The Mortarch of Delusion has returned, and the Flesh-eater Courts have raised their gizzard-bedecked gonfalons. Vile new miniatures sally forth from dank keeps across the Mortal Realms, directed by a whole new Royal Court – a mockery of civilisation wrought from flesh and bone.
This is the biggest update the Flesh-eater Courts have ever seen, adding plenty of meat to tooth-marked bones. We spoke to Dom, Christian, Anja, Steve, David, and Maxime, the team behind the new miniatures, to find out how they created such ghoulish new terrors.
Warhammer Community: Up until now, the Flesh-eater Courts had only a handful of kits – how did this affect the design of such a big update?
Dom: We were in a slightly unfamiliar position for this project, because we had buckets of phenomenal lore that wasn’t wholly reflected in the miniatures. This presented us with a real opportunity to approach the Flesh-eater Courts without compromise, and to properly fulfil the potential of the background. In that way, it was slightly different to our usual approach – the existing lore had to be fully represented in new miniatures, and what we’ve designed capitalises on that information while planting the seeds for potential future updates.
The final result is a much more cohesive faction. Right from concept work all the way through to creating the final miniatures, it was all about tapping into the idea of this ancient, feudally-coded society, with an image of itself as supremely noble – but in reality populated by bloodthirsty, cannibalistic ghouls.
WarCom: The ghoul archetype presents a challenge in design, given the lack of armour, clothes, and other details. How did you approach it?
Dom: First, we had to establish what a ghoul actually was in the Age of Sigmar. We already had a collection of miniatures to work from, so we knew that the hunched, bestial pose we inherited would be a central theme of the whole army, influencing the design right from the Cryptguard through to Ushoran himself.
We also wanted to give a better impression of the hierarchy at play. The existing range of miniatures was limited to ghouls, beasts, and bestial vampires, so this update gave us an opportunity to introduce a little bit more tiering into the range.
Maxime: The Cryptguard especially tap into that idea of a clear hierarchy. There are already regular Crypt Ghouls, who are deluded ravenous cannibals – now we have deluded ravenous cannibals who vaguely remember the importance of using weapons and even armour, suggesting some intelligence beneath the mania.
Christian: It helps us when designing to remember that they were all human, originally. We take that recognisably human form, and then we twist it to make them ghoulish. The curse transforms them over many years, so we keep that in mind as we add the fur to their backs and elongate their digits. Every range has its own key identifiers, and for the Flesh-eater Courts it is humanity through a lens of twisted parody.
Dom: Parody is a great word, but we also had to ensure nothing that we designed tipped into pantomime – a ghoul theatrically dressed up as something else. Their clothes are potentially vestments of former lives, but just as often their station is expressed through a layer of flayed skin – either way, they truly believe they are wearing fine robes.
Steve: It was almost like we had to design two ranges in one. We had to think quite a lot about how their society appeared to their delusions, and which physical artefacts from the Mortal Realms would appear on the miniature. But we also had to remember the key factor: the miniatures we see are how everyone outside of the delusion sees them.
Dom: One key decision we made was not to nod to any of the existing weapons or architecture of the Cities of Sigmar. It would be very easy to have ghouls dressed up with Sigmarite gear, but we wanted to convey that there were older and more different civilisations across the Mortal Realms, many of them now wiped out through wars and disaster – perhaps even by the Flesh-eater Courts themselves.
WarCom: How did you approach the more bestial miniatures, like the Varghulf Courtiers and the Morbheg Knights?
David: We had some great concepts from Carlotta for the Morbheg Knights, and Christian provided some great direction. We wanted to work in traditional archetypes like bat imagery but mixed with carrion creatures.
Christian: The low-to-the-ground profile makes them appear like they’re prowling, ready to fight over scraps of meat from a fresh kill. With the parody of knighthood on top of it – it was just such a natural match for expressing both halves of that model.
David: We tried to use physical items to represent heraldry – for example, instead of a boar head painted on a shield, we just used a whole boar’s head. Instead of leaving space for someone to paint a geometrical motif, we designed one from bone and flayed skin.
Dom: Their design worked so well – they feel like they have always existed in the Flesh-eater Courts. It’s a savage creature, but there’s a bit of a tragedy there – they’ve been promised greatness, but are now the most degenerate of all the Courtiers.
WarCom: How did you determine where the line was, in terms of grisly details?
Christian: They are gruesome, but there are limits that we can go to. I think one of the goriest details is the way the Executioner is holding the head, with his fingers poking through.
Anja: That’s the kind of detail we can get away with on small things. It’s subtle, but if you stop to think about it, it is pretty grim and ghoulish, without being too gratuitous or too extreme.
Maxime: This special care in rendering textures on the miniatures makes them even more believable, which makes the horror aspect of the range even more unsettling... Ultimately this led me to sculpt a flayed skin flag, which is definitely a highlight of my career!
Dom: You can convey terror and horror without gore – the Abhorrant Gorewarden is so successful as a miniature because it combines the trappings of its former life and noble duties with a bestial nature. It’s a terrifying winged creature, but it doesn’t tip over into the realm of gory excess.
Steve: As a vampire, the Gorewarden is essentially a living weapon. Just like the Archregent, you can pick out the musculature in the anatomy and see how sharp his claws and talons are. That portrays the threat, but it also represents the most bestial, vampiric aspect of the Flesh-eater Courts, and the apex of their hierarchy.
WarCom: Ushoran is returning from the World-that-Was, but never had a model before now – how do you bring a character like that to life?
Christian: We thought a lot about what makes a king easily recognisable. There are a series of key elements – a crown, a cloak, an ermine made out of what a ghoul would believe to be fine furs, jewellery, a sceptre, a necklace, and the masonry on his base, which is reminiscent of the throne room in an ancient castle or keep.
Dom: He’s also carrying the Chalice of Ushoran, described in the lore as the cup from which all of his vampiric blood flows. There’s even a Stormcast Eternal’s helmet hanging from his jewelled necklace – perhaps he believes it's an ambassador from Sigmar, who did after all free him from the Shroudcage in ages past.
Christian: More than any other miniature in the Flesh-eater Courts, Ushoran really represents the dichotomy of the delusion. All of those regal elements contrast against a savage humanoid form, particularly his long claws and bone protrusions, with a hunched posture. If he stood up he’d be truly monstrous in size!
Anja: Regardless of what he looks like now, Ushoran ultimately believes he is still a chivalrous king, so it wouldn’t have been right to present him any other way.
Christian: An earlier version of his pose was very slightly different – until we realised that it could be changed so that his hand was being held out, in such a way that it looks like he is presenting his jewellery to be kissed by a servant as a sign of respect. It helps you imagine a setting where he is at court with a mess of servants, or perhaps this is Ushoran in battle, his delusion convincing him that an enemy should show subservience. It really condenses a lot of his character into one single moment.
Dom: I particularly like how his ermine is not a pristine fur cloak – it’s made of flayed skin and beast pelts, and festooned with the decapitated heads of his enemies, failed ambassadors, and former allies. Yet at the same time, the remnants of a once-beautiful robe can be seen underneath. His crown is similarly twisted, but does have a majestic quality to it.
Ushoran brings together everything we wanted to do with the Flesh-eater Courts into one model, and he works fantastically on the battlefield as a true centrepiece for the rest of the range.
The first wave of the Flesh-eater Courts arrives in an army set that will be available to pre-order this weekend. It contains 25 all-new miniatures – an Abhorrant Gorewarden, Varghulf Courtier, 20 Cryptguard, and three Morbheg Knights – as well as a special edition of the new battletome, and exclusive tokens and reference cards for warscrolls and enhancements.