Hello everybody for tuning in and thank you for another
episode of the Chronic Command podcast.
This is a bit of a solo effort from me on on behalf of one of
my patrons who made a request that I do this.
And this is a bit of a a background deep dive into the
Caste Dwarves, the faction I'm not really familiar with.
It's it, it eluded me during the 90s.
I wasn't so much interested in the the Caste Wars personally
from a aesthetical point of view, but now I I seem to adore
them. Now all these, all these years
later and there's a deep fascination behind the Caste
Dwarves. There's even an entire fanzine
dedicated to Caste Dwarves. There's a huge Discord group
dedicated to cast wolves. There's a there are guys
designing miniatures for cast wolves, like Brauniak, a
previous guest on the podcast. There, of course, is Faberzil,
who does fabulous work with recreating the aesthetics of 4th
edition. So it seems to me that this
newborn attention and this newborn of love and fascination
with cast wolves is sort of catching.
And I think people are now appreciating those old big hat,
big hat sculpts of the 90s. And yeah, people want to see
those on the tabletop. Look at Warhammer Renaissance
and you know, that's a a great fan based rule set that Boulder
has created, including all the old factions plus some new ones.
And Chaos Dwarves obviously featured there in more of a, an
updated version, but still keeping to the same aesthetics
in terms of models. And but you can include anything
you like and, you know, new old figures, a mixture of
everything, but keeping the essence of this particular book
from 4th edition at its core. So yeah, it's it's great to see
that castles are still kicking around in the old world and
they've had some sort of modern iterations, which I'm not aware
of. I I just haven't kept my fault
finger on the pulse during 8th edition and what forge world did
and and all that. But they're always seem to be
popping up every now and again, whether in there in the whether
you like the third edition aesthetic.
Like if you think of all the old classic Ali Morrison Marauder
miniatures that were released for cast Wolves, which are
beautiful, which all mimic the Jess Goodwin Chaos Warriors, I
think of the time. So if you you've had like a cast
war figure, it replicates that of the 28 mil chaos chaos
Warriors that I think Jazz did, which I didn't even know about
until recently. I think Bluey did some a series
of photographs on Instagram about that.
And so that was fascinating. So yeah, they've got a they've
got a deep rich history and they just were just not like they
weren't available there. There weren't a faction and they
were sort of disregarded after 4th edition and sort of coming
back in later editions or fan made, fan made editions.
So yeah, it's it's an interesting ride.
The past wars have been on. And I thought it was a great
suggestion by by Mark to say, hey, let's let's go through the
background. Let's just read about them and
find out their place in the old world.
You know, how did it start and how did it evolve?
So I thought that's a great idea.
I'm looking at this beautiful book now.
It's in full colour and it's a White Dwarf presents
publication. Of course, it's a Wham, a
supplement for 4th edition and of course, 5th edition.
And it's, it's has a striking cover from Dave Gallagher and,
you know, lots of Reds and oranges and yellows and gives
you a great sense and feel of the, of the great tourists and
the faction itself and the colour scheme for the cast wars
really wonderful. Again, it's all in full colour,
as I said. And it's it's the only one of
that type. And it must have been a very
expensive army book to make if you compare it to all the other
ones for all the other factions. Now I should say that the
Woodelf book I'm not so familiar with.
I've got it here and maybe I should have put it against this,
but I think wood elves are still in black and white.
But this is a full color publication.
So it's it's quite unique in that sense.
I know it's very rare and and people are still trying to
acquire their copy of it by any means possible, whether by be
PDF on their tablet or finding a physical copy.
So yeah, it has an interesting history.
And of course now I'm painting an entire army for another
patron and a good friend of mine, Gordon, over in Scotland.
So I'm getting the the first taste.
I'm getting the the real experience of actually painting
an army for Cast Wars, which I've never done before.
I've had some sample miniatures sent kindly sent to me by people
just so that I could paint them up for painting videos, which
have haven't happened yet unfortunately.
But there is a series of videos that I'll be doing on this army.
So you get to see each unit being painted up and released as
a separate video in a new format.
So I hope you enjoy that. OK, so one open up the front
cover of this glorious tome. It says a white dwarf presents
Whammer Cast dwarves, a compilation of cast dwarf
articles from White Dwarf magazine.
Cover art was caused by Dave Gallagher.
Black and white art by John Blanche and Mark Gibbons,
produced by Gaines Workshop and apparently it was this is
printed in 1994 and the game game design consultant was Brian
Ansell. So there you go.
