I’ve been doing more thinking about this, and I’ve been considering a different path for them to take…
Imagine in the chaos dwarf echelon of the far distant Warhammer future, that in an effort to retain their control on power no matter what, the Chaos Dwarf society becomes far more repressed than anything ever seen before…
Chaos Dwarfs have always been very pragmatic, and there are ‘roles’ to be filled at all levels throughout their society, for the greater advancement of their worship of Hashut
Once such consideration, might be that once your role in life is set, you either develop yourself (or are forced to be), to complete your role in the most efficient way possible.
Bearing in mind that beyond magical skills, all other skills are based more on natural affinity. So essentially they are all physically the same as a race…
However, what I have been considering is that in AoS they use mechanical adaptation to enable them to fill a very specific role.
As an example. If you are a crew who lifts artillery shells, but alone you are not able to lift heavy ones, you have mechanical arms fitted so you can.
In Warhammer this type of tech would almost certainly only ever have been seen at an arcane engineer type role. But looking at the new GW Dwarfs and that level of tech, it is possible to think more in these ways for Chaos Dwarfs.
Which I must say is a very, very interesting and refreshing way to look at them as a race. It changes everything I’ve previously thought about them, as models.
If you wanna lift heavier things, arms wouldn’t be the main problem. If you don’t enhance your legs and back, stronger arms are just gonna get you injured
That said, if Kharadrons get this much tech, Dawi Zharr should definitely get it.
I play AOS and have had a few ideas. Helblindi knows I am a fan of apparently impossible sorcerous machinery and one of my legions is a realm of metal concept. But if in WHFB Chaos Dwarfs were children of Grungni twisted by their worship of Hashut, what would happen to the worshippers of Grimnir in the future… maybe as dwarfs became Chaos-dwarfs Fyreslayers would become Darkeslayers??
and if you put this together with Grimsstonefire’s idea maybe
I’ve also been toying with the idea of the “long war”, which I know is straight out of 40k… But hear me out.
Essentially if after the fall of zharr naggrund the Chaos dwarfs who were already few are now exceptionally few, then even if you lose an arm or a leg that’s no excuse to not be fighting in AOS!
So bringing in elements of daemonic type steampunk artificial limbs is something I’ve been pondering, in addition to mechanical enhancements to fulfil a role.
This surge of ideas has actually got me sculpting again after a long break (probably 2 years for regular infantry). Which is always a good thing!
Grimtonefire, I love the idea of bionic dwarfs. The replacement of lost or damaged parts approach will allow so much variation and mixing with ‘normal’ CDs. Warriors with robotic arms/weapons, Missile troops with built in guns, Gunnery teams with rangefinding equipment grafted to their faces to cover the hideous burns or claws for handling hot ammunition. I can’t wait to see what you do with this. Good luck.
In a setting where every race looks like 40k close combat troops, there certainly is a niche for a Demiurg race. But in AoS it is occupied by the Steampunk dwarfs. Or did I miss something?
Firehammer. Well, in AOS vanilla dwarfs have not changed at all from WHFB and Fyreslayers are low tech. Kharadron overlords are high tech but all tech is in the suits really. None of them have a strong history of bionic enhancement or robotic grafts (Unlike Astrogath). Even Stormcasts like Kharadron overlord are suit based (like spacemarines I guess). Even if this weren’t the case it’s all about the aesthetic really. You could argue in WHFB that we have one stunty, bearded, heavy armoured and artillery heavy race …why do we need another in CDs. Well, we’ve got spikes and skulls and curly beards and BIG hats so we are cooler. Warhammer (WHFB or AOS) is basically a game of maths probability and luck. What makes it fun are the minis and the fluff IMHO. I’m making evil CD Kharadron overlords. They will have the same stats but… spikes, skulls, curly beards and BIG helicopter hats and so will be WAAAAAAY cooler ( or not).
