Lumineth Realm-Lords

Grand Alliance Order Lumineth Realm-Lords

FOR ULTHUAN HYSH!!!!!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

"The phoenix must burn to emerge."

– Janet Fitch

"Have you heard of the High Elves?"

– Oblivion youtube video

"We must be swift as the coursing river. With all the force of a great typhoon. With all the strength of a raging fire. Mysterious as the dark side of the moon!"

– Be a Man an Aelf

"MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

– Avalenor, the Stoneheart King

The Lumineth Realm-Lords (also known as High Elves 2.0 and Lu-methheads) are a bunch of stone and crystal obsessed elves residing in the Realm of Hysh and led by Teclis. Forced onto the defensive by Chaos, they harness the magic of their realm and refuse to go down with a fight... just like the High Elves of old, but without the "dying race" element (and the accompanying lore inconsistencies) and a surprising amount of Dorfiness, given their love of hammers, runic magic and elementals.

With a heavy Greek aesthetic, new model and the return of Eltharion, good times are abound if you were a fan of the High Elves back in the world that was.

History

Origins

Once upon a time, Teclis, Tyrion, and Malerion found a previously assumed dead Morathi who was very much alive, who then led the odd trio to the morbidly obese Slaanesh in a cave where they beat the shit out of him until he coughed up all of the Elven souls he had consumed after The End Times. A good chunk of these souls were given to Teclis, in order to recreate the High Elves of old and bring their race back to their former glory. The initial race that came from Teclis's attempts were the Idoneth Deepkin and, well... He tried.

This new batch of Aelves seem to have come out of the oven much better, far more sane and stable than any other Aelf so far. Given the Idoneth's hostile estrangement from Teclis and that the Lumineth fight side-by-side with him, relations between the two are... strange. In the Lumineth Battletome the Idoneth Deepkin are their only ally option, while in the Allegiance Matrix for multiplayer games in the General's Handbook they are listed as a Desperate Coalition (to put that in perspective, that's worse than the relationship between Khorne/Slaanesh or Tzeentch/Nurgle and is the only Desperate Coalition that isn't between factions from two entirely seperate Grand Alliances). Best explanation is that they do utterly despise each other, but realize there are WAY bigger threats to their own societies, so they begrudgingly tolerate each other for now.

Lumineth society was built on self-improvement, absurdly impractical headgear and the accumulation of wisdom, fueled by using the power of Aetherquartz to amplify their bodies and minds. However, in the typical elven arrogance, they assumed that because Slaanesh was imprisoned they no longer had to worry about Chaos and decided to abuse the Aetherquartz like Skaven to Warpstone, leading them to be the butt of many jokes about drugs.

Age of Chaos

Unfortunately for the Lumineth, in conjunction with the elves' own hubris, Tyrion and Teclis were very hands-off about godhood after the civilization was built. As a result, the subtle whispers of the Dark Gods entered their minds, causing envy and bitter rivalry. The subsequent campaigns of defamation and sabotage culminated in a massive civil war called the Ocari Dara, or Spirefall. The entire realm of Hysh was devastated, as the Lumineth had a habit of inventing uber-spells and doomsday devices just to see if they could, justifying it by claiming they were too enlightened to ever use such weapons for evil (which they obviously weren't). To make matters worse, the overflow of passion, pride and obsession from the war became a beacon for Slaaneshi daemons, who then invaded Hysh and would've wiped them out if Tyrion hadn't personally intervened to save the last survivors.

Teclis searched for some way to save his race from themselves, and found it when he managed to commune with Celennar, the spirit of Hysh's moon. He taught the Lumineth a new way of self-discipline, where they would bond with the elemental spirits to gain their power and wisdom. This rearrangement of Lumineth society was called the Reinvention Wars, which lasted the remaining years of the Age of Chaos and is widely credited with preventing them from becoming extinct altogether.

Age of Sigmar

The Lumineth were mostly unseen during the Age of Sigmar, being too focused on rebuilding their own realm in order to care about the other races.

During the Time of Tribulations, Teclis predicted the upcoming Necroquake, and ordered the construction of Aetherquartz towers in order to mitigate its effects. While this helped protect the Lumineth cities from undead invasion, Teclis failed to predict the arrival of Endless Spells, which would become a common plague upon the already magically battered landscape of Hysh.

During a meeting between Teclis and the other Aelven gods, Morathi started claiming that Slaanesh will inevitably escape. While the other Aelven gods dismissed this as the rantings of a madwoman, Teclis took this seriously and decided that the Lumineth must end their isolationism in order to purge Chaos from other realms. This hasn't endeared them well with the other races of Order, as they tend to deploy their legions without permission or warning out of the arrogant assumption that the lesser races can't be trusted to solve their own problems (arrogant and hypocritical coming from the Lumineth, who nearly caused their own extinction through selfish obsessions). Although, it’s unlikely anyone truly has a problem with these guys showing up randomly to kill Chaos whatevers. Because duh. Except for the fact that they have no problem with killing civilians and allies if they view it as necessary to cleanse Chaos, so yeah, understandable why people don’t like it when they come along unannounced. While the Stormcast have also used this approach, unlike the Stormcast the Lumineth haven't earned a good reputation in-universe, their timing is worse and they have a worse history with the whole nearly destroying themselves through infighting.

At some point, Teclis had found the remnants of Eltharion's spirit as he was way too badass to be claimed by Nagash. After putting his soul back together, Teclis ordered armor and weapons made in the Yvressian style, found a dude who looked near identical to Eltharion, created a soulless clone of that guy's body and tried to shove our old boy's soul right in. Sadly, Arkhan evidently cursed Eltharion so bad that any body his soul is put in crumples to dust, starting with the aforementioned souless clone. As Teclis cried like a bitch, he noticed that Eltharion's soul was able to inhabit the armor, turning him into a hollow suit of armor powered by light. Since then, Eltharion became one of the leaders of the Lumineth, as Teclis tries to figure out how to give him a normal body.