So when Brian Ansell was putting his feet up on some island out
there somewhere and Rick was taking control of the studio, I
know he had some involvement in the term of design and stuff as
well, like the design of the cast wolves.
And if you want to see and want to listen to Rick and Alan, Alan
and and Michael Perry talking about that, I would like you to
I'd like to direct you to you probably heard it already, but
film deck miniatures looks like the gentleman there.
I think his name is Tom, who lives in Nottingham.
So he's in the prime location to do all this sort of stuff And
he's gone out and, and sort the, the prep, the invitation
presence of these illuminaries from Games Workshop, like
Ripley, like John Blanche, like so many of these guys, which is
really interesting to see and, and listen to and find out more
information about the time at Games Workshop during the 90s.
And they do a specific video just on cast walks and how they
became to be and in terms of design, especially in terms of
miniature design, not so much about the rules, I don't think,
but I think just just a miniature design.
So that the Perry's talk about that at length with Brian Ansel
over the phone with Rick and giving orders here and there and
what they should do and increase the hat size and that kind of
thing. So fascinating conversation.
So I'd really urge you go and check that out from Film Dig
Miniatures and check out all the other videos he does because
it's all about this era, the middle Hammer era leading up to
like Lord of the Rings and that kind of thing.
But like old hammer, middle hammer, and then all the way up
to the Lord of the Rings era. So yeah, lots of great stuff in
there. So let's now delve into the
Warhammer Cast Wars by Rick Priestley.
This month sees the release of the first models in a brand new
series of Chaos Dwarf miniatures by Alan Perry.
To accompany these models, Rick has been delving into the
background of this dark race. Many thousands of years ago, the
Dwarf race moved northwards from its ancestral home somewhere in
the Southlands. They moved along the high Ridge
of mountains known as the World Edge Mountains.
Following the trail of mineral ores and precious gems, the
Dwarves spread amongst the mountains, driven onwards by
their last for the secrets of rock and metal.
Over a period of many hundreds of years, they dug shafts and
excavated cavernous underground cities.
They sank mines deep into the mountain roots and constructed
tunnels which carried them further north.
Eventually, sometime in the dim and distant past, the doors
reached the upland region at the far north of the World's Edge
Mountains, which they called Zorn Oscol, or the Great Skull
Land. Here they found a vast and
inhospitable plateau where the air was thin and cold and the
rocks barren. Many turned back to South to
swell the growing numbers of dwarves in the World's Edge
Mountains. Others turned W into the cold
lands of Norska. But some of the most adventurous
turned east and then S along the bleak mountains of Mourne.
At first these widespread dwarf kindreds maintain contact with
the with each other, but the eastern dwarves strayed far, and
when the time of Chaos came, the northern regions were cut off
forever. The dwarves of the West believed
their eastern king dead, destroyed by ties of chaos that
came from the north. But they were mistaken.
Chaos did not kill the Hardy dwarves.
Instead it worked a dreadful change upon them.
The Darklands The Chaos Dwarf Empire is sighted amidst the
mountains of Morn and the adjoining eastern part of the
Darklands. It is a stark and chill as place
where nature has rent the ground and burst the mountains apart.
Amongst the peaks, volcanoes spew black smoke into the filthy
sky. In the plains.
The stench of tar pits and oil pools hangs heavily in the air,
streaming lava from the beneath. The Earth's crust covers the ash
wastes with a blanket of bubbling magma.
Almost nothing can grow in the Dark Lands.
The dim light and choking air combine to ensure that the land
remains devoid of vegetation except for a few straggly black
thorns. The volcanoes and gaping pits
bring up all kinds of minerals and gems from beneath the earth.
Gold and silver, iron and copper, diamonds and sapphires,
as well as sulphur, oil and tar. It is a land rich in the
minerals that adwarves, especially Corvette.
The Chaos Dwarf Empire It is impossible to say for certain
how or when the Dwarf Kindred of the East became the Chaos
Dwarves. Probably it was a slow process
of warping and twisting, for dwarves are stubborn by nature
and more resistant to magic than other creatures.
Nonetheless, they were changed. Their dwarf instincts became
perverted into a mockery of traditional values.
The huge and monstrous tower of Tsar Nagarund, the city of Fire
and Desolation, arose on the plain of Tsar Duk.
This monstrous city is fashioned from black Obsidian and stained
with a red glow of 1000 diabolic furnaces.
