Lustria
"Welcome, to Jurassic Park!"
- – John Hammond
Lustria is a continent in the world of Warhammer Fantasy Battle. It is a rough analogue to South America; tellingly, it is primarily inhabited by the Lizardmen, a race of Mayaincatec-styled, reptilian humanoids, as well as unintelligent dinosaurs and snakes. It is mostly covered in inhospitable rainforest host to a menagerie of deadly flora and fauna. The jungle itself was created by the Slann in the time of the Old Ones as a type of natural defense, which explains why its denizens are mainly reptilian and so enthusiastically killy.
Generally speaking, if something in WFB isn't set in the Old World or Ulthuan, it's probably set in Lustria.
Geography & Culture[edit]
Geography[edit]
In ages past, the Lustrian continent and the Southlands were once connected until the Old Ones, in another one of their good ideas, decided they should be sundered apart. Lustria, for the most part, is a vast jungle full of deadly plants and hungry creatures. The fluff states that the Lizardmen weren't satisfied with traditional defenses to protect their cities and so they made the entire continent a green hell of painful death to protect them instead. The Lizardmen cities are vast temple complexes resembling a mash of Mesoamerican and Inca cultural aesthetics. Being crammed full of relics made of gold and gems the men of the Old World go quite crazy over them and expeditions regularly set out to steal everything not bolted down....ummm explore the realm for the good of mankind. Of course the psychic frogs and their minions don't take too kindly to this and most expeditions end up as sacrifices or, worse, lost in the jungle hell of Lustria. As it happens the Lizardmen don't care for the commercial value of their gold, valuing it more for its longevity and thus making it mighty handy for inscribing information for future spawnings.
Lustria even got its own campaign supplement in 2005 because the environment is so different from the other Warhammer continents, but that was in 6th edition.
Regions of Lustria[edit]
- Isthmus of Lustria: northernmost part of Lustria and its not-Central America. As you probably guessed already, Naggaroth is right to the north, so Dark Elves use this opportunity to raid the shit out of those unfortunate cold-blooded who live here, although thankfully Lord Mazdamundi is also here to protect his children. Only one Temple-City is situated on Isthmus, Hexoatl (here be Pepe Hitler), and ruined Pahuax was there too. Overall, Lizardmen here are a majority, although there is also Imperial colony called Port Reaver, Norscan colony Skeggi and a minor pirate town.
- The Great Jungle: The not-Amazon rainforest which covers 85% of all continent. Consists of swamps, rivers (with the greatest one creatively called Amaxon) and deadly jungles with dinosaurs. All surviving Lizardmen temple-cities except Hexoatl are situated here, as well as Human colonies.
- Spine of Sotek: The Not-Andes of the Warhammer World. In Total War Warhammer II it is home to some Dwarfs.
- Copper Desert: The Not-Atacama. In the Eye of the Total War Warhammer II Kalida starts here.
- Culchan Plains: The Not-Pampas, home to Terror Birds.
Culture[edit]
The dominant culture was the continent-spanning Lizardmen civilization. The Lizardmen are led by giant, intelligent, magical frog-men called the Slann, who spend all their time dozing or playing mental chess with each other. The Lizardmen seek to restore order to their broken world the only way Warhammer Fantasy will allow; by sending in armies of giant killing man-lizards and their pet dinosaurs. Their neighbors up to the north are murderous spastic pirate elves.
To be fair, the Slann do do more than just sit around discussing the weather. They spend a lot of time and effort holding the power of Chaos at bay that would otherwise flood into the Warhammer world from the realm of Chaos and corrupt everything, making the current grimdark state of things look like a summer picnic. The Slann though, being of 'higher intelligence' don't seem to understand the need to get a move on with things. They spend a lot of time carefully trying to figure out every one minor point of the great plan of their lost Old One masters, wasting centuries worrying over an exact sentence, all the while Chaos is invading the house, stealing the tea and making off with the biscuits.
It is not just Lizardmen that inhabit Lustria. There are tales of lost colonies of wild women, the Amazonians, who compete with the lizardmen for the sacred spaces, and occasional small references are still made to Pygmies. A variety of other creatures inhabit Lustria, like Coatls, and there are many secret beings best left undiscovered in the jungles as well.
The north-east coastline of Lustria is known as the Vampire Coast. Centuries before the modern day Warhammer world the vampire Luthor Harkon was shipwrecked on the Lustrian coastline after the ship carrying him was destroyed. Seeing opportunity to ply his necromantic arts, Harkon began raising the crews of ships which had been shipwrecked along the coast and impressed them into his very own Pirates of the Caribbean-inspired zombie navy, complete with zombie parrots! Now Luthor rules over a realm that is the terror of the seas and a thorn in the side of the Slann, who Luthor has been trolling ever since he first stepped foot on the continent.
