Le Ordre du Saint Esprit, la Ordine de Rita da Cascia, the Order of St Olga of Kiev, la Legione Tebana di San Maurizo of Rome and a (not a Pilgrim but still cool) Spanish Witchfinder Operative.
Not my art, this is officially commissioned concept art for Factory Fortress by Qsy.
The Heretic Fleet maintains naval supremacy on the majority of the Seven Seas: only in the Mediterranean do the Faithful strive to maintain some parity in order to ensure the supply of New Antioch. But elsewhere, the Heretic Naval Raiders are an ever present menace to shipping lanes and coastal communities.
Commanded by the High Captains, the power of the Heretic Fleet is three-fold. First, there are the Behemoth Capital Ships, built in mockery of the Ark that God once bade Noah to construct. These are enormous capital ships, floating cities that act as mobile bases for fast strike craft and the insidious submarines that prowl the shipping lanes and ambush military convoys. For land operations the fleets employ their infamous Naval Raiding Parties as marine infantry.
Naval Raiders’ armour is modified to double as diving suits, allowing entire strike teams to infiltrate the shoreline batteries or harbour defences undetected. The diving cylinders of the Naval Anointed (such as one shown here) hold oxygen mixed with unnatural fumes from the Lake of Fire, providing up to sixty-six hours of breathable gas and bestowing a high degree of resistance to decompression sickness. Thus they can stay submerged for extended periods of time, gathering large infantry strike forces undetected right at the enemy shores.
The Heretic Naval Raiders rarely have problems in finding fresh recruits: several mighty nobles of Hell lay claim over the Seven Seas attracting many of their worshippers to the fleets, and there is plentiful loot, as well as many chances for promotion and finding favour in the eyes of their infernal overlords through deeds of wanton murder – despoiling the places where saints once spread the faith of the Tyrant-God the Heretics hate with white-hot rage.
A favourite tactic of the Naval Raiders is to sneak upon their target in the cover of night, striking at dawn in honour of the Morningstar. This serves the dual purpose of taking the enemies when they are at their most vulnerable, as well as a blasphemous ritual in honour of the throne that the Infernal Lords one day wish to erect on Mount Zaphon after toppling the seat of YHWH.
The raids typically start with a silent stealth assault: any lookouts will have their throats ripped open by the Tartarus claws of the Death Commandos, while silent Naval Legionnaires emerge from beneath the waves, unleashing sudden death with poison gas grenades, silenced pistols and boarding axes. Once the alarm is raised, a bombardment by specialised Sea Hags (Artillery Witches modified for naval warfare, whose bombs can be used as sea mines and torpedoes as well as ordnance) pound the target, throwing defenders into confusion and turmoil. This shock to the defenders is followed up by a charge of elite Legionnaires intoxicated by the fumes of their oxygen tanks
Often the Naval Raiders have crept close enough to their enemies that when the time to strike comes there is no time to organise defences. Lacking heavier troops or armoured support, the Naval Raiders’ combat doctrine relies on speed, surprise and savagery. Fighting is to be undertaken at close quarters, favouring automatic weapons and penetrating any lines of defence and engaging their enemies in brutal melee with boarding axes and short stabbing blades before a proper defensive line can be organised.
Competition for prestige and the honour of inflicting the greatest amount of pain and destruction on the Faithful lands is fierce. To provide proof of the success of their attacks (and to strike fear in the hearts of their enemies), each High Captain has their own unique way of declaring that they were behind the raid, each more depraved than the next. For example, the 112th Sea Legion “The Virtue-Breakers” dismembers its fallen enemies, and uses Goetic rituals to return a necromantic semblance of life to quivering flesh, leaving crawling and twitching arms, legs and screaming heads behind for the rescuers to discover. Meanwhile the crew of the Serpent-class Strike ship “Disciple of the Burning Water” prefers to drag their opponents overboard and then cut them with underwater welding torches. They take great pride by killing their prey in a manner where they die by drowning and burning simultaneously.
Objectives of the Heretic raids vary: Slave raids, destruction of shore defences or communities, gathering information, looting coastal enclaves or escorting Death Commandos on missions to take out important Church leaders or temporal rulers through assassination. What the faithful fear the most, however, are full-scale invasions within their heartlands like the 1872 landing that conquered Riejka and established a beachhead that is like a dagger pointed at the heart of the Church.
Thus the sea patrols from the Gulf of Finland to the coastal guard of the Demesne of France and the Kapudan Pasha’s fleet sailing the Sea of Arabia nervously watch the waves, hoping that the waters off their home shores do not hide a Heretic Naval Raiding Party. But the age of the Great War is dark, and the sea belongs to the enemies of God.
