Help with constructing my Fluff.

[Alixen]

Hey there. Sorry if this is in the wrong place; on an iPad and the subforum descriptions are not showing up. Going by other posts this should be okay.

I'm in the process of building my VC army, and while I'll be able to field Manfred and the Vlad if I wish, I also want to 'carve' a little portion of Sylvania for my army backstory. I know there are multiple nobles in Sylvania, and as such I think I would like my main Lord to be one of them. one of my main problems is that i'm rather new to WHFB and need the advice and knowledge of people more experianced with the fluff.

Namewise, I was thinking of Lord Thorne, but i'm unsure if the name would fit in Sylvania - or where it would most likely come from in the Old World, if anywhere.

Locationwise is just as difficult. Looking at the map in the army book, there are iconic looking names all over the place, and i'm unsure where a medium-sized town or small city with a castle above/around it 'fit' without stepping on the toes of the preset fluff or important locations. I'm not even sure how much land a Lord in Sylvania might rule. It might even be nice to have a small corner of Bretonnia, as the Red Duke has really inspired me and I love the Blood Dragons, but I know even less about that area than Sylvania.

Bloodline wise, i'm looking to keep with the melding style of the last few army books and be able to field an army of whatever or mixed bloodline. For a little comedic relief I picked up a Halfling vampire that I will probobly play as a Necromancer. But are the bloodlines antagonistic towards eachother to the point that no vamps are exempt? I'd like to build an almost family-like collection of vampires that I can mix and match in battles, and write myself little shortstories of fluff with. However, i'm unsure if i can, since I want to stay close to preestablished fluff.

I'd really appreciate help hammering this out. There are so many novels, army books, and a complicated timeline that has my head spinning. i'll no doubt come to grasp it, but it will take time, and I want to make my 'Lords' and fluff as I build my army.

Addendum: typing on a touchscreen feels strange for posts any longer than a paragraph.

 

[Ghouly]

well the name Thorne sounds more like an honorific then an actual name so you could always use it as such for example Thorne could be the name of his sword or perhaps the local peasants could refer to his castle as The Thorne.
As for location I would recommend just finding a nice bare spot on the map somewhere to use and there is nothing wrong with having your vampire rule over a small town and a couple villages.
And bloodlines well within Sylvania if you want your lord to have any real power your lords got to be a von Carstine but I can think of a few exceptions
-the Lhamains have agents everywhere, including Sylvania as long as they keep their heads down and do nothing to catch the carstine’s attention, a few Lhamains could live quite well within Sylvania
- The Blood Dragons go where they want and don’t really give a damn about what anybody says if a Dragon Order wanted to build their keep in Sylvania they would and it would be quite the effort for the carstines to remove them.
-the Nerarchs and the Ghoul Kings could be hiding anywhere.
And there is also the fact that the Carstines are the most diverse of the Bloodlines just take what you like about the other lines and stick it on a Carstine and it will work.
But at the end of the day your fluff is your fluff do what you want.

 

[Sweeney Todd]

ghouly's got it pretty well covered. With regards to 'Lord Thorne', English-sounding names are out of place when it comes to the Old World. Brettonians are French, the Empire is Germanic and Tilea is Spanish. It can work as an honorific or as a title, but not an actual name.

 

[Ghouly]

minor correction sweeny Tilia is Italy Estilia is Spain

 

[Whisky Priest]

Personally, I base my Vampires in the Border Princes - the Old World's very own sandbox, where you can do pretty much what you want - and its all quite justifiable with the ever changing political landscape of the Princes.......

But there is no reason why you can't do that in Sylvania. As Ghoulking says, just find a quiet corner and stick your small town / couple of small villages in there. As rationale - in medieval times (although technically the Empire is Renaissance Europe - it still applies) maps were not always particularly accurate and not every settlement would appear on them.

Incidentally, the german for thorn is 'Dorn' and thornbush is 'Dornbusch'

 

[Count Darvaleth]

Incidentally, the german for thorn is 'Dorn' and thornbush is 'Dornbusch'

That's unfortunate; I'm fairly certain the OP won't want to name his Lord after a famous Primarch, even if it's for different reasons.

Also, to the OP: you're being very careful to not "step on other people's toes" as it were, and I wonder if you have to try so hard there. Of course you can't build the Pyramid of Nagash in Lustria or anything like that, but fluff-bending here and there isn't a disaster. It's your own creation, after all; maybe your lord conquered some of the iconic landmarks, rather than being forced to find a corner somewhere where nobody can possibly say "hey that's not canon!".