Where dwarves shun magic, the cows dwarves embraced it and
became mighty sorcerers, the creators of arcane machineries
and horrific engines. They built the Tower of
Tsarnagund in the shape of a mountain, rising tier upon tier
to its summit. At it's top, they build a temple
to the evil God Hashot, the Father of Darkness.
Around their dark city, the cast wolves sunk mines into the
earth, delving deep into the rock and filth in pursuit of the
treasures that lie below. They built engines down in the
depths, using steam power generated by the heat of the
rocks themselves. They dug for coal and piled it
high into the black mounds. They drilled for oil and tar and
dug open pits in which to store it, creating lakes of sticky
blackness over the land. In the mountains, they quarried
stone and used it to build roadways to connect all of their
lands together, so that the plundered riches of the earth
might flow all the faster into their gargantuan city.
The refuse of thousands of years of labour fills the plains of
Zarduk, where industry tears at the earth, pockmarking the
surface with ugly scars of endeavour beneath the flickering
flames of countless forgers. Untold thousands of slaves,
creatures of many races captured in war or traded from the Orcs
of the West, work at the Enterprise of the Chaos Dwarves,
the Tower of Tsarnagrand. The Tower of Tsarnagrand lies at
the centre of the Chaos Dwarf Empire and is the object of all
their labours and enterprise. Though there are numerous mines,
workshops, foundries and fortresses throughout the Plain
of Zarduk and beyond, there is just one mighty city in all the
Empire. The Tower of Zar Nagrand is
built of Obsidian black volcanic glass whose light reflects the
flames of the myriad furnaces that burn both day and night.
The entire city is built in a series of tall steps like a
ziggurat, each step hundreds of feet high and surmount all
battlements that jut upwards like a row of ugly fangs.
Each step is square, and at the bottom step is pierced by 4 huge
stone gateways bound in iron. The gates are almost as high as
the walls and massive beyond any obvious need.
From the east and West, gateway roads paved with slabs of gold
and brass led to the Mountains of Mourn and the Darklands.
The North and South gateways are the river sluices through which
the waters of the River Ruin pour.
The cold river enters the city from the north and is put to
use, calling the huge forges of the Chaos Dwarf sorcerers,
powering the steam driven engines and flashing the
effluent of industry. Out of the South, where it
leaves the city, the river is stained red and yellow with
filth, laden with noxious sediments, and it's steaming
water is thick and poisonous. A foul yellow cloud hangs about
the river and its banks are choked with drifts of
spectacularly coloured pollutants. 1000 Massive
furnaces burn within the vastness of Tsar Nagarand,
smelting the metals that are the lifeblood of the city.
The city is a huge living workshop full of smoke and
noise, illuminated by its inner fires and driven by machines of
vast size and power. Gigantic steam driven hammers
stamp out sheets of iron and bronze with rhythmic booms like
the heartbeats of a cyclopean God.
Massive cauldrons or bubbling metal pour out their molten
contents into twisted molds of intricate construction.
The roaring of furnaces, groaning of huge wheels and
grinding of arcane machineries fills the oily air.
The noise and the labours never cease.
The dark lands are shrouded in thick volcanic clouds and smoke
from the workshops of Zarduk. So the tower of Zar Nagarand
exists in a timeless twilight, illuminated by the Carmine fires
of its own forges. The Temple of Hashut At the
pinnacle of the city is a Temple of Hashut, the bull shaped God
of the Cows dwarves, who they call the Father of Darkness.
His temple is guarded by Bull Centaurs, creatures mutated from
Cows dwarves long ago. They have the body of a bull,
but the torso of a Cows dwarf, with long snaggly tusks and
exotically curled beards. Inside the temple, it's
guardians perform bloodthirsty rites, thrown captives into
cauldrons or molten metal to the echoing laughter of the
assembled caste Dwarf sorcerers. On top of the temple stands the
iron statue of Hashut. Its hollow iron belly contains a
furnace heated by coal so that the statue glows red hot and
anyone who touches its surface suffers searing wounds.
The God is the embodiment of the city, its deity and its master,
whose powers flows through the caste Dwarf Sorcerers and for
whom thousands of slaves are sacrificed by fire and furnace.
Cast Dwarf Sorcerers The cast dwarf Sorcerers rule over the
tower of Tsar Naganundt as the Lords and masters of the caste
Dwarves and high priests of Hashit.
