New Antioch Warband
Concept Creation: The Followers of the Silent Church
The Trench Crusade rulebook has enough lore and beautiful illustrations to get the mind and hands in the right gear. There is enough to get amazing kitbashes and paint schemes, not only with the references for each of the army models, but also there are Warband Variants that can be used to give a more specific style and lore to the miniatures.
And even sometimes with all this we, as gaming people, want to go further and create our lore inside a game. Here I´ll show you my thought process. By any means, this is a step-by-step process or recipe. It´s just how it went for this warband and this game.
One: Choosing the army and a general idea
“For three hundred years the Principality of New Antioch has stood defiantly as the focal point of the Church and the Faithful at the very edge of the shadow cast by the Gate of Hell.”
To get started, I wanted to build the most “human” and “straightforward” models. In my opinion, this was the New Antioch. It´s only by building and painting that I start to have a sense of where and how I want to go, esthetically and lore-wise, with a game. Also, I wanted to have the “soldier” look at my gaming table and have the possibility, in the far future, to build a fortress gaming scenario for them. And of course, they look awesome!
Two: Setting the setting
I have always been amazed by the Vows of Silence and the cloistered convents in some catholic traditions. The idea of not speaking and not being able to see anyone else, more than your fellow cloistered companions, is breathtaking. I wanted to include this in my Warband, at least in their lore. Also, this was the starting point to find some ideas that could take me to a more visual reference and color scheme.
While reading about those topics I found the image of Saint Genevieve. This saint is not directly related to the vows of silence or the cloistered traditions, however, I found that she is depicted with some interesting symbols and colors. Her image is always shown wearing blue, as a way of representing the “humble and working women” of the time. Also, sheep are common in her paintings and illustrations. And candles. She uses candles. All of these have profound meanings that I´m not fully aware of, however, they give me some nice ideas to work on the models.
Three: Final idea and a sketch
With this in mind the idea for the Warband goes as follows:
The soldiers that come from the Convent of St. Genevieve have lived all their lives cloistered and under the Oath of Silence. They can´t speak, not only do they fervently believe is the right thing to do, but also, they don´t know how. Most of them are orphans abandoned at the front of the Church´s doors. Once they go in, they don´t see the light of the sun until they have the age to hold a gun. Their skin has a pale blue-green hue to it because of the lack of sunlight that they have ever seen. They communicate with hand signals and their Trench Cleric gives their sermons using their hands and their Holy Presence. On the battlefield, they can be seen wearing blue coats, helmets, and bandages. All tinted in the sacred color of their church. Some of them also carry sheep heads tied up to their backpacks or belts, believing that the sacrifice of the animal and their blood will protect them against evil and open the door of heaven if they die. The ones who carry out great deeds in battle and that survive to tell the story are gifted a candle. This candle it´s a symbol of bravery and devotion. It´s tradition to stick it to the helmet of the soldier and light it up just before battle while the Cleric is silently given the blessing.
The next step is building the warband. That will be in the next chapter of this story. Thank you for reading.