The warp is a vast and unknowable place, a domain of dangerous daemons and devious deities. The four Ruinous Powers do not have a monopoly on godhood, and certain minor* entities such as Vashtorr the Arkifane are working towards an ultimate aim: true apotheosis. It’s through his alliance with Abaddon, however, that the one known as the Soul Forge King is closer to his goal than most.
Introducing such a grand new character into the world of Warhammer 40,000 is no mean feat, but what exactly goes into making a demigod like Vashtorr? We caught up with Steven, the miniatures designer who crafted the King.**
Warhammer Community: How did you go about designing something with little precedence in the setting?
Steve: As we were going through the design process, words like “blacksmith” and “foreman” got thrown around a lot. This led us down some specific design paths that spawned bulkier-feeling designs, but we wanted to convey a daemonic arms dealer. I started digging into the bones of that idea, which resulted in a much taller and more ominous figure, one which communicates a calculating intelligence rather than sheer industrial strength.
WarCom: Did you draw on any other parts of the Chaos range for aspects of Vashtorr’s design?
Steve: Vashtorr sits in a unique design space – he avoids many of the traditional Chaos Space Marine and Daemon Prince motifs. He’s not an ascended mortal but a wholesale machine-daemon, so we drew from the Daemon Engines like the Forgefiend and Venomcrawler, and more machine-like Chaos elements such as the Helbrute and the Obliterators.
He is also set apart by being more elegant and intelligent rather than brutish and feral. He’s like a sort of tough-as-boots wiry old man who is also a daemonic demigod. Once that aspect had been pinned down, I started working on representing Vashtorr’s unique qualities.
WarCom: What challenges did you encounter?
Steve: As the master of the Soul Forges, Vashtorr is neither flesh nor machine. He isn’t a biological entity adding mechanical parts or a machine granted corrupted flesh by the warp – he’s made of flesh and metal. It should be impossible to tell where one part ends and another begins. To represent this, I designed many places where flesh is stretched over mechanical parts, which in turn look like anatomical elements.
WarCom: Which part of Vashtorr did you enjoy working on the most?
Steve: One of my favourite parts was his wings. I spent a lot of time working on the mechanisms, adding pistons and joints that make it look like they could move, and honing the very sharp and delicate blade motif that is repeated on his claws. When he flies, he probably uses daemonic magic or arcane anti-gravity technology; his wings are primarily for show because what demigod doesn’t have wings?
Details like that add to the idea that this finely worked mechanical thing exists. Similarly, under all of the chest armour, there is fully sculpted musculature, complete with mechanical connections to his legs, further adding to the impression of a living, working entity.
WarCom: How did you decide on the look of Vashtorr’s weapons?
Steve: Vashtorr spends his existence creating and destroying in equal measure, and both weapons had to represent this. The claw has a heat weapon in the palm that I can imagine he uses to weld, engrave, or immolate things. His hammer also harks back to that blacksmith motif – it is used to forge but can also be wielded as a devastating weapon.
Everything comes together to make something that’s distinctly Warhammer 40,000 but feels different in some ways – exactly what you’d expect from a Chaos demigod. It was a joy to work on this project, creating something unique within the 41st Millennium – I can’t wait to see what fans do when they get him.
—
Rules for Vashtorr the Arkifane and his Army of Renown are available to download right now, and tomorrow you can find out how he exerts his malign influence on Boarding Actions games. You can pre-order Wrath of the Soul Forge King this weekend to add this scheming demigod to your collection.
* Relatively speaking!
** Steven was also involved in creating another mashup of man and machine, Belisarius Cawl.