I'm currently on a mission to speed paint a number of workable armies for the worthy purpose of building up game experience with different sorts of force, and having painted miniatures to play a verity of games and scenarios with. Fun fun fun.
However, at heart I'm a modeller, and at the same time I do want to work on something a bit more special.
So, to the lore-books!
Many years ago, as an 11 year old kid I started playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle, and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The year was 1991. My first love was for Dwarves, and so I've decided that Dwarves will be what I concentrate this effort on. I'd like to build up a well painted Dwarf army, perhaps including a few conversions, and special characters. Most of all, I want an alternate theme for this army.
I'm certainly happy enough to use the current Dwarf rules, both Erebor and Durin's Folk, and base the new theme on those models, perhaps with a little basic conversion work on the rank and file, but nothing too drastic.
The Dwarves of the Iron Hills are probably going to be seen in the last Hobbit film, perhaps the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains also, but less has been said of them.
So I've set my heart on creating a force from the Blue Mountains.
Here, I think there isn't much to go on. I've read the Silmarillion, Hobbit, LotR (including appendices) and dipped in and out of Unfinished Tales and Children of Hurin. As far as I can tell, the development of the Dwarves from the Blue Mountains is reasonably sparse.
There were two great cities: Belegost and Nogrod. There were also two houses of dwarves associated with the Blue Mountains: the Broadbeams and the Firebeards.
From what I can tell, there is no mention of whether one of these houses was associated more or less with each of these cities, or if the populations were more intermingled.
It's also mentioned that after the War of Wrath both of these cities were ruined, and many of the surviving Dwarves from those places went to Khazad Dum.
Belegost was ruined utterly, while Nogrod seems to have been rebuilt.
Now, when going on very little "canon" information, I'm quite happy to extrapolate a bit, make some guesses and a decision. I'm not really interested in how computer game portrayals paint things. As far as I'm concerned, they're no more canon than I am.
Peter Jackson? Well, I have a lot more respect for what he creates, but in this case I don't much fancy waiting till next year in case he makes a clear portrayal of the Firebeards of the Ered Luin.
So far then, I've decided then, that Nogrod was mostly a city ruled by the Firebeards, while Belegost was largely Broadbeam. Within those two broad sweeps i imagine there was much intermingling of the populations, so that while the lords of the city might be mostly from one Dwarf Clan, there would be some diversity at the more ordinary ends of the social spectrum.
So, I wish to make an army for the restored and rebuilt city of Nogrod, who will, therefore, be mostly of the Firebeard clan.
I also imagine that the visual cultural differences between the different dwarf clans would be about as acute or perhaps even less acute than that of the different elven houses. But I do want to draw some sort of distinction.
For a start, presumably, fire beards will be more auburn and redheaded, generally speaking. I was also thinking of a bit more of a "conventional" viking appearance.
I do want to avoid getting too "warhammery"- trollslayers, beefy shoulder pads, etc.
However, ordinary dwarf warriors with a bit more fur trimming and some viking horns… maybe. (yes I know that vikings actually never wore helmets with the hollywood horns, but it's an aesthetic.
Anyway, I just thought I'd throw this out there, and see if anyone else had any ideas, saw any problems, or knew a bit more than I do on the subject of the Dwarves of the Blue Mountains!
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