Thought it might be good to make a dedicated thread for this now the suppliment is out, since it’s basically the biggest Seraphon lore release we’ve gotten since the last battletome, even if it’s part of a TTRPG. Be sure to pick it up here if it interests you, I’d definitely recommend it just from a lore perspective, though I know a lot of people here have been waiting for it before they took the full Soulbound plunge. https://www.cubicle7games.com/soulbound-stars-and-scales-pdf-out-now/ There’s a lot of new an interesting information it presents that’s hard to collect in a non-eclectic way (for example- how do I format it so “coalesced Seraphon are unable to return to temple ships any longer, dooming those that are part of fully starborne constellations to living in isolation” goes somewhere natural? Or “Seraphon seek out fossils of giant creatures they brought to the realms initially, like Thunder Lizards, so they can revive them”? ) so I’ll just list out some fun lore from the sub factions without particular order. Chotec’s Feather Previously a minor and unexplored constellation, Stars and Scales explicitly names it as the faction the Seraphon from the Jade Temple outside anvilgard are from, and shows it off as a relatively new constellation that only truly became active and landed after the necroquake, though how quickly they coalesced implies they might’ve been acting in secret for far longer than that. They’re shown as basically the Koatl’s Claw for skinks, with a master lost to meditation so deep he hasn’t awoken since they arrived in the realms, and being lead by the skinks instead- in particular one Skink StarPriest, who came into that position by luck and cunning, despite being born with no magical talent, and has had their penchant for planning see them given more and more mundane responsibilities by the contemplative skink mages of the constellation. It also explains why they didn’t help the city during Morathi’s invasion and purge of it, despite coming to their aid many times before- because the Skink had foreseen Morathi’s ascension to godhood, and thought her being empowered and building more direct strength would be far more beneficial to the destruction of chaos than the city remaining corrupt and in Sigmar’s hands. They fought a shadow war with the Fangs of Sotek, who had an embassy in the city, over this belief, but it was ultimately their willingness to actually speak to the Anvilgard civilians that came to them that won over the people of the city to pay more attention to them than the Fangs of Sotek. in the weeks before Morathi’s ascension the losing embassy packed its bags and abandoned the city, seeing its loss as inevitable and wishing to avoid Morathi taking vengeance for their blaming of her cult for their own assassinations. Now the feather of chotec have a positive relation with Morathi’s new city, a mutual disinterest in fighting allowing them to better realize the Skink Priest’s goal of using the new god to put another blade to chaos’ neck. Starherd’s Path A constellation of C7’s making that was previously mentioned in Refuges of the Realms, these starborne are refreshingly unique as far as sub factions go. Decimated utterly by either the age of chaos or the long travel to the realms, the constellation has never really recovered. They have only a single temple-ship, and have too few Seraphon to really field a proper army anymore, picking up the slack solely through their large numbers of Stegadon and Bastiladon. Their Slann, Lord Ximoyuxeof the fifth spawning, embodies the ideal of impartiality to the highest degree. He bans his cohorts from engaging in the creation of music, artor occultic rituals that dominate most skink leisure time, and preaches that the life of a longtime ally means little more than that of a stranger, in the eyes of the Great Plan. He views any war that isn’t against chaos to be useless and wasteful, so his constellation acts solely in defence- they beam down upon downtrodden kingdoms and cities, offering council from his wise priests and aid in constructing defenses from his numerous beasts of burden however- the moment the now unburdened armies turn on the defensive, they find Lord Ximoyuxe now offering those they siege the same aid. This has earned him the very flattering nickname of the “Thousand-times traitor” for his work. The Starherd’s Path roots their actions in construction generally, building long highways over inhospitable terrain so one important figure may use them in the future, or building massive walls between where one day two belligerent kingdoms will sit, their anger prevented from boiling over by stones laid down thousands of years ago. This is a far cry from the past, where the Slann built great cities and abandoned them with the knowledge they, and the technology left within, would eventually fall into the hands of new empires that would rise tall on the back of his effort. However, each and every one fell to chaos in time, corrupting the gifts given and causing carnage as the Starherd’s path fought back to reclaim what they had gifted. Experts on the Seraphon have noted that the current travel trajectory of the Constellation seems to be a direct movement backwards along their initial path into the realms, stopping at every city they once constructed in the process. When direct intervention is needed, a Ziggurat called the Astral Terraces is summoned from the heavens, a massive space armed with the last of their Saurus warriors and designed to give protection to those deemed important by the Great Plan- effectively a motel for anyone with a part to play. This doesn’t just extend to forces of order, with Chaos warriors destined to one day be so incompetent they ruin a warlord’s plans, or Bonereapers who might eventually intercept a larger force and spare a civilization that would one day flourish, all welcomed and housed the same, for a single night. There’s WAY more stuff like this in the book, I’d definitely recommend it! If anyone finds anything else particuarly interesting, feel free to drop it down and start talking about it, I’m sure most people will find something (plus it’s free advertising)
The new suppliment Artifacts of Power (about realmstone, various artifacts used across the realms both of the unqiue and realmshaking variety and the more mundane that get taken in army lists, and endless spells) brings a little Seraphon lore too. Celestite, the material Seraphon weaponry and masonry is built from, is suspected to be a form of highly advanced realmstone alloy created from the Azyr realmstone, though the process of how it’s stabilized so thoroughly is a secret to all but the Slann. It also goes into more detail about Ark of Sotek and expands something implied about them before, namely that they’re effectively small scale artificial realmgates, and that the ones mounted on bastiladon are merely the largest war marchine application of the devices. A variety of smaller versions exist for a variety of other purposes, but the one it details and gives game stats to is the jewelry sized one (particuarly a pendant, which they have a picture of) that’s used for self defence, able to be activated to let loose a small torrent of serpents from a central portal when activated, who then respond to some rudimentary commands from the summoner until they’re ordered to disperse into the wilderness around.
neat! shame it seems to be such a bad material for weapons... even steal does better. now that is cool. lets hope they diside to do something with that. i can just see a snake caller magi or maybe even teradons that drop snakes on people.
We definitely suffer from gameplay not reflecting lore wih it, i guess. Soulbound treats Celestite equipment as functionally identical to Sigmarite in its traits, being innately magical for the purposes of bashing Etherial enemies like Nighthaunt, being immune to transmutative magic of all kinds, and being highly sought after by the unscrupulous. Making a spear out of it just doesn't make the spear hurt more, though, unfortunately