Slann
Scalenex
Keeper of the Indexes
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I created these guys years ago, but that's not what this is about. I'm sure we can come up with lots of interesting motiffs for Lustria or Southlands greenskins. The hard part is taking them seriously as fluff antagonists (or antiheroes), at least for us.
I was rereading portions of the Orc and Goblin book.
You can have some shipwrecked "modern" greenskins with metal working, chariot building, and artillery building skills but most Lustrian and Southland's greenskins would be Savage Orcs or primitive Goblins. They'd get strong beating up all the monsters (assuming they live) and that's great for the Orc lifestyle. They can probably tame a bunch of weird beasts into helping them, so dynamic armies is not a problem
The way a Waagh works is that a powerful leader gathers disparate tribes, then builds up momentum taking out tough targets then they either gets checked which causes mutiny or one of their enemies gets lucky and takes out the Waaagh leader which disperses the remainder.
The Lizardmen rarely lose a Temple City. Most fallen Temple Cities are at the hands of Daemons, a few from Skaven. The Lizardmen cannot bounce back from multiple fallen cities the way the Empire, or even Elves and Dwarves can do. Besides story reasons for not taking cities, the Lizardmen are a militant band of isolationists. Orcs and Goblins grow from spores so they can't be exterminated easily, but I can't imagine their mobs growing large enough to become a threat before an organized column of Sauri or a week of hit-and-run Skink attacks would decimate them easily. While greenskins like to kill things and break people, I can't imagine the Savage Orc dominated tribes being particularly interested in looting Lizardmen. Not only do they have the deck stacked against them for winning, they have less incentive to try than Old World Orcs.
Add this to the fact that Slann and Skink Chiefs are probably clever enough to let local Greenskins fighting lost tribes of warmblood treasure hunters. I imagine Orc and Goblin tribes are more widely dispersed in the south than in the Old World. I also can't see an Orc Warboss getting enough sustained victories to attract disparate tribes to join up into a massive Waaagh!
So I have trouble taking Orcs and Goblins to be anything other than a nuisance to Lizardmen and other Lustrian inhabitants. I hate to give away my writing formula but if I'm writing a story set in Lustria or the Southlands and while advancing the plot, I come across a relatively slow part. I'll add a spot of action where my protagonists (or villains) wail on a tribe of Greenskins. I can establish my characters badass credentials without rushing my climax battle but the Orcs and Goblins are a credible enough threat to keep things interesting (and I have had named characters die fighting Greenskins).
How else can we use Lustrian Greenskins besides as warm-up act? What other interesting story telling potential do they hold?
I was rereading portions of the Orc and Goblin book.
You can have some shipwrecked "modern" greenskins with metal working, chariot building, and artillery building skills but most Lustrian and Southland's greenskins would be Savage Orcs or primitive Goblins. They'd get strong beating up all the monsters (assuming they live) and that's great for the Orc lifestyle. They can probably tame a bunch of weird beasts into helping them, so dynamic armies is not a problem
The way a Waagh works is that a powerful leader gathers disparate tribes, then builds up momentum taking out tough targets then they either gets checked which causes mutiny or one of their enemies gets lucky and takes out the Waaagh leader which disperses the remainder.
The Lizardmen rarely lose a Temple City. Most fallen Temple Cities are at the hands of Daemons, a few from Skaven. The Lizardmen cannot bounce back from multiple fallen cities the way the Empire, or even Elves and Dwarves can do. Besides story reasons for not taking cities, the Lizardmen are a militant band of isolationists. Orcs and Goblins grow from spores so they can't be exterminated easily, but I can't imagine their mobs growing large enough to become a threat before an organized column of Sauri or a week of hit-and-run Skink attacks would decimate them easily. While greenskins like to kill things and break people, I can't imagine the Savage Orc dominated tribes being particularly interested in looting Lizardmen. Not only do they have the deck stacked against them for winning, they have less incentive to try than Old World Orcs.
Add this to the fact that Slann and Skink Chiefs are probably clever enough to let local Greenskins fighting lost tribes of warmblood treasure hunters. I imagine Orc and Goblin tribes are more widely dispersed in the south than in the Old World. I also can't see an Orc Warboss getting enough sustained victories to attract disparate tribes to join up into a massive Waaagh!
So I have trouble taking Orcs and Goblins to be anything other than a nuisance to Lizardmen and other Lustrian inhabitants. I hate to give away my writing formula but if I'm writing a story set in Lustria or the Southlands and while advancing the plot, I come across a relatively slow part. I'll add a spot of action where my protagonists (or villains) wail on a tribe of Greenskins. I can establish my characters badass credentials without rushing my climax battle but the Orcs and Goblins are a credible enough threat to keep things interesting (and I have had named characters die fighting Greenskins).
How else can we use Lustrian Greenskins besides as warm-up act? What other interesting story telling potential do they hold?
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