“The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned… ”
— W.B. Yeats
​
My TC inspired webcomic is building up towards a decent number of pages now. This guy is a Harvester, they can be seen moving about recent battlefields gathering corpses for some occult purpose known only by their heathen creators (both those of the faithful and the heretics).
Often, faithful warbands and platoons will leave a rearguard in place at the site of recent conflicts in order to keep a watch for and to eliminate any Harvesters moving in to gather their macabre treasure.
Finished painting my custom amalgam , Knights and dog from my other posts.
Frerman Keelhauler, Russian Firebug, Persian Priest of the Winds of Plague, Italian Swordbreaker, and Belgian chasseur a pied. This is officially commissioned art that isn't necessarily canon, but is being as used as internal reference material. Great way of showing that heretics can come from anywhere and look like anything.
Now i gotta figure out how i am going to expand, torn between more standard New Antioch models or if I should dip into the Red Brigade minis, cause they do look rad.
Just a few more models to add and I have a fully painted warband! I've really enjoyed these 🤘🏼
Just a silly mech concept with those Trench Crusade sinews. Thought you guys would appreciate it.
Overall I love it so far. Allows for a lot of narrative to write itself if youre creative. The randomness of dice can be frustrating but in a good way. I mainly play Heresy and 40k so for a quick match or 2 with buds its pretty solid. Anyway heres my FeldKaplan killing a witch.
Every month, the post sacks arrive heavier.
Some letters smell of incense. Others of tobacco, seawater, cheap perfume, trench mud, or dried blood. Some are folded with care, sealed with ribbon and wax. Others arrive stained, crumpled, torn open and stitched back together. We read all of them.
Some of you write to tell us which model kept you awake at night. Some write to accuse us of sacrilege, vanity, indecency, or corruption. Some of you simply want to confess what happened to your pulse when you turned the page.
We welcome all of it.
Praise, outrage, longing, disgust, devotion — every reaction means someone, somewhere, was looking closely.
Below are some of our favorite letters from this month.
Letter 1
From: Sister Agnes, Field Hospital of Saint Job
I wasn’t supposed to read your magazine. I knew that before I even opened it. But one of the younger sisters left an issue beneath a cot, and late that night, when everyone else was asleep, I saw Bleeding Grace.
I looked at her hands longer than I should have. The bandages. The way the cloth rested over her shoulders. The way she spoke about carrying the body forward, even when it was already beginning to disappear.
We have many like that in the hospital now — slow-moving, coughing, smelling of incense and rot. After your issue, I started looking at them differently. Not only as sufferers, but as people who still have something beautiful left inside them.
Thank you for that.
With prayers for your next issue,
— Sister Agnes
Letter 2
From: Seaman Ethan V., Coastal Artillery
I saw Velvet Undertow once. Or I think I did. There were only five of us left, the water was already above our knees, and the man beside me had stopped speaking and was just staring into the dark.
When I saw her in your magazine, my mouth went dry all over again.
You don’t understand how perfectly you captured her. The cigarette. The wet hair. The feeling that she already knows what you sound like when you start to panic.
I hate her. And if she appears again, I’ll read every word.
I hope none of you ever find yourselves standing at the edge of the water at night.
— Ethan
Letter 3
From: Senior Drummer Tekle Maru, Colonial Corps
I bought the issue with Ember in Step in a town that smelled of dust and machine oil. I don’t usually read magazines like this. But the way she walked reminded me of home.
We had women like that too — women who knew how to move slowly even when everyone else was in a hurry. Women who didn’t shout, wave their hands, or ask for attention, and still no one could stop looking at them.
The way you wrote about her spear, the drums, the copper charms — it was beautiful. And true.
May your next issue have even more women who know how to move slowly.
— Tekle Maru
Letter 4
From: Corporal Julian Richter, Engineering Corps
Your magazine makes its way around our company on a regular basis. Some read the interviews, some only look at the pictures, and some argue over which model is the most dangerous.
Personally, I don’t understand the fuss around the Daughters of the Veil. Yes, they’re beautiful. Yes, they’re unsettling. But honestly, I couldn’t tell where the woman ended and the performance began.
That said, I have to admit: after the interview, I slept badly. I kept feeling like someone was standing outside my tent.
So maybe you got it exactly right.
Good luck with future issues.
— Corporal Richter
Letter 5
From: Clerk Émile Devereaux, Funeral Service
I bought your magazine out of curiosity. Iron Whisper was on the cover, and I wanted to see how you could make a woman beautiful when she barely speaks.
I have to admit: you managed it.
But I think you romanticize the front too much. War smells worse. People look worse. And if most of your models showed up in my sector, they’d be covered in mud up to their knees within a day.
Then again, maybe that’s exactly why people buy your magazine.
