updated Rules for the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Church of the Red Athenæum.

Shortly after announcing the Vastarian Open Invitational, we created a post showcasing potential rules for our Church of the Red Athenæum cult using different rule systems, including Necromunda, Forbidden Psalm, and MiniGangs. The intent was to get people thinking about getting into the setting, adapting any ruleset they are comfortable with. Now that we are very close to holding our first Vastarian event alongside Bill Ford, we thought it would be instructive to showcase our finalized Church of the Red Athenæum warband for the event. The ruleset we are using for the event is a simplified version of Necromunda (2023) with elements from Mordheim.

Vastarian: The Knights of Reclamation

And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives.

Since its creation, we have been thrilled with how many people have gotten involved in our Open Invitational Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious, including through our contest, creating Cult Shrines, and creating civilian cultists. Some people have even created entire warbands that they sent to be used in the event, including an amazing Adeptus Mechanicus Cult by Nicky Grillet. Excitingly, this week, our friend Jake (@master_splinters_pizza_kits) provided us with a warband he created for use in the Vastarian event in Houston this month!

Vastarian: Contest Update

“Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.”

We are excited to say that our Vastarian Open Invitation contest recently came to end, and it was incredibly successful! All told, we received 32 entries, all imaginative explorations into what life might be like on a Cathedral world. We are currently reviewing all the entries carefully, reading their lore and poring over the amazing photos. We want to give all the entries the attention they deserve, and therefore still need a few weeks to review them all. With that said, we want to start sharing the entries with all of you, so over the next week or two, we are going to be posting all of the entries on our blog, complete with all of the photos and background! We hope you are as excited as we are about them all!

Vastarian: Contest ending this month!

Transfiguration's gonna come for me at last.

It has been just about two months since we unveiled our Vastarian Open Invitation contest, asking people to create a Vastarian Cult! Since that time, there has been a huge amount of interest in the setting, with people writing lore and building models. We wanted to showcase a little of it and remind people that they still have until the end of March to submit something of their own to the contest!

Vastarian: the Smallest Church in Saint-Fauré

Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum, with a sister of the Order of the Crimson Hour.

Bill Ford, of the Mordheim 2022 and Rot of Hondious fame, created an amazing game board to represent the interior of a small Imperial chapel for Vastarian, complete with pews and a raised dais. The main board was created primarily with foam, with individual stone tiles created from foam. The walls and flying buttresses are from Pegasus Hobbies 28mm Gothic City Building model kits. Having just received the board, we really wanted to create a narrative framework for the board that would easily allow us to play thematic games at upcoming events, such as Under the Dice Fest at the end of the month! We ended up devising that the chapel is one of the houses of worship for the Church of the Red Athenæum, and current resting place of a significant holy artifact, the Codex Pháros:

Vastarian: Open Invitational Contest

In the later part of 2023, Between the Bolter and Me launched its first major Open Invitational called Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious. Vastarian is a major cathedral world that has been thrown into bloody turmoil due to the opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, which caused a massive psychic awakening. The invitational is set in this world and encourages anyone to create their own Imperial Cult (the more eccentric and deranged the better) and with your favorite ruleset, play some skirmish games to help develop the lore! We have had a series of posts continuing to develop the setting, including showcasing two factions (the Church of the Red Athenæum and a faction of Spyreheads) and some artwork showing others, as well as writing a battle report within the setting! To our excitement, other hobbyists are already starting to create cults for Vastarian, which can be seen via searching #vastarian on Instagram! To generate additional excitement and get more people involved, we thought it would be fun to run a contest that had people create their own cult, complete with models and some background lore!

Vastarian: The Cults of Vastarian

Vastarian is an open invitational where we are encouraging people to create Imperial Cults that are at war with each other on the cathedral world (Vastarian). While we have shown two cults on the planet (the Church of the Red Athenæum and a faction of Spyreheads), we wanted to do more to give people ideas to create their own Vastarian cults. After some deliberation, we came to the conclusion that some Vastarian artwork would be an ideal way to get peoples’ imaginations flowing. Having worked with Martin McCoy on multiple volumes of 28 magazine, we knew he would excel at creating some concept art for Vastarian. We commissioned him to create a piece of artwork that displayed a host of different cults, to emphasize how eccentric and divergent they can be from one another. Ultimately, Martin created two amazing companion pieces. At the time of writing, you can still get prints of each piece of artwork on his Etsy page!

Vastarian: Rules for the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Church of the Red Athenæum.

Since announcing the Vastarian Open Invitational, we have showcased factions (Church of the Red Athenæum and Spyreheads), revealed the logo, recorded an episode of our podcast, and wrote a battle report. Despite all of this, we have not spoken too much about the rule set we have been using to play our games. In the original post, we suggested that we would primarily be using the 2023 Necromunda rules, but encouraged people to use whatever system they enjoyed and are familiar with. Indeed, we have played a handful of games, mostly using the Necromunda rules. Additionally, we have also played games using Forbidden Psalm, like at the Rot of Hondious event. With this post, we want to show some sample warband lists for different rule systems to give readers a sense of the possibilities for playing games in the Vastarian setting!

Zone Secundus: Church of the Red Athenæum - Painted Genestealer Neophyte

Bleed out.

Following up the last post, where we shared a collaboration with Nicky Grillet where she illustrated the Cardinal of the Church of the Red Athenæum, we wanted to show off the first Church member painted this year, a converted Genestealer cultist! It is nice to be painting miniatures for the Church of the Red Athenæum again after what has felt like a long hiatus. The Genestealer Neophyte models are surprisingly complex models with all manner of small and weird details. I found myself on numerous occasions unsure what certain details were to even represent (there are lots of little switches, knobs, and cables everywhere). This also resulted in the model taking much longer to paint than I was initially envisioning. Despite this, I am really pleased with how the model turned out!

