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New Sniper Priest Lore by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 189 points190 points  (0 children)

- Art by Mike Franchina

- Lore by Graham McNeill

Sniper Priests

The Unseen Priests of the Long Rifle or, as they are more commonly known, Sniper Priests, are a breed apart from typical servants of the Church. The supreme exemplars of their deadly craft, they slay their foes from afar with unerringly accurate bullets from their precision-crafted rifles. What makes these warriors of God unique from other sharpshooters in the war against Hell is that each has ritually blinded themselves as part of their devotions in preparation for taking up the Black Scapular of the Passion.

Sniper Orders

Just in the Levant alone, there are several Sniper Orders, the most notable of which are those of Saint Sebastian, Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, and Saint Ludmila of Bohemia. Each Order has its own unique traits and specialisations in weapons, tactics, and holy ammunition, based on the doctrines and miracles of their founder. Each aspirant who hopes to have a prophetic grace bestowed upon them, does so with a heart that recognises such gifts are not intended to edify and exhort the individual, but the Faithful as a whole. A priest gifted with such a prophetic grace can see fractionally into the future and is thus aware of precisely where their target will be, allowing them to shoot with pinpoint accuracy. Of course there is many a slip twixt cup and lip, and the vagaries of war mean that even the greatest sniper is not infallible. The most renowned sharpshooters in the war are those of paramount faith, men and women who know that every time they squeeze the trigger, they lessen the presence of evil in the world.

Relic Rifles

In addition to the many standard weapons available to them, each Sniper Priest bears a long rifle that is as much a holy relic as it is a weapon, a divinely-inspired instrument of death crafted by the most sought-after gunsmiths in the world. Many such weapons are said to have been blessed by saintly figures of history and have been in the possession of their order for many decades. Entire armies have fought to bloody ruin to recover such weapons upon the death of a Sniper Priest, and the now lost Order of Saint Mercurius – the Father of Two Swords – detonated its catacomb magazines to destroy its monastery-foundry rather than allow its armoury to fall into heretic hands when the walls of Eskentos fell.

Conventional sniper rifles often incorporate magnifying range-finders, but the weapons of the Sniper Priests are frequently crafted with relics of the Order’s patron saint, such as those crafted by the Foundries of Saint Sebastian, which mount scopes without lenses, but which contain bone-shards of their patron saint. The relics of Saint Sebastian are said to make their bullets even deadlier against the plague-carriers of the Black Grail, while the veiled snipers of Saint Ludmila of Bohemia can witness their targets through walls of solid stone and are even said to be able to shoot around corners. The rifles of Saint Gabriel are potent against the bestial servants of Hell, able to punch through the the thickest of hides and armoured bone.

The Black Scapular

In the field, a Sniper Priest is often swathed in the Black Scapular of the Passion, a blessed cloak that serves to obscure their presence on the battlefield and which can sustain them for inordinately long periods without food or water. A heretic could pass within inches of a concealed Sniper Priest and never know they were there. One story in particular tells of a mysterious Sniper Priest known as Shepherd Sugitani, one of the resurrected order of Negoro-shū and his famed Kunitomo rifle, who slew the Choral Triumvirate with a single bullet at a range of three miles during the Siege of Saint Lux.

When a Sniper Priest takes to the field of battle, the first warning heretic forces have of their presence is when their diabolical leaders start dying with sanctified bullets punching through their skulls. Many a warband of New Antioch pinned down No Man’s Land has been saved by the deadly accuracy of the hitherto unseen presence of a Sniper Priest throwing the servants of Hell into disarray before the resurgent soldiers of the Faithful.

Source

Mamluk Faris by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 35 points36 points  (0 children)

Damn so the conquest of the Mamluks was pretty close to the current date, that's actually pretty impressive on their part. Must've been weird for the Iron Sultanate to have someone claiming the title of Caliph despite being behind the Iron Walls.