A whole tribe of the dreaded skaven even arose in southern Lustria. The forebearers of Clan Pestilens were dying from the tropical diseases when they turned to the Horned Rat (in a new aspect), to give them succor from the diseases. In time, the pestilent band of disease-loving plague monks were doing what they do best; spreading diseases and destroying several Lizardmen cities. When the Lizardmen finally had enough, they did something rather unexpected and created a new snake god, Sotek, to obliterate the skaven. With the Lizardmen rallying to the Skink's new god, clan Pestilens was pushed out of Lustria, ultimately returning to the colder and murkier Old World, though the contamination they spread still infects many of the old temple cities and the deep tunnels.
The End Times[edit]
With the release of the fourth book of The End Times, The End Times: Thanquol, new rules for Lustria-based scenarios were released. New, as in lifted from the previous Lustria campaign supplement and slightly edited.
While, for the first few books, the Lizardmen were lucky, this shouldn't be mistaken for idleness. During the events leading to Nagash's resurrection, Lord Mazdamundi realized that the Old Ones' plan had failed and orders a mass exodus. To this end, Skinks with golden crests were spawned, who began working on the pyramids.
Fluff-wise, the apocalypse reaches Lustria when the Slann realize that a Daemon incursion is imminent, one even greater than the initial Chaos incursion and set about booby-trapping their already deadly rainforest. Unfortunately, while the Lizardmen do a stellar job at keeping the Daemons at bay, the entirety of Skaven Clan Pestilens take this opportunity to get revenge on the Lizardmen. Because the Lizardmen spelled the booby traps against the Daemons specifically, the Skaven manage to slip by. This results in all the Slann being awoken from their ancient slumber to stop the Skaven Grey Seers from bringing the bloomin' CHAOS MOON closer to the planet.
This all culminates with Skaven Clan Skyre deciding to blow up the chaos moon with a giant cannon. Most of the Lizardmen flee to their temple-pyramids; which have been modified into spaceships as continent-sized moon fragments rain down on Lustria. The Slann blow up these fragments with their mind, and even the mighty Lord Kroak could only barely stop the huge chunks of warpstone meteors before being burned to bits. Following this, what few Slann remain begin the process of activating the Exodus Engines (otherwise known as making their pyramids and major cities float) and retreat into the stars.
Yet again, the Slann save the world and get no credit for it. Only this time they lose Lustria in the process.
Age of Sigmar[edit]
The Age of Sigmar release reveals a re-named Lizardmen, now known as Seraphon, that managed to escape the destruction of the world to live in space. Though Lustria, along with the Old World, is well and truly gone in the physical sense, the surviving Slann have made it a point to keep Lustria alive in spirit. The interior of their starships contains surprisingly vast ecosystems housing jungles reminiscent of their original home, complete with the man-eating flora and fauna they've come to know and love. Additionally, the Slann who've decided to take a more direct approach compared to their Starborne brethren and landed their pyramids upon the new world have also terraformed the territories surrounding them into Lustrian jungle-scapes all their own.
Painting Lustria[edit]
Model bases which are supposed to represent Lustria can be anywhere between the soil and ground cover of real life South America, as well as the soil varieties that would be seen in prehistoric times.
Easy Citadel-based basing commonly begins with either Lustrian Undergrowth for deep jungle bases, Stirland Mud for less dense forests, or Blackfire Earth for a ultisol Mesozoic look. Stirland Mud and Armageddon Dust can be used alongside the above to break the pattern or suggest trails. From there the Green Stuff World miniature leaves, Woodland Scenics small logs, and small rocks continue the look. Small squares of cardstock can be used to create stone tiles, and aquarium plants can be cut up to produce exotic flora. Use of water effects produces small puddles for that rainforest fresh look.
External Links[edit]
| Regions and Areas of the Warhammer World | |
|---|---|
| Areas of The Old World: | The Empire of Man - Bretonnia - Albion - Estalia - Tilea - Kislev - Norsca - Border Princes - Worlds Edge Mountains - Karak Eight-Peaks |
| Areas of The New World: | Naggaroth - Lustria |
| Areas of The Eastern Lands: | Cathay - Nippon - Ogre Kingdoms - Dark Lands - Kingdoms of Ind - Khuresh - Eastern Steppes |
| Areas of The Southlands: | Nehekhara - Araby - Badlands - Marshes of Madness |
| Other Areas of the world: | Ulthuan - Athel Loren - Chaos Wastes - Skavenblight - Lost Isles of Elithis |
| Main bodies of Water: | The Great Ocean - The Far Sea - The Sea of Dread - Inner Sea of Ulthuan |