Say one thing for Madponies, say it occasionally gets updated...

There are still reaches of the empire (my empire anyway) where the emperor's rule is largely in name only. In trade for this autonomy and the freedom to live as they always have, the tribes will come down from the hills when they are called to serve as militia, but only under the command of their own chosen; named men; heroes. The old ways are upheld. No one can rule a band of men unless he has earned it in combat and plunder. There are no hereditary titles in the mountains.

When The Feared walked out of mists, the men were dubious. Then nervous. Eventually it turned to respect. Among the hillmen, they believe that the side of his body tatooed in glyphs, prayers, and ancient incantations cannot be harmed by a normal blade. Given their own predispositions toward body paint before battle, it was no surprise that he would gather his own crew about him.

The Feared*



And some of his followers, men from the tribe of the black hand:



I don't normally bother with my own fluff, but it was imagining the back story that brought these figures all together and drove this mini-project as much as the release of this new burly barbarian from Hasslefree. So, the HF figure may or may not find use as a centerpiece for these guys in my fantasy big battle games, but he seemed to fit, and got me excited to paint some more whacked out naked tribesmen, so why not. Otherwise he'll be a great bad-guy or player figure for my dungeoncrawl collection.

I just knocked out the first 5 here for a monthly project on the Empire Forum (this month's theme is militia), but added to the handful I did a few years ago, I think I have the makings of a pretty striking militia unit.

Here's the new with the old tribesmen I did 4 or 5 years ago:



The stone bases on the new batch are all Fenris bits.

*With apologies to the Joe Abercrombie.