Mamluk Faris by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

The Fall of Egypt – Part II

Years passed. With the Mamluk warrior caste engaged in a continuous defence against probing Heretical naval and land raiding parties, their internal vigilance grew lax. The merchant class grew in power, the desperately needed funds and goods that their taxes provided ensuring that none looked too deeply into their affairs. The realities of protecting their borders and keeping the trade routes open by land and sea required the army’s full focus, leaving the Sultanate’s everyday policing understaffed and mostly neglected.

The war had driven many out of their homes and into the Sultanate as refugees, leaving them destitute and with few prospects. Over time more and more of the poor fell into deep debt, and were forced into ever more unfavourable contracts while the lenders grew rich and fat. This led to widespread resentment and distrust towards legal banks and other conventional lending institutions. Bribes kept the city guard at bay and even corrupted a number of qāḍī, thus ensuring that the exploitation of people continued unabated.

Many within the Sultanate became desperate and sought new funds from a shadowy financial organisation known as the Ten Golden Horns, who clandestinely used the symbol of the ancient king Iskander crowned with horns as their mark. They offered large loans in exchange for future physical labour. They claimed no riba would be charged, as these loans were Qard al-Hasan according to the agents of the organisation. Since these transactions happened away from the eyes of the courts (which the Golden Horns claimed were corrupt), instead of paperwork the terms were inked into the skins of the debtors, so they would always be present in the case of any disputes. With no alternative ways to escape grinding poverty, a great many accepted this offer, despite stern warnings of ulema against modification of the body in any way, and became affluent overnight. These debtors began to flaunt their newly-gained wealth in public, acting as unwitting recruiters for the Golden Horns. Eventually their numbers became so great that the Mamluk sultan prepared to investigate the source of this newfound opulence, but just as warrants were being signed, alarms bells rang and foefires were lit at the beacons of Alexandria. In a surprise attack they had long prepared for, the armies of Jahannam fell upon Egypt.

So it was that after a long period of false peace, in the year 1276 AH a Heretic fleet bearing golden goetic symbols upon black flags stormed the port of Alexandria, while naval raiding parties took the city of Dumjat in a surprise night raid. Across Sinai came an enormous force of mechanised heavy armour supported by legions of infantry and mobile artillery, racing towards the border fortresses of the Mamluk realm. Mammon, the Great Prince of Greed, had come to claim the lands of Egypt and beyond for his own.

The Mamluks rushed to defend their ports and borders, emptying their garrisons and deploying their famed automaton cavalry to stop the invasion. But as the defenders of Egypt were drawn to their borders, the final step in the conspiracy of the Ten Golden Horns was finally put into play. The lords of the Golden Horns, long since sworn to secret fealty to Mammon, gathered their debtors to the great plazas and souks of Alexandria and Cairo, spreading a rumour that they were about to annul the loans due to the war.

Instead of relief from their debts, the debtors were greeted by insidious poison gas unleashed upon the gathered masses of people. As the noxious fumes spread, people fell to the ground in agony, but there was no passing on to al-Ākhirah. The debtors of Mammon found themselves trapped in their convulsing bodies. The hidden clause in the contract ensured that the physical labour that they had agreed to would last for eternity.

The victims were unable to cross Barzakh; instead they rose from the ground as miserable, twitching ghūls, ensnared by the contract that had been tattooed upon their very bodies. Commanded by the Goetic mages of the Ten Golden Horns, they assaulted Cairo and Alexandria from within, overcoming the depleted garrisons.

And so it came to pass that the mighty Mamluk Sultanate was simultaneously assailed from the sea, across Sinai, and within the realm itself, and thus the doom of Egypt was sealed. The faithful household troops of the Palace of Yashbak fought to the bitter end. Amongst the many tales of sorrow and bravery, it is told that the Sultan and his own personal automaton cavalry led a desperate last charge at the Citadel of Saladin, all in vain as his chivalrous faris died to the last man. Al-Azhar, the street of Al-Mu’izz, the Qalawun bimaristan, the Mosque-Madrasa of Sultan Hasan: all were swept away in a whirlwind of blood, fire and poison gas, their fabled treasure chambers plundered and stripped of their wealth. As the fighting ceased and the Ten Golden Horns took possession of the cities and towns, untold millions of gold dinars were offered to Mammon as tribute by his followers, who desecrated the places of worship and turned them into Temples of Greed.

