Anyway, this is Queen Ravnhelde Baersonling. Long an opponent of Archaon Everchosen's madness, Ravnhelde refused to commit her armies to the war that men called 'the End Times'. Now Archaon is dead, slain by Karl Franz Holswig-Schliestein, and many who were once detractors look to the vindicated queen for leadership. Ravnhelde has a policy of rebuilding the shattered people of Norsca. Several Norse chieftains have taken issue with this, claiming that weregild is owed by the southmen. These individuals have all challenged Ravnhelde, and she has broken all of them. Now she is one of the strongest remaining rulers in Norsca. She is loved as well as respected: Ravnhelde understands when to break her enemies and when to show mercy. Her line is secure through her healthy, strong children, and she understands better than many champions of the north that to rule is more than to conquer. For good or ill, the Empire will one day be hearing from Queen Ravnhelde...
This is the Darkoath Queen. I cannot overstate how much I enjoyed painting her. She fits nicely onto a square 25mm base and actually looks a bit better. The rest is down to showing a bit more restraint with the colour pallete than GW (not difficult).
The really nice thing about her is her physique. You and I know that GW have something of a bad history with female models. Until 2010, I don't think I can think of even one example of a female sculpt that wasn't an embarrassingly over-sexualised hourglass. This began to turn around with Lileth Hesperax in 2010, and there have been several good efforts since, as well as a few duds. But this model is really nice in that she retains her femininity whilst conveying a colossal sense of power. I imagine her being similar to Lucy Lawless or Floor Jansen in build. The leonine springing motion she appears to be halfway through accentuates this, and the battle scars really sell the idea that this ain't the lady to mess with.
I intentionally covered up that giant centipede on the base, by the way. It looked very silly, and I really don't know why they put it there. I have a suspicion that it's part of the AoS obsession with being more-zany-than-thou, but for me it added nothing.
She also ranks up nicely with warriors and marauders, I tried!
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