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: Ligeia Orr, Prophet of the Crimson Veil, Dreamer of the Apocalypse

Lo! 'tis a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years!

An angel throng, bewinged, bedight

In veils, and drowned in tears,

Sit in a theatre, to see

A play of hopes and fears,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,

Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly—

Mere puppets they, who come and go

At bidding of vast formless things

That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their Condor wings

Invisible Wo!

That motley drama—oh, be sure

It shall not be forgot!

With its Phantom chased for evermore,

By a crowd that seize it not,

Through a circle that ever returneth in

To the self-same spot,

And much of Madness, and more of Sin,

And Horror the soul of the plot.

But see, amid the mimic rout

A crawling shape intrude!

A blood-red thing that writhes from out

The scenic solitude!

It writhes!—it writhes!—with mortal pangs

The mimes become its food,

And the angels sob at vermin fangs

In human gore imbued.

Out—out are the lights—out all!

And, over each quivering form,

The curtain, a funeral pall,

Comes down with the rush of a storm,

And the angels, all pallid and wan,

Uprising, unveiling, affirm

That the play is the tragedy, "Man,"

And its hero the Conqueror Worm.

- Attributed to Terran Poet Poe (circa M2)

Vastarian: Glass for the Beacon

The Diocese of the Adamant Spires comes to a chapel in Saint-Fauré to request the aid of the Church of the Red Athenæum for creating an astropathic beacon.

Retrofitting the Ravachol lighthouse as an astropathic beacon was a risk. If fortunate, concentrating and focusing a massive amount of psychic energy might serve as a conduit to amplify the waning Astronomican and pierce the darkness enveloping Vastarian. But it might also serve as a lightning rod for the horrors of the Immaterium, like a scintilla of blood in the water drawing in cartilaginous horrors from the stygian depths, Helicoprion and Edestus.

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!

Vastarian: Battle Report 1 - the Breath of Organthus

Purpose. Divine Purpose. It was finally within his grasp again. He would not lose it this time. These last few years were not some cosmic joke taunting his faith (or increasingly, a lack thereof).

Vastarian: Logo update!

Recently we began an open invitational encouraging people to create Imperial Cults that are at war with each other on the cathedral world of Vastarian. We have now shown two of the cults that the planet harbors, the Church of the Red Athenæum and a faction of Spyreheads. We also talked more about how the setting came about on our podcast, Dragged into Turbolasers. Although Adam already designed a basic logo for the event, featuring a lighthouse that has been used as a watermark in most of the Vastarian images, we wanted to also have a text-based logo. When considering this, we quickly thought of the incredibly talented graphic designer and miniature artist Weirding Way. We reached out to him about the project and he agreed to help us! Fitting to the INQ28 theme, he created the logo using a typographic kitbash, scanning letters from a book on early book printing type, with the V being an A modified from an 18 century Norwegian title page!

Vastarian: The Church of the Red Athenæum recap

Vivere est pati.

The Cathedral world of Vastarian is home to a vast assortment of strange splinter cults of the Ecclesiarchy’s Imperial Creed. In addition to its presence on Terra, the Church of the Red Athenæum (which we created for Iron Sleet’s Pilgrym event) also has its own cells on Vastarian and has been trying to expand its influence there. The Church is a radical faction of the Imperial Creed that believes suffering is the highest form of veneration of the God-Emperor. Although we originally created the Church way back in 2016, we started to revisit them in more recent years, creating a host of new models, including a Gunfighter, a heavy weapons specialist, a Halfling, and a new Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum. All of these models are going to be used in the Vastarian setting, where they will be one of the major factions battling for their spiritual beliefs to dominate the planet. Below is a summary of some of the lore behind the Church of the Red Athenæum, which will continue to get expanded as Vastarian continues to develop!

The Church of the Red Athenæum: finishing touches

Our future ends here.

Over the last few months I have been working on a few models for the Church of the Red Athenæum, namely a Genestealer Neophyte conversion and a ratling sniper for the Olden Demon painting contest. Despite largely finishing the models due their respective posts, I decided I wanted to go back to the models to add some finishing touches to the models, like painting some iconography and replacing the ratling's base to better fit with the rest of the warband. After putting the process off for some time, I finally pushed myself to do it and with a little effort, am really happy with the results!

Olden Demon 2023: Ratling Sniper

The first generation of ratling snipers are still my favorite, and it was great to repaint one!

I am happy to say I was able to find time to paint a model for chilvers_industries annual Olden Demon painting contest! It asks contestants to paint an old Games Workshop model, celebrating the wonky models from the 80’s and 90’s, complete with a Goblin Green base, a hallmark of the ‘Eavy Metal team at the time. While last year I painted an ancient Warhammer knight, this year I decided to paint a Warhammer 40k model, specifically an original Ratling sniper model, which was actually the first model I ever got in my teen-aged years! After converting the model a small amount, it was great to paint the model and compare it to the other two from the original trio of Ratling models. I have come a long way from those early days in the hobby!