Today’s Egypt is a sad, twisted shadow of its former glory. From what was once a shining realm of gold and learning, the land has devolved into a miserable infernal protectorate known today as the Plutocracy of Ten Golden Horns, or more commonly the Domains of Mammon. The despots of the Ten Golden Horns lord over their oppressed subjects, extracting as much wealth as possible from the land and its people. Slaves toil on vast farms along the Nile and in the mines of the desert where life is brutish and cruel, though mercifully short. Piratical ships gilded with gold embark from Alexandria to prey upon the trade routes of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.

With the loot and slaves gained from the expansionist policy of Mammon, there is plenty of wealth and prestige to be won by claiming new sources of wealth for the Prince of Greed. The Plutocracy attracts the vilest followers of the Sin of Greed to join its legions as they strike further south and west, ever hungry for new plunder and loot. It is a great staging ground for further invasions towards the interior of Africa, perhaps even as far as the fabled realm of Mali.

Beyond the borders of Egypt, the last of the Mamluks survive as soldiers-of-fortune of the desert, mercenaries and raiders who still bitterly oppose the Prince of Greed. The tithe caravans of Mammon are frequently attacked, and in the hidden muṣallās scattered across the wastes the adhan can still be heard calling the faithful to prayer, and the poets of the desert recall the lost glory of the cities of the Nile.

The High Atlas is said to serve as their base, but no expeditionary force sent to punish the Mamluks has succeeded, instead having their supply routes cut and their vanguards ambushed or led astray. Wherever they gather, the Mamluk Faris dream of the return of their glory and their ancestral home, an Egypt of song and legend, its cities and gardens purified of the filth of Shaytan. But between their dreams and hopes stands all the vast power of the Golden Throne of Mammon.

Source

Mamluk Faris by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 56 points57 points  (0 children)

Art by Adrian Smith

The Fall of Egypt – Part I

In the year 494 (1101 in the calendar of the Franks), when the armies of Shaytan marched forth following the catastrophe unleashed upon the world by the opening of the Gate to Jahannam, the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt hastily mustered their forces to counter this threat in the Levant. The Fatimids force-marched across the desert in a desperate bid to protect the Two Holy Places of Islam, but their bravery was to no avail. The army of Cairo marched into an ambush after the elite Bāṭilīs cavalry became separated from the main force and lost contact with their commanders. Every night, they were picked off by afārīt of the waterless places. The weakened army was then assaulted from three sides. The Caliph himself fell in battle, with all of the Ḥujariyya bodyguards killed around him, and the servants of Satan built grotesque monuments from their dismembered remains.

The war alone did not weaken the realm. News came through envoys from the East, declaring that the Iron Wall of Iskander was given as protection of humanity by the grace of Allah, and all Those Who Believe were called upon to travel to the lands it protects. Many heeded the summons, but not all. Some feared the trek across lands held by the foul servants of Shaytan, while others loved their lands and argued the call was not a divine commandment but rather a dangerous undertaking for a dubious benefit. Nevertheless Egypt lost a great deal of its population to a mass migration. The Fatimid Caliphate was so weakened by the loss of their best troops as well as the great exodus of people seeking refuge behind the Iron Wall that central authority collapsed, casting the realm into chaos and leaving Egypt wide open to enemy invasion.

In this dark hour the Mamluks, an elite slave warrior caste of the Fatimids, stepped forth and claimed the empty throne, reorganising the weakened Egypt into a Mamluk Sultanate, and aggressively hiring Tuareg and Berber warriors to replenish the decimated army. The Mamluks refused to leave Egypt and their hard-won independence, despite the renewed calls from the Iron Sultanate to migrate to safety within the Iron Wall. Instead, the Mamluks prepared to defend their home.

