Lumineth Realm-Lords

Grand Alliance Order Lumineth Realm-Lords

FOR ULTHUAN HYSH!!!!!

Lore Tactics General Tactics

"The phoenix must burn to emerge."

– Janet Fitch

"And God said 'Let there be light', and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness."

– Genesis 1:3-4

"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, Lu-methheads, Meth-lords, Loo-methheads and Loony Meth-Heads. Officially "Realm-lords", without the second capital.) 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 without 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/Age of Myth

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 while the Lumineth worship and fight side-by-side with him, relations between the two are... strange. 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 separate Grand Alliances. Even Drycha the crazy, genocidal racist can act nicer to other factions). Best explanation is that they do utterly despise each other, but realize there are WAY bigger threats to their own societies, so they grudgingly tolerate each other for now.

Anyways after their initial inception they went on to colonize all parts of the realm of Hysh. After learning how to utilize the native realmstone Aetherquartz to help Lumineth society grow into one of if not the most advanced and grand civilization in all the realms, with art, architecture and learning being the envy of many other civilizations. Lumineth society was built on self-improvement, absurdly impractical headgear and the accumulation of wisdom, fueled by the power of collected Aetherquartz crystals to amplify their bodies and minds. They however, in the typical elven arrogance, 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 (especially Crystal Meth).

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). Adding to the fact that they have no problem with killing civilians and allies if they view it as necessary to cleanse Chaos, it’s understandable why some people don’t like it when they arrive unannounced. While the Stormcast have also used this approach, unlike them the Lumineth haven't earned a good reputation beforehand, and are a bunch of Johnny-Come-Latelys compared to the Stormcast's Big Damn Heroes.

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.

Broken Realms

As Morathi attempted to gain godhood and accidentally loosened the chains of Slaanesh, Teclis started pushing his army against the forces of the undead and Nagash as he realized with shit offically starting to hit the fan across the realms the death gods self-centered power-play had offically gone on long enough. He planned on bringing an end to The Soul Wars and clapping Nagash's boney cheeks for unleashing the Necroquake. Of course, bone daddy won't take this laying down...only to take it standing pretty much. Teclis invaded straight into the heart of Shyish and assualted an Ossiarch city. While they put up a pretty good fight even against Teclis the Bonereapers were routed with news spreading across the realms that the forces of the Death God were not invincible. Fermenting rebellion against Nagash in genral. Nagash seeing that his time in the limelight (in-universe and metawise) was coming to an end he went with the bold scheme of trying to suck multiple realms into the Shyish Nadir by having his Mortarchs collape realmgate routes into it and infusing those realms in pure death magic.

Needless to say this did not go well. Manfred and Neferata both failed in their attempts thanks to the intervention of several factions aided by the Lumineth. Though neither was particularly bothered as even they thought Nagash had finally overreached and essentially abandoned him when both their armies were routed (with Manfred basically planning for that to happen). Only Arkhan was left to try his luck in Hysh. Unforatuantely for him his forces ran smack into Eltharion who was set on evening the score with the liche. After confronting eachother near the realms edge Arkhan ultimately lost the battle with his Ossiarch Legions being crushed near the realms edge and Eltharion literally hurling him into the void at the edge of the realms. Finally getting some justice to his undignified end in the End Times.

Nagash, out of servants and patience, finally decided to get off his ass and assault Hysh himself. He intended to strike a mighty blow to the Lumineth by destroying the mountain spirit Avalenor and corrupting the entire continent with Death Magic. Teclis and Celennar engaged Nagash on the peaks of the mountain itself. While both mighty Nagash was at his prime at this point, still empowered by the magics of the Necroquake. Celennar managed to land some critical blows on Nagash before the Death God managed to destroy his avatar body, forcing Celennars spirit to retreat back to his moon. Teclis however kept up the magical barrage as the two strongest mages in the realms did a Mage fight for the ages, with Teclis managing to annilate Nagash's 9 books in the struggle. However as Nagash seemed to be getting the upper hand on the Mage god as Nagashs greater pure combat experience was proving decisive, Teclis sprung his trap. While Nagash was distracted the armies of the nearby city of Settlers Gain had managed to move several Luminarks of Hysh into position and trained directly on Nagash. At that moment as well the moon of Celenar appeared above the skies and he infused as much of his radiance into the Luminarks just as the mages opened fire on him. Even to a being such as Nagash the concentrated beams seered into him that brought even a god to heel. As Nagash stood staggering, Teclis summoned his powers and bound the weakened Nagash to the peaks of Avalenor with pure Light magic. Now bound and helpless, his powers utterly gone from the attack and Teclis's bindings, a horde of Alarith Spirit of the Mountain's entered the frey from every angle and utterly tore into Nagash without mercy. Their hammers smashing Nagashs physical body to literally dust and sending his beaten spirit back to Shyish.