Their lore is deep and ancient, the study of machines and magic
combined to produce arcane engines of power and
destruction. It was caste Dwarf sorcerers who
constructed the city in past ages, who carved its shape from
Obsidian and raised its dark towers and fashioned its massive
gateways. There are few in number,
probably no more than a few 100 amongst the whole Chaos Dwarf
race. In the Temple of Hashut, the
Chaos Dwarf Sorcerers meet in a great conclave of evil to make
their plans of domination. There is no leader nor formal
hierarchy amongst them, but the strongest voice belongs to the
oldest and most powerful, for cast Dwarves respect age and
knowledge, just as there are other dwarves.
Each cast Dwarf Sorcerer controls part of the city in its
workshops, and forges slaves and warriors as part of his personal
dominion. Cast Dwarves are resistant to
magic, as are all dwarves after a fashion, but they are not
immune to its effects. As cast Dwarf Sorcerers use
magic, it gradually seeps into their bodies, evoking changes in
them which are both unique and horrific.
After many centuries of labour, a Chaos Dwarf, a sorcerer,
begins to change. The pace of change is slow, but
once it begins, his fate is sealed.
Starting with his feet, the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer slowly
begins to turn to immobile stone.
At first, his legs turn grey and solid so that he is unable to
move, and his followers are obliged to carry him around, or
else he has them construct a mechanical engine to move him
about. Then his lower body and torso
turned to stone, making him extraordinarily tough.
Once his arms become stone, he's entirely dependent upon his
followers to perform his magic, as all he can do is speak and
watch their progress. After a while, his entire body
turns to stone and he becomes a statue.
The statues of Caste dwarf sorcerers are lined up among the
roadways around the Tower of Tsarnagarund, forming rank upon
rank of grey stones, watching over this approach to the city.
Caste dwarf warriors. There are relatively few caste
dwarves. The vast numbers of slaves who
toil on the Tower of Tsarnagarund and in the plain of
Zadok outnumber them many times over.
All the caste dwarves belong to one of the caste dwarf
sorcerers. They are his subjects and also
his kingsmen. Bound by the ties of blood
loyalty, which all caste dwarves deem unbreakable, bands of caste
dwarves scour the Darklands, searching for captives to bring
to Tsarnagarund, to work in the mines and forges, or to
sacrifice to the temple of Hashat.
The acquisition of slaves is very important to caste dwarves
because they are totally dependent upon captives to keep
their city and industries going. Bands or cast wars will travel
many hundreds of miles to raid ork or goblin strongholds, and
the mountains will mourn. And when they conquer a tribe,
they take as many prisoners back to the city as they can.
The more captives they take, the more successful the expedition
is judged to have been. All wars or conquest are fought
with the aim of taking slaves. The Chaos Dwarves are not
interested in expanding their territories further, for the
mountains are Mourn and the Plain of Zadok contain all the
wealth that they require. Sometimes whole armies of Chaos
Dwarves March against their Orchen goblin tribes, subduing
one tribe after another before returning to the tower of Tsar
Nagarand laden with slaves. The Castors also raid to the
north, attacking the fierce Norse riding human tribes of the
North and Highlands, but these are distant conquests for them,
and the horse tribes often flee rather than fight.
The furthest W the Castors armies have reached to date is
the verdant valleys of Far Side, the province of Kislev, which
lies in the eastern foothills of the World's Edge Mountains.
Smaller bands of caste dwarves have penetrated as far as the
lands around Death Pass, where they have encountered the many
tribes of goblins that live in the western part of the
Darklands. The caste dwarf trade slays the
goblin tribes, choosing to use the goblins as intermediaries
rather than advance further into the Old World.
In this way, captives, dwarves and men from the Old World have
been taken prisoner, first by the goblins and then sold to the
caste dwarves, only to end their days in the pits of Zadok were
upon the burning altars of Hashat Black Orks.
Many years ago, the cast dwarf sorcerers tried to breed their
own Ork race, a race of slaves that could work in the most
hostile parts of their realm. They already had thousands of
Ork and goblin slaves, but the cast dwarves found them unruly
and inefficient because they would often fight amongst
themselves. Using evil magic and careful
selection, the caste dwarves created a new type of Ork,
stronger than any ordinary Ork, but more loyal and not given
into squabbling. This was how the race of Black
Orks came into being. The experiment worked at first,
but the caste dwarves soon realized that although their
creations were much tougher, they were far too independent
minded to make good slaves. Ordinary Orks and Goblins were
constantly riven by disputes and so never had time to plot
against their masters. Black Orks on the other hand
were too well organized, often starting rebellions and leading
the other orks and goblins into armed revolt.
