The Saga of Symbaroum

The first place I always start when painting miniatures for RPGs is the characters.  The reason for this is that even in games where miniatures may not be used, I love searching for miniatures and just bringing the characters to life.  It’s like having a character portrait on a sheet only in 3D and this game is no different.  The intention with these miniatures is that upon the conclusion of this campaign, the character miniatures will become the property of the players themselves as a gift from me and a momento of what has thus far been an incredibly enjoyable game.  In addition to that, the GM doesn’t have a character so I have picked a character from the lore and chosen a miniature to represent her even though it’s highly unlikely that we will ever see her in game.  Finally I wanted to give everyone a version of themselves on foot and on horseback.  This extra dimension made finding miniatures for some of the characters a lot more difficult.

I should point out that about half of these were painted at the start of last year, the other half were done in January this year so they were done well before I started this project.  I really wanted everyone to just have their little avatars sat on the table while we were playing even though a lot of the game was focused on politics which doesn’t have any combat maps or anything like that.   Also, because these are RPG characters and are eventually going to be gifted to my fellow players, they won’t actually make it into the Saga game

So who are the characters?

Osric – The Hunter

Osric is the ranger of the party, or an equivalent thereof.  Born the third son of a noble family and promised to the Church of Prios, he had other ideas and ran away from home the night before he was supposed to join a monastery, earning the eternal ire of his family.  Eventually he landed in Thistle Hold and,  taking on the name of Osric (not his birth name), until recently he made a quiet living by hunting the creatures of Davokar and selling the pelts and trophies.  He is accompanied by Reave, his faithul pet Jakkar, a type of large dog  – but not a wolf – native to the forests of Davokar.  Occasionally he would take work guarding some of the trade caravans that travel the roads through Davokar, which is how the adventure party met in the first place.

During my searches for miniatures, I spent a lot of time looking at the Footsore ranges and conquest games, both of whom have some really nice Robin Hood miniatures, however I was really struggling to find something to match it on horseback.  As he uses a Longbow, primarily, finding a mounted longbowman isn’t that easy because Longbows are not really a mounted weapon.  Many of the Horse Archers have a more Eastern look, which wasn’t what I was going for and also isn’t really in keeping with the Ambrian feel.  Eventually I settled for one of the Dunedan Rangers from the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game because there was also a really nice version of Aragorn on horseback that was a great match in terms of its look.  The fact that he uses a sword isn’t a problem because Osric’s backup weapon is a sword (although if he has to use it he’s probably fucked because he’s a bit useless with it).  Finally I managed to get hold of some of the Wolf Hounds from the Footsore Dark Age Irish range and used one of those for Reave.

Seebor – The Sellsword

Seebor is an uncomplicated kind of guy.  He fights, he gets paid and he likes a drink at the end of a day’s work.  Not wishing to get drawn into the politics of the world, he shares much in common with Osric and the two have formed a friendship and will often be found drinking together whenever they’re in a town.  The two have taken to hunting together seeking larger quarry for greater spoils and in a fight, Osric will often soften targets up for Seebor to finish off.

Seebor favours his axe and a shield and there are in fact a nice number of miniatures out there for this, especially in the Baron’s War range from Footsore.  However I spoke to the player and he said he wanted a more Dark Age look to his model, like a fighter who hasn’t necessarily earned enough to buy the latest in heavy armour.  Luckily I already had in my posession a miniature from Wargames Illustrated – Harald Hardrada – from the Giants in Miniature range that was absolutely perfect.  Finding a nice matching mounted model also wasn’t too hard because although mounted viking miniatures are not really very common, the Sons of Eorl from Middle Earth SBG are a great match.  I managed to find one on eBay so I got the exact one that I was looking for rather than chancing a random one from Games Workshop.  By not using the Green colour scheme of  Rohan, I think the result is really nice.

Koromai – Queen’s Assassin

Koromai is also of Noble birth and is also hiding who he truly is.  Having witnessed his father murder his mother and fearing he was next, he fled his ancestral home.  He has since manged to forge a reputation as a skilled blade and attracted the attention of one of the Queen’s spy masters who have helped him develop his skills even further with the introduction of alchemy.  He now secretly serves the queen whilst plotting his eventual revenge against his father.

This was one of the more difficult miniatures to find, mostly because trying to find lightly armoured (or unarmoured) noble miniatures with either a matching infantry version or that just looks vaguely like another miniature out there was next to impossible.  Well, impossible within the medieval aesthetic, it gets easier the further on in history you get but even renaissance miniatures felt a little anachronistic.  There were plenty of miniatures to choose from on foot.  Eventually, after a lot of discussion with the player, we eventually settled for the Bard of Laketown miniature from Middle Earth SBG.  It wasn’t really a perfect choice and to be honest, I still keep a look out for possible alternatives but as yet nothing has come up.

Karin – Mage of the Ordo Magicka

Not much is really known about Karin’s background and she doesn’t really share.  All we know is that she’s a member of the Ordo Magicka.  She is accomanied everywhere by Feynor, her flaming servant, little more than an animated suit of armour filled with fire.  It doesn’t speak or interact in anyway beyond carrying out Karin’s instructions.  Feynor is formidable in and of itself however Karin herself wields the power of flame which she uses to great effect when threatened.

As with Koromai, Karin was quite hard to find a miniature for.  There’s loads of really nice sorceror miniatures especially from the likes of North Star in their Frostgrave range but trying to find a mounted, unarmoured female is actually quite difficult.  There are some but quite often they are nobles and royalty and don’t really look like adventurers.  However I came across a miniature by a company called Elladan miniatures who make some “I can’t believe it’s not the Starks” miniatures and their Mounted Daughter of the North looked like a perfect fit.  I then coupled that with an elementalist from North Star.  Feynoor is actually an old Reaper Bones miniature I had lying around

Benedictus – Theurg of Prios

Benedictus is a pious man and has served the church for many years.  Like many priests he spends his time travelling and bringing the light of Prios to the masses – and cleansing holy flame to his enemies.  He is currently undecided about the Heretic, Friar Sarvola, and has not yet picked a side which has earned him some suspicion among his order.  However his devotion to his God is unquestioned and this has put him at odds with his travelling companions from time to time, especially when they face trouble with the Tempar Order or the Black Cloak Inquisitors.

This was one of my favourite models to paint and it didn’t take long to decide what I wanted.  The King Baldwin IV miniature from Fire Forge seemed like a perfect mactch – it looks regal and proud, especially with the cane in the hand of the dismounted version.  The fact that it wears a face mask was also a great fit for the Theurg class. I opted for a different colour scheme than the white that is used by Fireforge and went for a gold and red colour scheme.  I put an emphasis on the Gold rather than the more typical red that is associated with the church of Prios, essentially inverting the colour scheme, just to set him apart both from the Church itself and also from Karin who also wears predominantly red.

Queen Korinthia

Queen Korinthia is the head of the Ambrian State however unlike the model, in the lore she is currently old and horridly disfigured following a battle long ago in the Ambrian homeland.  She wears a mask to hide the burns to her face and sits upon her throne brooding and scheming as to how she can find the lost throne of Symbar, the first human empire, and claim it for her own.

When looking for a miniature for this, I decided to go for a younger version of the Queen, how she would have looked 30 or 40 years ago when she was fighting against the Dark Lords in the ancestral lands of the Ambrians.  I made this decision when I saw the Jeanne de Clisson by Bad Squiddo Games.  This is the miniature that will be gifted to the GM so that all players have a momento of the game