 

[Ghouly]

do you include your friends charicters in your fluff

 

[Alixen]

Sorry for not responding in so long. Wow, lot of thoughts.

Ghoulking & Todd: Nah, i'll still make it the name, and just have it be an oddity. It's not unheard of for strange names to pop up. Thank you for the indormation, i'll keep it in mind.

Whiskey: Hm, that is an idea. I don't know much about the Border Princes. Yes, as Darvaleth notes, sadly i'd prefer nto to use Dorn - if only because anyone who asked his name would immediatly ask if i'd used it because of 40k as a follow up.

Darvaleth: I probobly don;t to be honest, but I ahve OCD tendencies, and with things like this it manifests as wanting everything (my own stories and the fluff) to be pretty much seamless. It's more lack of knowledge that is trippign em up, as unless its labelled clearly, I wouldn't know if i'm setting up on the Pyramid of Nagash. =P

Ghoulking: I... don't think any of my friends have made their own fluff. They typically just play the armies, and most are 40k focused. I imagine i'll be playing Ogres and Demons a lot, very occasionally the Empire, and extremely rarely the Brettonians or Dwarves. I'll have to see in the future. I would like to tie in wins and losses to my fluff at the very least. Once i've learned enough that i'm not just charting a string of losses due to beginner mistakes. And against Ogres and Demons I think there wll be lots of those.


In the time since this post i've had a rethink anyway, and swapped some things around.

For my main Lord, the Carstein, it will be Lord Thorne... odd name or not. ;P He and his younger siblings (from the child vampires, none-GWQ, models - 3 to a base as their own model) will be captured and given the blood kiss as a strike against their Witchhunter ancestor. Trying to keep soem semblance of nobility and his humanity, Thorne will be less hostile to other vampires than many, opening room for me to have other bloodline Lords and Heroes. His turnign will have happened during the Vampire Wars or just after, so as to have him be Lord strength by the 'modern' point in time.

My Lahmian lady will have been ordered to spy on Throne, but fall for him and vice versa (so I can sub them for Vlad and Isabella on the table if I wish), a she will become a double agent of sorts. I don't have much pre-planned for her, aside from the possibilty of being of Araby descent.

My Blood Dragon i'm still debating. On one hand, I could make him a rival for the Lahmians affections and sworn (due to some past favor or deed) to Thorne's service to add interest and motive. Alternatively, i've been tempted to customize a female Blood Dragon. A daughter of a Bretonnian trader. Captured by the Chaos Dwarves and enslaved for a few years, yet survivng due to willpower, before escaping due to pure luck. She would be then found after brutally but bravely slaying a persuing goblin (or something small but threatening to a malnurished and unarmed slave) with a shard of rusty metal. A wandering Blood Dragon would have been impressed with her fire, and that she survived where Orcs and stronger generally did not, and despite her gender take her on as his servant and squire. After she proves herself granting her the blood kiss. Perhaps tie the two together, the former being the Blood Dragon who trains her.

I'm... not sure about a Necrarch (sp?) as it isn't a clan that really interests me. I bought a humorous halfling vampire model. I may use that. Its either that or the halfling was the childrens caretaker when he wasn't the cook, and they made hima vampire without their older brothers say-so.


On a side note, is it possible for a Grail Knight to fall and be give the blood kiss? Or would they simply die? Or would the 'Lady' smply never bestow the blessing upon someone destined for such a fate (presuming she could see their eventual fate.)?

 

[Whisky Priest]

It is very possible for a grail knight to fall and receive the 'dark kiss'. In Nights Dark Masters, there is a little section in the Blood Dragon chapter that talks about the 'Dark Grail' that the fallen Grail knights have instead ogf the true grail and the dark crone (or somesuch) that bestows it instead of the Grail Lady in Bretonnia.

Its worth noting that there was a location / adventure published for WHFRP2 set in Mousillon in Bretonnia called 'Barony of the Damned', where the main protagonist was a fallen Grail knight, and while he was not a Vampire, his main henchman was.

Its either in NDM or BotD that there are actual rules concerning creating a fallen grail knight for WHFRP and the dark virtues he receives in place of the grail virtues. So its pretty much cannon if you want to do it!

 

[Ghouly]

One thing about Blood Dragons they don't care about gender or what country you just got to be a fighter.

Grail Knights do not fall if you drink from the grail and survive you've proven yourself to be completly pure, however as whiskey Priest has said there is the Dark Lady whome comes to questing knights in their sleep.