Painting Sector Mechanicus Terrain

Dead Industrial Atmosphere

Although we have been building and painting miniatures for years, long before even the start of this blog (2013), we have never really painted any terrain, despite collecting a variety of the plastic sets Games Workshop released over the years. Ten years after starting Between the Bolter and Me, we decided we should change that. To our good fortune, Ana Polanšćak from Gardens of Hecate, recently released a tutorial for quickly painting derelict machinery and industrial terrain. The process looked quite easy, relying primarily on using a sponge to apply an interesting pattern of rust, so I found the Sector Mechanicus terrain I had sitting around since the release of Shadow War Armageddon (2017), and decided to give it a try!

Dragged into Turbolasers Bonus Episode: Thoughts on Necromunda Ash Wastes and the plastic Horus Heresy

Necromunda is expanding to the Ash Wastes!

In this bonus episode, we chat about the upcoming Necromunda Ash Wastes game and the new edition of the Horus Heresy. We talk about the new Ash Wastes Nomads warband and their insect-riding Dustback Helamites. We also speak sadly about how awful the new Orlock vehicles look, fitting alongside the previous Orlock gang models. We move on to talk about the upcoming Horus Heresy game, and how they used it as an opportunity to redesign the basic Space Marine, this time with MKVI armor.

Zone Secundus: Church of the Red Athenæum - Petr Danev

Geometry of Murder.

With October coming to an end, I wanted to paint a creepy model, in the spirit of Halloween. Back in July, I converted Petr Danev, a halfling for the Church of the Red Athenæum, a radical splinter of the Imperial Cult that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. The model is laced with scars and has their cheeks sliced open creating a wide, sickly grin of a killer, perfect for Halloween!

Zone Secundus: Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum

Greater Invocation of Disgust

When Games Workshop released the Sister of Battle Special Character Aestred Thurga, Reliquant at Arms, I knew the kit would be perfect to create another model for our growing Church if the Red Athenæum (mutant, heavy, gunfighter) for the Zone Secundus setting. Instead of using Aestred, the power armored Sister of Battle in the kit, I had my eyes set on the older, less armored companion: Agathae Dolan, Hagiolater. Dolan’s non-combatant design and older age seemed ideal for the Red Church, an organization that is populated primarily by down-trodden Imperial citizenry. The look largely mirrors that of Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost from our first Church of the Red Athenæum warband for the Pilgrym event. With this in mind, I decided to convert a bibliognost for the Secundus warband, and thus Klaasje Akhmatova was born!

Zone Secundus: Church of the Red Athenæum halfling

We are so very worthless, and everything we do is meaningless.

Throughout the year, I have been converting new members for the Church of the Red Athenæum, a radical splinter of the Imperial Cult that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. Although we originally created the Church for Iron Sleet’s the Pilgrym event, we wanted to start exploring the organization again, and realized K0rdhal’s community event/setting Zone Secundus was a great opportunity for it. Since creating the Church, we always imagined their organization had a favorable view towards mutants in their congregation, recognizing their devotion, even though they are often persecuted throughout most of the Imperium. And while we created one mutant for our original warband, we always wanted to create more, to make it a recognizable element of the group. The Hedonites of Slaanesh Blissbarb Archers set contains a wonderful halfling model holding a banner, which caught my eye and seemed like a great model to create a mutant for my new Church if the Red Athenæum!

Zone Secundus: The Church of the Red Athenæum - Marcelo Lythgoe

By Endurance We Conquer.

After finishing converting two members for a new Church of the Red Athenæum warband for the Zone Secundus setting, it was time to paint one. I decided to start with the heavy weapon specialist, Marcelo Lythgoe, finally putting some paint on the BAR conversion I did years ago!

Zone Secundus: The Church of the Red Athenæum - Heavy Weapons Specialist

Army of Two

Last month we had the opportunity to talk to K0rdhal about his community event/setting Zone Secundus, which expands the lore on the radioactive waste of Hive Secundus, on the planet of Necromunda. Rather than creating an entirely new concept for a gang, we decided to use it to develop the Church of the Red Athenæum, a fanatical Imperial Cult we designed for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event back in 2016. Our first model for the new warband was a gunfigher with a score of autopistols. We wanted to create a second church member, this one a heavy weapons specialist, also using a model from the Scions of Flame Warcry warbands.

Zone Secundus: The Church of the Red Athenæum - Gunfighter

A Genestealer Cultist next to a member of the Church of the Red Athenæum.

 

We recently had the pleasure of chatting with the prolific miniature artist K0rdhal about his community event/setting Zone Secundus. Building on Necromunda lore, it takes place in the radioactive waste of Hive Secundus, after the nuclear bombardment to rid the city of the Cult of the Second Son Genestealer Cult. The setting takes influence from books like Roadside Picnic and Metro 2033, as well as post apocalyptic video games like Stalker and Fallout. It is a claustrophobic, desolate setting, defined by radiation sickness and failing equipment. With such an evocative narrative setting, we could not help but get involved, and after some brainstorming, we realized it would be a great opportunity to revisit one of our favorite creations, the Church of the Red Athenæum. Designed for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event, the Church is a radical splinter of the Imperial Cult that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. Wanting to share their enlightenment with the wider Imperium, they sent missionaries out to populated hive worlds, where their ideology took root. Being so close to Terra, Necromunda was one of the first worlds to be reached by the Red Church, where they built a bastion to their faith in the ill-fated Hive Secundus, which is now an irradiated sump of twisted metal. But their faith is strong. Vivere est Pati.