Zone Secundus: Ratling Sniper

So now I know where snipers come from.

The Church of the Red Athenæum has always had a favorable view towards mutants in their congregation, recognizing their devotion, even though they are often persecuted throughout most of the Imperium. Unfortunately, we have not converted too many models to represent this, with only one in the original Pilgrym warband, and one from the newer one. When looking through some of our old model cases I found a trio of Rogue Trader era Ratling Snipers, the first GW miniatures we ever purchased. It seemed fitting to convert one a little and repaint it as a new member for the Red Church, their diminutive stature being welcomed with open arms.

The Church of the Red Athenæum: Aseneth Levedescu, (3rd) Cardinal

And I feel so proud when the reckoning arrives.

With the blog recently turning 10 years old, it is hard not to reflect back on what we have done in that time. One of our favorite creations is 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. In 2021 we began to revisit the Church, creating a host of new models, including a Gunfighter, a heavy weapons specialist, a Halfling, and a new Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum. In 2023, we hope to continue developing and expanding the Red Church. And while we created a host of different characters from the Church, one of the most iconic is the current Cardinal, Aseneth Levedescu, and her mobile throne. We wanted to celebrate the character and showcase her again on the blog, seven years after her initial creation. To do this, we knew we could take better photos of the model and share the lore we wrote pertaining to her, but we wanted to do something more special. For this purpose, we commissioned the amazingly talented and visionary Nicky Grillet to illustrate and paint Aseneth!

Female representation in wargaming

When properly armored, you should not be able to tell whether a model is male or female.

Our post about sexism in Kingdom Death prompted a reasonable amount of discussion, and made us realize that there was more that could be said about how women are represented in miniature gaming. When seeing a game which objectifies women as much as Kingdom Death does, it is easy to look at other games which don’t portray women as egregiously, and give them a pass. In reality, all of the popular miniature companies today have issues with female representation.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2016, a year in review

2016 comes to a close!

With 2016 coming to a close, Between the Bolter and Me is now four years old! We began the year updating the look of the blog, changing our logo (maintaining the frog theme, however!) and color scheme, trying to reflect a continuing commitment to pushing ourselves forward in the hobby. We also started a podcast, called Dragged into Turbolasers, hoping to use it as an avenue to connect with a wider audience and meet new people in the hobby. Now that 2016 is over and we reflect on it, we are happy to say that we think it was our most productive and enjoyable year yet! Between two major collaborative projects, The Pilgrym and the Curse of the Alabaster, we met so many wonderful people, and spurred ourselves to create what I believe is our best work yet, painting an unprecedented 20 models (a major feat for us!). We even started to create our own background material and try our hands at writing some short stories. But enough of boring prose, join us below to see a picture recap of 2016!

Guest Article: Beneath Terra - Act X

Last month we wrote about a project that the Observer, over at the Bolter and Chainsword forum, has been working on that involves our Church of the Red Athenæum. His Inquismunda project Beneath Terra is doing a fantastic job of exploring the background behind one of the lost Space Marine Legions. If you have not read our first post about his project, go and read it promptly and more on the Bolter and Chainsword. Here we wanted to share his background for Logarach, a gigantic mutant who has ties with the Church of the Red Athenæum.

The Pilgrym: An Exchange of Hands - the final moments of the Daylight Wall Anomaly

Immediately after finishing the Pilgrym Game,  I knew that I want to write a short story describing the final events of game from the perspective from one of our main characters, Roland Arnesen.  He is one of our more interesting characters. a headless mercenary from the Ordo Machinum, who infiltrated the Church of the Red Athenaeum to help locate the Pilgrym.  What's more, he even has a cyber-owl companion named Bronwen!  Roland and his feathered friend played a small, but important part in the Pilgrym game, and I felt writing about it might help provide some additional context to event, and highlight one of the many plot lines threading through the game.

The story was posted earlier on Iron Sleet, but I wanted to post it here, as well. As an addition, the ever talented Aletheia Atzinger wrote some parts in Bronwen's perspective which have been added! I hope you like it! 

The Pilgrym: Told in pictures

Secrets and Lies.

The dust has finally settled from the massive undertaking that was the Pilgrym event.  It is difficult to convey how awesome it all was, from playing the game to meeting all of the talented individuals that took part in it.  My brothers and I took a whole host of pictures during the event, and have endeavored to show a selection of them with descriptive captions to help convey the story of the event, and reveal the fate of the elusive Pilgrym!