Society

The Lumineth themselves are split between numerous different kingdoms withing Hysh, known as the Ten Paradises. These Kingdoms each reside on a separate Island, which used to be one landmass before it was sundered in the Age of Chaos. The center Island is Xintil, where Teclis awoke in the Age of Myth and where most of the Sigmar worshiping mortals of Hysh live. Xintil is surrounded by eight islands, each ruled by a separate kingdom. Syar, Iliatha, Ymetrica and Zaitrec are known as the Teclian nations, essentially the Athens compared to the more Spartan Oultrai, Aurathrai, Helon and Alumnia who emulate Tyrion. Each has their own culture, such as Iliatha being matriarchal and doing some cloning shit.

These Lumineth have also come to treasure Aetherquartz, a crystal mineral native to their realm. These crystals gave their wearers great knowledge and power, but it also involves sucking out their emotions and personalities - a sacrifice they consider worthwhile since unfettered emotions are the Dark Prince's favorite snack. In this way, they're similar to Sigmar's golden bois in that they're constantly approaching that point where they become effectively logic-driven and unfeeling automatons except these guys see it as an acceptable ending compared to the Stormcast's mad search to end the flaw. The emotions drained into the Aetherquartz are used as a source of power by the mages known as Scinari Crack Whores Cathallars, weaponizing their suppressed negative emotions to spread terror and despair among their enemies.

After the Reinvention Wars, an important part of their society has become the Aelementari Temples, cults dedicated to bonding with the landscape of Hysh, in the form of the rivers, winds, mountains or even the light of Hysh's sky (Zenith). To join these cults is extremely difficult; first one must abandon all worldly possessions, then spend years meditating and seeking oneness with the spirit of their chosen location. The final trial is fatal if the spirit deems the aspirant unworthy: those dedicated to the rivers must weigh themselves down and jump into the water, while those dedicated to the mountains must let themselves get buried alive. Yet if they survive, they gain new powers (please tell me there is some legendary Aelf who has the powers of all the Aelementari.) While the mages get elemental magic, the warriors get more subtle powers, like the Stoneguard who can enter the "mountain stance" to become immovable bulwarks in battle. The Aelementari can also be petitioned to possess a construct body and directly fight with their disciples. The only Aelementari temple playable on tabletop so far are the mountain worshippers of the Alarith, who have taken a mountain yak called the "Ymetrican Longhorn" as their symbol, resulting in them being the butt of many cow jokes.

In terms of combat strategies and tactics, their design and combat is heavily reminiscent of Ancient Greek warfare combined with a bit of Roman. The traditional Spearmen, called the Vanari Auralan Wardens, are essentially hoplites, who form phalanxes to hold the enemy in place while the archers, mages and cavalry get set up to do their stuff. Each of these phalanxes are lead by a High Warden, essentially a Lochagos, who stands at the rear to make sure shit isn't going wrong. Most of these hoplites also adorn their shields with runes. These runes represent learning and enlightenment for the Realm Lords, but seem to be more for decoration than serving an actual battlefield purpose. These Wardens are also capable of forming into phalanxes called Shining Legions, difficult to harm but also slow. These legions are also present among their brethren who wield swords and bows. The battletome also mentions unseen scout, artillery and chariot units, as well as "Loreseekers" who are trained in both magic and melee. If you're familiar with the old High Elves roster you can probably predict what they're gonna be like.

Great Nations

Given the Teclis focus of their current lore, only the Teclian nations have been expressed in any detail.

• Ymetrica: A mountainous kingdom with a great dedication to the Alarith Temple. Were the first Lumineth kingdom to succesfully discover how to bond with the Aelementari, which they won't hesistate to remind you at any moment. Form the vanguard of Teclis' campaign to purify the Mortal Realms.
• Syar: The greatest craftsmen of the Lumineth, and the richest nation too. Created a lot of horrible weapons for the Ocari Dara, and swore to never create weapons again...until Teclis persuaded them that Chaos would win without their help. Just when they thought they were out, Chaos pulled them back in.
• Zaitrec: The land of master wizards, and thus the place where Teclis likes to hang out most. They worship Celennar even more than Teclis though, and if they ever get to meet Teclis they're more interested in what the spirit has to say, claiming "it is better to learn from the source". Teclis is secretly butthurt over this, much to Tyrion's amusement.
• Iliatha: This matriarchal kingdom revered women due to their belief that creating life was holy. However, they decided that the traditional method of childbirth was too gross for them, and invented a method to create clones by splitting souls. This lead to horrible excesses during the Ocari Dara, which were so dark that the other nations refuse to speak about it. Afterwards the technology was strictly regulated so that only one copy could be created per person, resulting in the majority of Iliatha's population consisting of soul-bound twins.

Gallery

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  AELVES, WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!?

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  Gee, I wonder what ancient civilization these guys where based on.

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  Heavy armor, hammers and a stone motif... where have I seen this before?

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  I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS, ARKHAN!

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  Asserting dominance

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  No one tell the Dwarfs that the Elgi figured out how runes work....

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  An Alarith Stonemage. I wonder how Dwarfs would react to an elf controlling stone with magic.

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  Alarith, Spirit of the Mountain. And you thought Settra had a lot of titles/aliases.

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  A Scinari Cathallar. That's pronounced SIN-ar-ee CATH-ull-arr, according Geedubs themselves.

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  She feels your pain.

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  A fun game of Whack-a-reaver

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  Avalenor in all his red, stony glory.

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  Weaponized magic Crystal Meth (Doomrider approves).

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  Available now (quartz not accepted as an alternative to money)