I think that the Spoilpox Scrivener may be one of the most thematically brilliant models that Games Workshop has done in years. I don't know how much of it was intended and how much of it was the sculptor going into business for themselves, but there's some ruthless satire going on here. To understand this, we have to look at the lore for this unpleasant fellow. Codex: Chaos Daemons paints a picture of a humourless, self-important busybody bullying those around him with embarrassing zealotry. Remind you of anything? Because it sounds an awful lot like a corporate lower or middle manager to me.
The model is full of visual cues to support this. The most obvious is the massive, screaming mouth. Just looking at that bellowing maw evokes a sense of the corporate: a broadcasting, noisy mouth, seemingly neither listening to nor seeing what they're screaming about. But there's a secondary visual joke here. Look at the way that the trunk wraps around him before rising up over his shoulder. At a glance, it looks rather strongly like he's talking out of his arse.
Like a corporate apologist, the Scrivener is obsessed with numbers and targets regardless of overall quality, productivity, sustainability or morale. The codex pointedly tells us that the Scrivener relentlessly browbeats the Plaguebearers, apparently unaware that his efforts are as likely to distract them as to have any positive effect. Anyone who has worked in a corporate environment has encountered this sort of obnoxious martinet, militantly obsessed with enforcing their limited authority without any real understanding, wrapped up in their own perceived importance. This is also reflected in the way that the Scrivener is brandishing his scroll, like a spreadsheet of numbers. In his mind, it's the most important thing in the world. But ultimately, nobody else views it as that important. The Nurgling devouring the end of the scroll is a nice nod to the futility and waste of corporate process.
Whilst his third eye is open, his regular eyes are either closed or very narrowed - blind or blinkered, just as a corporate manager.
If you're wondering, I've worked or several corporations, some charities and in Higher Education. The difference in charity and HE are startling. You will occasionally find a decent lower or middle manager in the corporate world, who is invariably frustrated by the demands from above. But these are the exceptions rather than the rule.
In any case, a great model with some scorching satirical aspects!
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