Grimvember 2017 is here! The sinister "Order of the Feathered Lord" comes for you!
Let's end this year's Grimvember with a bang. So far I've only reviewed scenarios and campaigns, but now I'll take a closer look at a sourcebook of sorts - the "Order of the Feathered Lord" by Sami Uusitalo.
Every scenario is only as good as its villain, or maybe that's just my opinion. Anyway, I love a well-written bad guy in my adventures. Boring, one-dimensional villains are usually more harmful to the overall structure of the scenario, than they're to the PC's themselves. Fortunately the "Order of the Feathered Lord" presents gamemasters with a right bunch of evil a-holes, who are incredibly well written and very cool to use in almost any game of WFRP.
The "Order of the Feathered Lord" is the first part in the "Blasphemous Cults" series, created by Sami Uusitalo. Unfortunately I only have volumes 1 and 3 (Cult of the Possessed). If anyone out there has the second volume of this fantastic series, I'd be more than happy to add it to my extensive collection and, by extension, make it available for all of the 'Hammer fans, out there.
The document itself is very nicely written. The first half consists of notes of Samael Neuhauser, a Witch Hunter of Sigmar, whose notes on the cult are both fascinating and repugnant. Fascinating, because Uusitalo managed to create an exceptionally well written Templar of Sigmar. Seriously, the first part of this sourcebook alone is worth your time. Although bear in mind, the Witch Hunter in question is of the more... overzealous kind and his methods are downright disturbing. Cutting out a scribe's tongue and branding his hands with a sign of a twin-tailed comet? Yeah, he does that and writes about in a completely casual manner. Creepy bastard.
The Templar writes about a mysterious cult, named the Order of the Feathered Lord. During a routine investigation in Altdorf, he encountered a horrifyingly mutilated body of a priest of Manaan. Later, while chasing down a sorcerer through the gloomy streets of Talagaad, Neuhauser encountered similar, grisly scene in the docks of this wretched place. Finally deciding to delve deeper into this dark mystery, he eventually reached Marienburg, where, with the help of priests of Manaan, he found out about the Order of the Feathered Lord. Without much spoilers, this horrible cult was the result of jealousy, blind ambition and resentment. Sounds vague and unoriginal? Trust me, this organisation is anything but these things, but I won't spoil too much for you. You'll just have to read this fine document yourselves.
The "Order of the Feathered Lord" presents the GM with a very interesting idea - a chaos cult, with aquatic theme. Normally when one thinks about evil organisations with a sea motif, one generally imagines a cult of Stromfels. Meanwhile the Order of the Feathered Lord shows us that Chaos doesn't need to be contained only to dank cellars and gloomy temples - it can also be present at sea! Uusitalo describes a believable, realistic chaotic organisation, which operates under the guise of a Navigator Guild, and from Nuln, of all places! This, of course, makes them immediately 100 times more awesome than they already are. And they're pretty awesome, as you might already tell from my beaming review of this document.
The second part of the "Order of the Feathered Lord" contains the rules section. In here the reader will find info on Melkior Federkleiden, the cult's leader (every single one them, throughout history, took upon that name) as well as his stats. Of course we are talking about a cult dedicated to Tzeentch, so Federkleiden should probably be used as a "enemy within" type of antagonist. We also have the Chief Navigators, order's inner council of vile douchebags and the "standard" Navigators, who are no less evil. It's worth mentioning that all of these enemies are mages and all are mutants. The author presents interesting ideas, about how such an socially influential group could've hidden their mutations with relative ease, so it's worth checking them out, especially if you're running a game with lots of cultists. The Order's enforcers are converted, Empire mercenaries, known as the Cult of Khar-Nak, a bunch of filthy, Khorne worshippers. Yup, Federkleiden is so hardcore that he enlisted a bunch of khornates to help him in his devilish plots. What a guy.
Finally Uusitalo gives us the description of a sextant, a daemonicly infused artifcat, used by the evil Navigators to ply their trade, by observing the vile moon Morrslieb and the many faces, which could be seen on its surface. Freaky! Oh and Melkior Federkleiden's sextant can have a single Pink Horror inside, ready to serve his mutated master. How cool is that?
The "Order of the Feathered Lord" concludes with a bunch of encounter ideas, that incorporate this villainous organisation of Navigators (including one, where PC's are the cultists!) and a single campaign concept. They're all excellent and a true testament to Uusitalo's skill as a WFRP author. In keeping with the atmosphere of this fine document, the "author", Samael Neuhauser, cites all of the sources that he used in composing this treaty. They include, among others, "Liber Chaotica" by Richter Kleiss and "Tome of Corruption" by Hrodbert of Hochland. Neuhauser even consulted his work with Mathias Thulmann, know from C.L. Werner's series of excellent books. Now that's what I call a good kind of meta!
What can I say? Grab it, read it, use it in your games. This is seriously one of the coolest, fan-made supplements for WFRP that was ever written. You can download it from the Daily Empire, or from here. Hope that you'll all enjoy it as much as I did.
So there you have it - the conclusion of 2017's Grimvember. And yeah, I know that it's December already, but, sadly, real life sometimes gets in the way. Anyway, I'll be back soon with more thoughts on the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and maybe Warhammer 40,000? Who knows. Anyway, I'll catch you all later.
