Demonomaniacs are introduced in the 1995 Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay adventure Dying of the Light, set around Marienburg. The result of the ritual experiments of a Meargh who seeks to bind demons into her warriors, demonomanics are an unstable horrors: the body of a fimir struggling - and generally failing - to control the demon that has possessed it. In Chapter 5, the party first find the mangled and mutated corpse of a Fimir who has failed in this struggle and been ripped apart by an "an extreme series of mutations". Then, deeper in the swamp they find another thing that "looks like it was once a fimir", towering and in a state of apparent confusion. (My favourite detail is in its profile, the alignment is given as "Too confused for that at the moment"). "Claw marks cover its whole body and worms now ooze from these fetid gashes." It emits gutteral noises of agony. It flails its axe and mutated scythe-claw arm in a state of wild attack.
Here is Pete Knifton's atmospheric, terrifying, and frankly disgusting image of a Demonomaniac. As you'll see, I haven't included worms with mine. I do regret not giving mine a tail that can shoot spikes. Anyway, I imagine the one I've painted to be in a slightly more stable state of possession - though only just.
This is not the only fimir I managed to get belatedly done for the month of Marsh, but I'll save the others for the next post.
First of all, thank you for introducing us to Krakon Games, a manufacturer we didn't know who has a lot of fascinating miniatures instead.
ReplyDeleteWe like your fimir demonomaniac and how you made his skin colour. Btw, we love when this short circuit between stories/ illustrations and miniatures becomes reality!
And after all the fimirs remind with nostalgy to the oldest of us (R) when in his childhood he played Hero Quest and met these one-eyed beasts in the dungeons...
Yes! It was heroquest that filled my mind with a horror of the fimir... and a fascination that has followed me ever since.
DeleteThere are many of us in the Oldhammer community that longed to collect warbands and even armies of these toys of childhood, and one of the great things that has come out of the community has been these new fimir sculpts bringing the illustrations to life.
Whoo! I really need to run Dying of the Light sometime, it's such a great adventure.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great plot, but isn't it a bit linear to work for a roleplaying campaign? There seem to be too many compulsory passing points, I worry the GM would be herding cats
DeleteGreat looking, something a bit different and disconcerting for the unsuspecting adventurer
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, it is a bit of a disconcerting creature. That claw arm is somehow very unnerving.
Delete