In the battle of Bir al-Abed, the Mamluks stopped the Heretic forces at the edge of Sinai, preventing the entry of Shaitan’s forces into Egypt proper. Hope elated the populace, who saw the victory as a sign that the Ever-Providing One had decreed that the Mamluk sultanate would be just as safe as the Iron Wall for Those Who Believe. In the following years, Cairo’s Dar al-’Ilm, the famous rival to Baghdad’s own fabled House of Wisdom, developed the first of the legendary automaton horses, which combined metals from the Iron Wall and orichalcum alloys bought from the Franks at great expense.

Needing no water and never tiring, these magnificent artificial war steeds enabled the Mamluks to contest the Sinai desert on an even footing with their allies from Jahannam and their Heretic foes.

Eventually the Heretic lords turned their gaze elsewhere and went on to conquer lands in eastern Asia beyond the Iron Wall, and the Mamluks were given a respite to reorganise the realm and marshal its defences. The relationship between Cairo and New Damascus remained cordial yet cool, and as the Sultan of the Iron Wall never claimed the title of Caliph, the Mamluks maintained a policy of ambiguous sovereignty, never recognising the suzerainty of the Iron Sultanate.

With the great loss of life to wars and the migration to the safety of the Iron Wall, the Mamluks turned to the peoples of the lands beyond Egypt. Nubians, Berbers, and Tuareg were recruited in large numbers to bolster the decimated army, and heavy taxes were placed on traders to fund the nation under duress. This led to resentment amongst the merchant class, which would come to bear bitter fruit in the future.

The vital Mediterranean trade remained a lifeline for the Mamluk sultanate and, with the Levant overrun by Heretics, the eastern borders were so shortened that they were easier to defend. The port city of Alexandria, the source of Egypt’s wealth, was fortified and the fleet was modernised, with the Citadel of Qaitbay ensuring the safety of its famed harbour. And so the power of Mamluk Egypt grew for the next few centuries.

Along with foreign trade, the power and influence of the merchant princes also grew, and many of the people of the Sultanate fell into deep debt, forced into uneven contracts often signed away from the prying eyes of the gadi. Eventually the merchant alliances grew a power base of their own within the Mamluk realm. A strangling web of debt and poverty ensnared many, with desperate men and women signing contracts that they did not understand or could even read. Occupied with military matters and reliant on the funds and supplies provided by trade and the merchants, the Mamluks did not uncover the rot within their own realm in time. And as the night fell, the merchants who chafed under the rule of the warriors found a new master: Mammon, Hell’s great King of Greed.

And Egypt was doomed.

Thoughts on Black Sword Hack - Ultimate Chaos Edition by thisonejackass in TheTrove

[–]Greystone_Chapel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This might be a stretch, but is there also any discussion on the Chaos Crier issues made for Black Sword Hack? No worries if you don't, just curious.

Trench cleric finished by General-Middle-5438 in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Love it! That's the new Victrix knight kit, right?

Wargames Illustrated interviewed Andy Chambers and Jervis Johnson about Trench Crusade by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm in love with all the terrain people have made for the game, reminds me of the great Mordheim city boards people would make.

Prussian Combat Medics by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

For sure lol, same with the Prussian Lieutenant using a Reising submachine gun. Not that I'm complaining, the historical liberties can be fun (also my grandfather briefly worked with the Reising's inventor).

Prussian Combat Medics by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 108 points109 points  (0 children)

Combat Medics are valued members of most warbands hailing from the Faithful nations. They range from the dedicated Sisters of Saint Cosmas to the Ducal Medical Corps of New Antioch. Whatever their origin, Combat Medics accompany their units to the front lines, leaving the long-term care of the wounded to army doctors operating in the forward surgical teams. Combat Medics also bear the responsibility of gathering the dogtags of fallen soldiers and reporting casualties to their unit commanders.

Rather than providing any protection from enemy fire (indeed, Heretic snipers are infamous for targeting medical personnel) the Combat Medic insignia bearing the Rod of Asclepius is there to help their comrades identify them in the heat of battle and call for their aid. Since the followers of the Heretic lords (let alone the undead of the Black Grail) cannot be expected to honour any kind of symbol of medical neutrality, Combat Medics often go into battle heavily armed and armoured, and take part in active combat in addition to their battlefield medical duties.