Until next time!
Xathrodox86
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| They also serve the coolest Chaos God of them all! |
The document itself is very nicely written. The first half consists of notes of Samael Neuhauser, a Witch Hunter of Sigmar, whose notes on the cult are both fascinating and repugnant. Fascinating, because Uusitalo managed to create an exceptionally well written Templar of Sigmar. Seriously, the first part of this sourcebook alone is worth your time. Although bear in mind, the Witch Hunter in question is of the more... overzealous kind and his methods are downright disturbing. Cutting out a scribe's tongue and branding his hands with a sign of a twin-tailed comet? Yeah, he does that and writes about in a completely casual manner. Creepy bastard.
The Templar writes about a mysterious cult, named the Order of the Feathered Lord. During a routine investigation in Altdorf, he encountered a horrifyingly mutilated body of a priest of Manaan. Later, while chasing down a sorcerer through the gloomy streets of Talagaad, Neuhauser encountered similar, grisly scene in the docks of this wretched place. Finally deciding to delve deeper into this dark mystery, he eventually reached Marienburg, where, with the help of priests of Manaan, he found out about the Order of the Feathered Lord. Without much spoilers, this horrible cult was the result of jealousy, blind ambition and resentment. Sounds vague and unoriginal? Trust me, this organisation is anything but these things, but I won't spoil too much for you. You'll just have to read this fine document yourselves.
The "Order of the Feathered Lord" presents the GM with a very interesting idea - a chaos cult, with aquatic theme. Normally when one thinks about evil organisations with a sea motif, one generally imagines a cult of Stromfels. Meanwhile the Order of the Feathered Lord shows us that Chaos doesn't need to be contained only to dank cellars and gloomy temples - it can also be present at sea! Uusitalo describes a believable, realistic chaotic organisation, which operates under the guise of a Navigator Guild, and from Nuln, of all places! This, of course, makes them immediately 100 times more awesome than they already are. And they're pretty awesome, as you might already tell from my beaming review of this document.
The second part of the "Order of the Feathered Lord" contains the rules section. In here the reader will find info on Melkior Federkleiden, the cult's leader (every single one them, throughout history, took upon that name) as well as his stats. Of course we are talking about a cult dedicated to Tzeentch, so Federkleiden should probably be used as a "enemy within" type of antagonist. We also have the Chief Navigators, order's inner council of vile douchebags and the "standard" Navigators, who are no less evil. It's worth mentioning that all of these enemies are mages and all are mutants. The author presents interesting ideas, about how such an socially influential group could've hidden their mutations with relative ease, so it's worth checking them out, especially if you're running a game with lots of cultists. The Order's enforcers are converted, Empire mercenaries, known as the Cult of Khar-Nak, a bunch of filthy, Khorne worshippers. Yup, Federkleiden is so hardcore that he enlisted a bunch of khornates to help him in his devilish plots. What a guy.
Finally Uusitalo gives us the description of a sextant, a daemonicly infused artifcat, used by the evil Navigators to ply their trade, by observing the vile moon Morrslieb and the many faces, which could be seen on its surface. Freaky! Oh and Melkior Federkleiden's sextant can have a single Pink Horror inside, ready to serve his mutated master. How cool is that?
The "Order of the Feathered Lord" concludes with a bunch of encounter ideas, that incorporate this villainous organisation of Navigators (including one, where PC's are the cultists!) and a single campaign concept. They're all excellent and a true testament to Uusitalo's skill as a WFRP author. In keeping with the atmosphere of this fine document, the "author", Samael Neuhauser, cites all of the sources that he used in composing this treaty. They include, among others, "Liber Chaotica" by Richter Kleiss and "Tome of Corruption" by Hrodbert of Hochland. Neuhauser even consulted his work with Mathias Thulmann, know from C.L. Werner's series of excellent books. Now that's what I call a good kind of meta!
What can I say? Grab it, read it, use it in your games. This is seriously one of the coolest, fan-made supplements for WFRP that was ever written. You can download it from the Daily Empire, or from here. Hope that you'll all enjoy it as much as I did.
So there you have it - the conclusion of 2017's Grimvember. And yeah, I know that it's December already, but, sadly, real life sometimes gets in the way. Anyway, I'll be back soon with more thoughts on the 4th edition of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and maybe Warhammer 40,000? Who knows. Anyway, I'll catch you all later.
Until next time!
Xathrodox86
Thank you, Sir, for your kind review.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about the numbering and volume 2. After I had written this Lauri Maijala approached me and asked to write the next volume in the series. I had another idea in mind, so I asked him to use another Templar and number it 3. Then, when I got around to write volume 2, the core concept changed quite a bit and the document ended up being the fan supplement called the Snail Man (also written by Neuhauser). The idea in that document is that he didn't finish it, so it was just a long letter to a Witch-Hunter General, and thus not a finished volume 2 of The Blasphemous Cults.
Wow, that's really interesting piece of info! The Snail Man is a really cool fan-supplement. I'm glad that it went that way, but also a little sad that we didn't saw the volume 2 of "Blasphemous cults". :)
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