While completely exhausted Teclis conjured a great rune of banishment in the stars of Hysh themselves that sent a great enchantment acoss all the cosmos of the mortal realms. The wild death magics that had caused untold damage since the soul wars began finally subsided. The Necroquake has been undone! Without their leader or the death magics of the Necroquake the hordes of undead found themselves greatly diminished or just stopped completely. Nagash himself was left battered and near-powerless from the wounds the Lumineth did to him and found his shattered spirit bound to his capital of death by Teclis's magic, weakening him further. With their master beaten and broken and their leaders scattered the undead hordes rampage had been blunted and stopped. The Soul Wars was over.

The price? Teclis was cursed by some sort of Death magic that he found was only lessened while in the presence of strong life magic like that of Allarielle. In addition the lumineths armies were left pretty battered basically ending the Soul Wars single handedly. Regardless Teclis gamble ultimately paid off as Nagash was dealt with just in time before a new threat was about to emerge...

Era of the Beast

The Lumineth have started to mobilize in Hysh to combat forces of Destruction rising up there. Several of them also want to study the Khrondspire Incarnates and then calm the elemental magic that's summoning them. But not all is going the Lumineth's way. GW decided they went too far jobbing the entire Death faction for the Lumineth in Broken Realms, so Teclis' magic abilities have weakened due to the damage he took fighting Nagash, and the Lumineth Armies have been greatly depleted given they bore the brunt of the fighting against Nagash's forces.

Society

The Lumineth themselves are split between numerous different kingdoms within 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, uncreative 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 initially playable on tabletop were 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. The second temple to be officially revealed is the Wind Temple, known as the Hurakan; get it, Hurakan = Hurricane, GET IT!). They too were met with a barrage of memery due to their troops riding on creatures known as the Treerunners which very closely resembled Kangaroos. Aelementari Temples were intended to teach the Lumineth humility, and it half-worked; although their civilization no longer has the unchecked hubris that led to the Spirefall, many Lumineth have become humblebraggers under the impression that after the Reinvention they have successfully overcome all their flaws and created a perfect society. It seems that the arrogance of the (A)elves is the one flaw they can never overcome.

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 chariot and scout units, so they’re probably going to show up in a future release. Other major leaders include the Loreseekers, a mix of mage and warrior who are tasked with recovering ancient artefacts from the other races, allies or not, and bringing them back home where they belong

Great Nations

• 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. Recently endured a massive boning from Arkhan's army. Essentially Caledor, but replace Dragons with bovine-headed earth elementals.
• 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. Most likely suppose to resemble Eataine due to the focus on wealth, though instead of trade they got it through weapon dealing and trade so it's Eataine + the Anvil of Vaul.
• 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 having learned from an older source himself in the World-That-Was, much to Tyrion's amusement. For if you miss Saphery, with Celennar filling in for Lileath.
• Iliatha: This simp 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 Iliatha having the largest population of the nations, the majority of whom are soul-bound twins. Avelorn, only with magic cloning.
• Alumnia: A land of explorers and pioneers who wish to explore the most dangerous parts of the Mortal Realms just to say that they can. They believe that they must spread to the rest of the Realms and spread the light on enlightenment to the darkest parts of the Mortal Realms. This usually means a LOT of them end up as snacks for hungry monsters and those who don't are disliked as colonial Imperialists, but that doesn't stop them. Many seek to replicate Tyrion's adventure across Haixiah, which is often considered a one way trip but those who make it back are revered highly. Acts as outriders and scouts for the Lumineth armies. Tiranoc pre Sundering.
• Helon: A widely open country that has winds so strong they can straight up send you flying. Now while normal people would view this as dangerous or horrifying, The Aelves here do it for fun! These guys have gotten so good at controlling winds that they can outright carve shit with wind and erosion. To no one's surprise, this place has the largest amount of Hurakan Temples of all of the nations. Their favorite battle strategies involve using the winds to help their archers fire off more shots and get out of danger when needed. Ellyrion, but SUPER WINDY and the horse fandom is optional.