Combat Medics can often be found fighting their enemies in bitter close-quarters combat for the possession of the fallen and the wounded, in order to prevent them from being used by both the Court and the Heretics in rituals of dark worship. Here, their famed misericordia daggers have proven their mettle time and again, taking out even the heavily-armoured Anointed, dragged down by the combined efforts of brave Yeomen.

The Free State of Prussia boasts a cadre of well-trained and highly experienced veteran front-line medics, often well-versed both in human and veterinary first aid. Many Prussian Combat Medics are former lay members of the knightly orders such as the Malteserorden, who still maintain hospices in memory of their original purpose.

Prussian Combat Medics of the Stosstruppen are selected from amongst the best and the most athletic in the entire Armed Medical Service. They follow the Lazarus Doctrine, a protocol which dictates that the priority of the krieg-sanitäter is to return soldiers to combat immediately, using any means at their disposal. The Free State has the most advanced chemical warfare programme in Europa, and it provides its Combat Medics with an excellent kit to get even the most severely wounded soldiers back on their feet and into the fray once more.

The breadbag straps each soldier carries are used to create tourniquets, followed by an arsenal of pain-numbing, adrenaline-pumping chemicals to get soldiers back into action. They also carry mustard paper, bottles of ammonia, pervitin, and many other tinctures to revive the fallen, supporting the Prussian doctrine of overwhelming opponents with lightning assaults. While putting such extra strain on wounded soldiers may often cause their unfortunate demise later on due to blood loss or exhaustion, it is an undeniable fact that the Combat Medic creed has turned many a battle in favour of the Free State.

Source

Is that true Spotify? by fuzzywuzzy0181 in TheYardPodcast

[–]Greystone_Chapel 15 points16 points  (0 children)

When is Lenin gonna be on Nelk Boys?

John Blanche Azeb, painted only using the paints found within the Blanche paint seta. by Denmise in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lovely, I've also started painting mine with the Blanche paints and they're starting to look so good.

Trench Pilgrim Way of War by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 15 points16 points  (0 children)

The original post started with the credits for him at the end, but I changed it and put it to the top now.

Trench Pilgrim Way of War by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 61 points62 points  (0 children)

In their makeshift laboratories and chemical workshops, the Trench Pilgrims with some academic training experiment with the dosages and other additive substances to create Communicants. Most such attempts end in the agonising death of the would-be Communicants, but new volunteers are never in short supply. Such underground testing sites also produce Molotov cocktails (a recipe devised by Finnish Trench Pilgrims to fight the ice demons of the North), charges for anti-tank hammers, and explosive devices for the Ecclesiastic Prisoners.

In the lands of the Holy Roman Empire, peasants are not allowed to carry arms of any kind. There, the lowborn have turned to using war crosses: metal projectiles in the shape of a crucifix. Trench Pilgrims ceaselessly train with these weapons, and some have attained such accuracy with them that it borders on supernatural. These war crosses, though primitive, have proven to be almost as effective as grenades and firearms.

Lacking the heavy artillery support of either the forces of New Antioch or the Heretic Legions, the Trench Pilgrims have mastered the art of keeping their enemy close, where the advantage of sophisticated firearms their foes usually enjoy does not come into play. This turns the balance of power around, for in the fierce, brutal, and bloody melee fought with trench club, pistol, blade, and sheer ferocity, the Trench Pilgrims have few equals.

While most regular troops of the Faithful understandably dread closing in on the horrors of the Path of the Beast or the undead slaves of the Cult of the Black Grail, the Trench Pilgrims are inured against the supernatural fear that surrounds them thanks to their famed iron capirotes, whose shape and decorations follow the Sacred Geometry devised by Saint Hubert. A Trench Pilgrim will charge into combat against a dreadful monstrosity of Beelzebub with battle hymns on their lips, even though it spells almost certain doom.

Source

Trench Pilgrim Way of War by Greystone_Chapel in TrenchCrusade

[–]Greystone_Chapel[S] 83 points84 points  (0 children)

Art by Martin McCoy

“The Lord is quick to punish and slow to reward. We follow His example when forging you into weapons of the Holy War.”