I hope you don’t forget what the real front looks like.
— Émile Devereaux
Letter 6
From: Father Bernard, Church of Saint Repentance
I demand that publication of this magazine cease immediately.
You call this art, but it is lust wrapped in prayer. You show lepers, cultists, killers, and witches as though they deserve admiration. You teach young soldiers to look at suffering as if it were beautiful.
Your issue with Velvet Undertow was especially disgusting. That woman does not belong on the cover of a magazine. She belongs hanging from the shore so others learn to fear the sea.
I pray for the souls of everyone involved in this publication.
May God have mercy on you.
— Father Bernard
Letter 7
From: Madame Héloïse Vernier, Owner of a Tea Salon
My husband used to read only newspapers. Now he hides your issues beneath the bed and pretends I don’t notice.
I found the Bleeding Grace issue open to her interview. He was sitting there looking at it the way he hasn’t looked at me in years.
If your goal is to destroy marriages, then congratulations — you’re doing an excellent job.
Though I must admit, Ember in Step does have beautiful shoulders.
I hope your next issue is at least a little less dangerous to family life.
— Héloïse Vernier
Letter 8
From: Junior Recovery Agent Sabine Voss, Auric Collectors
I bought your issue with the Daughters of the Veil during a recovery assignment in the eastern districts. Strictly speaking, it was a poor financial decision. I was supposed to be auditing collateral, not sitting in a carriage rereading an interview three times because I couldn’t tell whether I understood it.
I still can’t.
That’s what unsettled me.
Most people are simple once you know what they owe. You can see it in the way they stand, the way they sign, the way they panic. But the Daughters of the Veil felt like a debt without numbers. Three women, one shadow, and somehow less human every time I looked back at the page.
I’m not ashamed to admit I kept the issue on my desk longer than I should have. More than once I caught myself glancing at the cover after dark.
I’m still not sure if I was looking at them.
Or if they were looking back.
May your accounts remain balanced,
— Sabine Voss
Letter 9
From: Lieutenant Marta König, Saint Sebastian Artillery Battery
I rarely read your interviews. Usually I’m only interested in articles about tactics, weapons, and uniforms. But in your last issue, I opened “She Doesn’t Speak — She Resonates” about Glass Pulse and couldn’t put the magazine down.
There are people you can feel before you see them. I’ve known officers like that. Artillerymen like that. People with voices that are too quiet and eyes that are too precise. You captured that feeling perfectly in the article.
What stayed with me most was the line: “Every Bone in Her Body Knows What Comes Next.” That’s exactly what a good battery feels like before it fires — as if everyone already knows what is about to happen, but no one has said it yet.
I hope there will be more women in your magazine who are frightening not because of their bodies, but because of how much they know.
— Lieutenant König
Letter 10
From: Brother Matthias, Order of Saint Burial
I do not understand how you can publish articles like “Too Beautiful for the Trenches” or “War, But Make It Elegant.”
There is nothing elegant about the front. There is nothing beautiful there. There is only mud, rot, lice, and death. I spent three years pulling bodies out of shell craters, and I can assure you: no one looks like your models.
Worse still, you make people forget what war truly is. They read things like “The Most Elegant Kill on the Battlefield” and start believing death can be beautiful.
It is not beautiful. It is heavy, cold, and smells worse than you can imagine.
Though… I have to admit, “The Last Beautiful Thing in No Man’s Land” was very well written.
May God forgive me for reading it all the way through.
— Brother Matthias
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Made some quick edits with my phone
My Corpse Guard are coming along nicely! Looking very….Moist. NEED MORE SLIME!
For my Heretic Legion warband I'd like to customize the existing Heretic Trooper heads with a grenadier mitre, pic is a first rough sketch in Blender. What do you think about the concept? Is it too silly? should the hat be even bigger? All feedback is welcome.
Sir Leeroy Jankenson ready to strike down all who would oppose his warbands advanced
Combat engineer of the Suffitores Sancī Lazarī. Where infantry advances and armor breaches, Sappers clear the paths, prep boobytraps and explosives to take care of numerous hordes or colossal foes.
Equipped with tempered steel armor over chainmail and a padded gambeson. Sappers are equipped with fire-resistant garments, demolition and digging equipment, and a modified version of the standard-issued Lazarene submachine gun with a folding stock.
Kit details:
Available now for our Frater Militae and Miles Templi Patreon members.
MyMiniFactory release on June 15th.
https://www.patreon.com/14948473/join
https://www.myminifactory.com/users/opusstructura
*Background on thumbnail done through 3D kitbashing photo scans and digital texture painting, hand-painted miniature comped-in with Photoshop*
Honestly can't wait for the next TC session
A new page for my webcomic, Muddy Hell.