Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Sons of Horus Esoterist Consul

"I shall assist with some esoteric knowledge, my lord!"

The Space Marine Legions of the 30k universe are sprawling organizations. They deployed tens of thousands of Space Marines on countless battlefields across the galaxy during the Great Crusade and subsequent Heresy, and all that is needed to support them. This includes a huge variety of specialized champions and niche mid-level command and advisory types - a LOT of different types. In the current "Age of Darkness" rules these fall under the catch-all title "Consul". That is what we have here - a Legion "Esoterist Consul", painted in the colours of the XVI Legion Astartes. This is a 28mm resin figure from Forge World.

As far as I know, I think this is the first 30k figure that Forge World has designed and released specifically to match the new range of plastic Mark VI "beakie" Marine models for the new "Age of Darkness" range. The sculpting is very nice, and you get a choice of either a hooded head or a helmeted head - and (no surprise) I went with the helmet here.

Some books are important enough that you have to keep them with you at all times...I assume one of these books is a codex, while the other is the rule book...

The "Esoterist" is on hand to help with, you know, "esoteric" things that can be encountered in the galaxy in the 31st millenium. While he certainly would not ever violate the Edict of Nikea and use "psychic powers", he does leverage, er, "esoteric knowledge and practices" and takes full advantage of The Warmaster's more liberal perspective on these sorts of things to help the Legion meet its objectives. These powers will come in handy as the XVI Legion mounts its assault on Rogal Dorn's doomed fortifications on Terra!

Lots of awesome details on this figure. Great sculpt by Forge World.

The sculpting is lovely on this figure. The pose is great, sort of mid-ritual, ready to unleash a power, summon and image or curse or something warp-powered benefit for the XVI Legion.

While this figure could, in theory, be used for any Legion, the markings and look make it pretty clear which side in the Heresy was more inclined to value these sorts of abilities in their forces. After all, just look at that symbol on the top of the staff...that said, if you want this to represent a more standard Librarian, you could make some conversions to put this figure more clearly in the Loyalist camp. Again, I think the symbol on the top of that staff would have to change for starters, but I'm sure it could be done. 

2 comments:

JamieM said...

Smashing work on this nutjob, what can ever go wrong when one consorts with daemons!?!?

Dallas said...

Loving this very esoteric looking model!!