Named Characters

• Teclis: The aelf, the myth, the literal legend, everyone's favourite (former!) anaemic cripple is back as one of the two gods of light (the other being his brother Tyrion). He now rides along a giant sphinx that's the literal spirit of Hysh's moon.
• The Light of Eltharion: The soul of Eltharion himself, now in a sick looking hollow suit of armour.
• Avalenor: The Aelementiri spirit of the largest mountain in Hysh, Avalenor is a mystery as instead of being bound into a war-form by a temple he just kinda showed up by himself one day.
• Sevireth: The "Lord of the Seventh Wind", the manifestation of one of the seven great gales that blow throughout all of Hysh. He used to hang out in a desert until he got baited into a Slaaneshi BDSM chamber and got roughed up. After he broke out, he became more of a merciless warrior, striking down the enemies of Hysh and all manner of tyranny.
• Lyrior Uthralle: Warden of Ymetrica, and quite martially-inclined for someone from a realm on the Teclican half of Hysh. He also acts as Tyrion's right-hand man. He seems primed to inherit Tyrion's mantle of being the Big Damn Hero for Aelfkind apart from one issue. Lyrior privately has major angst issues because Orruks killed his family and destroyed his hometown while he was away and struggles with the temptation to abandon his duties and purge the "impure" from Hysh.
• Ellania & Ellathor: A pair of twins, one a powerful sorceress, the other a skilled warrior, who fight on the battlefield as a single unit like the Sisters of Twilight. Seeing the similarities to themselves, Tyrion and Teclis have taken them on as proteges. One big difference between them and the original twins is that they both seem to agree that helping out the Non-Lumineth is a benefit in the fight against Chaos, where as Tyrion and Teclis always argued over it. Tyrion probably learned his lesson on that count with the End Times and conceded it to Teclis.

Soulbound

Released with the Champions of Order supplement in 2021.

As it turns out, the whole Soulbinding thing is a rather familiar matter to them. After all, the aelementeiri (those aelves who serve in the temples of elemental spirits, so the Alarith and Hurakan characters thus far) already bind their souls to become part of a greater whole and it was in this way that the people of Hysh clawed their ways out of the messes of the Age of Chaos. That said, there are those Lumineth that hesitate to do so because it would require them to sever their ties to Hysh and instead spread their elitist philosophies and knowledge to the lesser-fortunate peoples of the mortal realms. Doing so actually teaches them far more about the other realms than they would otherwise have learnt within their education-prisms, as well as teaching them about all the Saturday-morning ideals of cooperation and teamwork.

The following great nations are available for Lumineth heroes to hail from:

• Iliatha: Knowing how valuable knowledge is, many of their number seek to sire children to inherit what they have learned and surpass them. This urge is so strong that some even undertake an unsettling ritual that sees them split their soul among two bodies. Aelves in such a situation do not enter the same Soulbound. Indeed, knowing the price of the Soul-binding gives them a further drive to to do more for their comrades than they would ever have done raising a child. Heroes from Iliatha have a separate twin, one who will take their place should they die. This twin may start with the same starting stats, skills, and talents as their original, but may otherwise spend the rest of their XP as you wish.
• Syar: More than any other nation, Syar is a nation that takes their humility to heart. As a nation of artisans, they have a perfectionist's eye of their craft. Even as Soulbound, Lumineth from this nation see only ways that the world around them can be improved and how other viewpoints can improve them. Heroes from Syar add a special trait to a single weapon or set of armor they begin with. Whenever they undertake an endeavor to make something, they double any dice they get from their training in Crafting.
• Ymetrica: Residing the great peaks of Hysh, Ymetrica is considered the birthplace of the Alarith and legend has it that it was here that Teclis taught the aelfs in the art of binding their souls to the mountains. They take on the slow and contemplative sureness of the mountains, never acting in haste. Even the matters of the Soulbound are only undertaking after considerable contemplation, for they are hesitant to adapt to the hot-blooded and impulsive natures of their colleagues. Heroes from Ymetrica always act last in the first round of combat but can always act first in any round afterward unless someone else seizes the initiative. Additionally, the Thoughtful talent is available to all archetypes.
• Zaitrec: Lumineth from this realm house an irrepressible curiosity and seek questions from any source, including from the moons of Hysh. It is because of this that they tend to heed the spirit of Celennar, the lunasphinx representative of the greatest of Hysh's moons, more frequently than those of Teclis. It is because of this curiosity that they often join the Soulbound as they see all sorts of knowledge as equal. Heroes from Zaitrec add the Spellcasting talent to all archetypes, even allowing them to learn spells from lores that are otherwise inaccessible to them. When undertaking the Learn Spell endeavor, they can learn an additional common spell on top of everything else.

The archetypes available are Alarith Stoneguard, Alarith Stonemage, Scinari Cathallar, and Vanari Warrior. The Era of the Beast splatbook also introduces the Hurakan Windcharger and Scinari Loreseeker Archetypes.

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)