After several near disasters when Black Hawk LED armies
ravaged parts of the Tower of Tsar Nagarund and KASTA, wolves
decided to drive them from their city forever.
Many Black Orks escaped into the Mountains of Mourn where their
descendants remained to this day, while others undertook
their long journey to the West and eventually reached the Old
World. The cast Dwarves destroyed many
Black Orks, but they left some tribes free to roam the
mountains so they could recruit them as troops into their
armies. Hobgoblins.
During the height of the largest and most savage Black Hawk
rebellion, the cast wolves were almost overcome.
Vastly outnumbered by their former slaves, they were driven
upwards through the layers of their city, fighting for each
level, ascending ever closer to the the Temple of Hashed itself.
At the final hour the city was saved by the treachery of the
Cob Goblins, who, having rebelled along with the Black
Orks, switched their allegiance once more and turned the tide
against the Ork rebels. In doing so, the Hobgoblins earn
the enmity of the other green skinned races who deeply
distrust them. To this day the hobgoblins enjoy
the favour of the Cast Wolves and care little what other
greenskins think of them. Unlike the Cast Wolves, other
slaves, they're not made to work in the pits and workshops, but
are used as warriors. They're a sneaky, evil minded
race who remain as dishonest and cowardly in the service of the
Cow's dwarves as they were when fighting for the Black Hawks.
Other greenskins despise them and would certainly kill them
were it not for the power they enjoy amongst the cow's dwarves.
Hobgoblins are distinctive in appearance.
They look much like goblins, but they are taller, though nowhere
near as burly as Orks. In fact, their whole appearance
is thin and sneaky, with narrow eyes and sneering mouths full of
pointy teeth. They ride giant wolves and often
carry bows to shoot the enemy from a distance.
The Cast Wolves utilize many Hop Goblins in their armies, but
don't really trust them. The Cast Wolves know that the
Hop Goblins are despised by other green skins and need the
protection of other green skins to survive.
Well that brings us to the end of the background and relative
information behind the cast was the origin story and everything
like that. So I hope you enjoyed it.
I enjoyed through reading through it and I had fun sort of
tripping over my own words and nothing to do with the
fictitious names and literature in this book.
It's just the actual the English language that I had trouble
pronouncing a few words initially.
So you can hear the bloopers at the end of this segment, but be
warned, there is a swearing Australian in frustration there.
So you probably want don't want that to be heard by your little
younglings and snotlings running around.
So but look, guys, look, I enjoyed reading that.
I hope you get you guys did too. If you'd like to hear more of
these kind of deep dives in the in the factions of Warhammer,
please let me know, Please reach out.
Please get in touch with me on Discord or send me an e-mail at
the crown of commandpodcast@gmail.com.
Get in touch me on Patreon about it.
You know, that's fine. You know, whatever you guys want
to do, whatever your wishes are, I will try to fulfil them as
best I can, especially for my patrons who support me each
month. I think going through all the
different kinds of artillery pieces and unique items for the
cast Wars will leave for the model reviews the miniatures
when I get to paint them and then put them in those painting
videos. And then you can see the actual
mechanics of the actual war machine or character, whichever
it might be. Maybe some spells and that kind
of thing as well. And putting together really nice
faction focus on the cast warps as they are quite a unique and
special bunch, aren't they? With their top hats and large
hats at that. And so, and maybe we can look at
the characters or something or special units in the Bastry or
their army list there. And if that's the case, please
let me know, please send me an e-mail.
Please get in touch and, and, and during this time when we
don't have any interviews, if you have any questions you would
like to ask me about the podcast, about the YouTube
channel, about myself, about what's coming up, anything you
like again, contact me at the crown of
commandpodcast@gmail.com. And I'm more than happy to get
your questions answered on the show.
Maybe a bit of AQ and a between myself and the audience would be
really nice. If that, if that would interest
you, please let me know and please get in contact.
So I look forward to those. In the meantime, guys, enjoy
your hobby this week. Hope you get some painting time
in, hope you get to flip open some of those army books you
have there and sort of start planning your next army.
And I look forward to seeing your progress either on the
Crown Command group, on Facebook, Discord, or on
Patreon. So until then, guys, take care
of yourselves and I'll speak to you soon.
Here they found a vast and in his.
Here they found a vast in inhospitable.
Here they found a Vast and in his.
In his, in hospitable. Here they found a vast and
inhospitable. Choosing to use the goblins as
intermediary. As intermediaries.
Fuck it, intermediary. Fuck me dead.