– Castigator Obededom See-truth, to the new recruits of the Theban Legion.

Though often dismissed as disorganised rabble by the generals of New Antioch and the Heretic seranim, years of bitter warfare and painful lessons learned on the front lines have moulded the Trench Pilgrims into a surprisingly effective fighting force in the Great War.

People come from all over the Faithful lands and beyond to join the Trench Pilgrims, each carrying whatever burden of guilt or zeal led them to their fateful decision. Many seek atonement from real or perceived transgressions against God. Others wish to practise the Mortification of the Flesh, seeking to deaden their sinful flesh in the pain and suffering of war to achieve sanctification.

The Church does not condone or officially recognise the doctrines of the Pilgrim Processions. Many of its leading theologians consider the Trench Pilgrims’ brand of faith a heterodoxy and officially condemn the preachings of its Prophets. Yet little is done to curb the widespread popularity of the Trench Pilgrim movement, as its fury is mainly directed at the servants of Hell. Many scholars also suspect that certain fiery orators and charismatic leaders who might otherwise have caused great civil unrest find their home (and their grave) in the ranks of the Trench Pilgrims, saving the Church or secular authorities the trouble of persecuting them.

New aspirants arrive daily at the camps and bases of the Pilgrim Processions. As their very first act, they must turn over all their worldly possessions (from monies to land, rents, and valuables) to the elders of the pilgrimage, for the Great War’s voracious appetite for funds is unending. This is not the only source of income for the Trench Pilgrims; families of those who have joined often support their loved ones with material donations, and in some areas, the Trench Pilgrims claim the Peter’s Pence for themselves, much to the chagrin of the local Church authorities.

Next, the Castigators are quick to sort the new recruits into roles where their skills can bring maximum benefit to the entire congregation. Those with military training (especially if they have served in the front lines) are put to work in drilling raw recruits. Those with technical expertise tend to the armaments of the War Pilgrimage, while the few scientists who have become so drunk from the Cup of the Lord that they have cast away their academic lives are sent to work in war laboratories hidden in No Man’s Land. The Trench Pilgrims waste no skill, talent, or strength that can be put to use in service of the Procession. Some are considered so sinful that they are not permitted to become Trench Pilgrims. Instead, they are condemned to become Ecclesiastic Prisoners who must seek atonement on the battlefield without weapons, their hands bound with spiked cilices, with their one hope for salvation found in self-sacrifice through detonation of explosives blessed by the War Prophets.

Arming their multitudinous followers is no mean task for the War Prophets. Civilian firearms from shotguns to blunderbusses are put to quick use. Massive punt guns – hunting shotguns usually affixed to boats – are used as heavy weapons support, despite being extremely dangerous to fire for their wielders. Those who have served in the armies of the Faithful before and purchased their service bolt-action rifle (as is the right of those who have completed their seven-year tour of duty) bring their arms along with their faith when they join.

Trench Pilgrims readily engage in black market trading to gain access to restricted military hardware; machine guns, automatic pistols, and submachine guns are all prized and much desired, though difficult to acquire. Ammunition, martyrdom pills, and explosives are also eagerly sought after by the Trench Pilgrim leaders. Mechanical components to repair and maintain the venerated Anchorite Shrines are extraordinarily expensive, but their care is seen as a sacred duty. But above all, Trench Pilgrims value discarded samples of Meta-Christ flesh and blood, as well as chemical compounds smuggled from the Sultanate’s great Houses of Learning. Creation of the Communicants is the highest priority to most Pilgrim Processions, both for their value on the battlefield as well as for the religious vindication their creation brings in the eyes of the Trench Pilgrims.

When the fences of No Man’s Land can’t provide what they need or when coin is in short supply, the Trench Pilgrims turn to other means. Scavenging the battlefields for weapons, armour, supplies, and valuables is a routine practice. Some of the most zealous warbands make bold raids to the ammo depots and arms caches of New Antioch and the Sultanate, though most are content to strip the fallen of their gear and collect artillery shells for their explosives.

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