AoS: The Aelves After Idoneth Deepkin
Games Workshop has a lot of room to expand the AoS setting with the Aelves who inhabit the Mortal Realms. Are we going to see even more Aelves after the Deepkin hit our shores?
There are lots of Aelves running around in the shadows and cracks of the Mortal Realms. Games Workshop has brought two of those factions to light recently with the Daughters of Khaine and the Idoneth Deepkin. The Deepkin are already making a splash and are set to hit stores later this month – I’m pretty excited to see how they fair. However, that’s not what I wanted focus on today. I wanted to talk about the other Aelves and where GW can go next.
via Warhammer: Age of Sigmar (Facebook)
“There are all sorts of aelven races in the Mortal Realms – which do you fight for?”
Games Workshop posted this image on their AoS Facebook page and it very clearly has 3 factions of Aleves. The one that got my attention was “The Aelves of the Free Cities” – this is very clearly a reference to all the Aelves that have been running around the setting that have taken a back seat. Obviously, from a business perspective, these are the “old line of models” so that’s probably why they haven’t gotten a ton of attention. But there have been hints that GW has plans for them…
Hidden In Plain Sight
Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower had teased pretty heavily on the “new” Aleves and how their new style would look. We had two new models that really pushed the envelop on what the Aelves had traditionally looked like:
The Mistweaver Saih
The Tenebrael Shard
The Mistweaver is said to be from the Realm of Shadow and perhaps that was the first clue as to what the “Shadow Aleves” could look like. The Tenebrael Shard was a bit of mystery – was he an assassin? A follower of Morathi’s Witch Cults or some other devotee of Khaine? Perhaps the Tenebrael Shard was something else entirely. The Pale skin, the tentacle on the base, the strange clothes… Kind of makes me wonder…
Now who’s to say that this was intentional? Maybe it was just coincidental design decisions. Yeah…But if the Tenebral Shard is how the Deepkin were going to look and the Mistweaver is how the “Shadow” Aelves could look, what about the “Light” Aelves?
The Loremaster model hasn’t changed – but is that the look of the “Light” Aelves? Perhaps. Or maybe GW is going to hold off on more models for that range – they already added two new factions to AoS this year (counting DoK and Deepkin). That’s already a big boost to the range and adding a third Aelf faction this year might be a tad much. I think we might see them in a future release.
What About The Wanderers?
I really wonder what GW is going to do with the old “Wood Elf” line. Are they just going to shelve that faction and leave them to the margin of the AoS Aelves? These are the Aelves that have basically been cast aside by Alarielle the Everqueen in favor of her Tree-spirit Sylvaneth. Yes, I know they still can ally – but you can’t tell me there wouldn’t be a little animosity towards each other. They’d be like step-siblings at best.
Aesthetically, it’s not a bad look and it’s a good foundation to work on. The real issue is rules-wise what would make a new “Wood” Aelf faction unique vs the others. That’s the real issue. The other is Sylvaneth already fill that gap. So…yeah, I think it to the lumber-yard with this faction (for now).
Light & Shadow & Dragons
I think that Games Workshop has a place to take the next wave of Aelves after Deepkin. They have already hinted at crazy shadow beasts and creatures of light that were “freed” from Slaanesh when the Aelven Gods trapped the Dark Prince. We’ll see where GW takes it from there. At the same time I hope they do something with the Free-City Aelves, and I hope it’s not just “we threw them all in book together” solution. I think the idea that these Aelves have become more ingrained in the Mortal Realms and the Free-City society could be a good source of inspiration. Some kind of crazy alliance of Mortal Men, Aelves, and Duradin. A new “Empire” if you will…
What do you think about the Aleves of the Free-Cities? Could this been an upcoming faction that GW is teasing us with or just pipe dream?
