I won’t lie–I’ve been busy playing Against the Storm on PC lately and have not had as much time dedicated to hobby as I’d like. If you like city builders, you should never play it. That is to say the game is marvelous, but I was hoping I’d be sharing both my new casters and my upcoming assassins for my ratfolk army. I’m not. So as a bonus, let’s talk reworking some lore. First, the models, which are from One Page Rules:

These are to be void themed spellcasters for my rat army for Desiderium. It’s funny to me: they’ve straddled the line between the before and after of a full faction rework. Before, they were warlocks. Now, they’re “Godsworn.” Before, they were the “Voidtouched.” Now, they’re “The Adopted.”

Their purpose on tabletop is to be a ranged and spellcasting threat. They hit pretty hard with their magic as a normal ranged attack (call it “Void Bolts” if you want), but also bring access to the list of void spells. Void spells in Desiderium are all about negation. In fact, here’s the quick list (note these are still being worked on):

• Silence Between: Until the end of next turn, a piece of terrain does not exist for all game purposes.
• Elsewhere: “Remove” a unit until it is next activated. It reappears in the same location. If in contact as a result, melee ensues.
• Unmaking: Offensive spell. Enemy only rolls Ranged Skill (Defense), but no armor saves.
• The Empty Answer: Opposing Leader rerolls their Command Dice. If higher than current initiative step, their division activates next.
• Nowhere: Pick a 1” area with no units or terrain. All units within 6” are moved D6” toward this due to the voiding of reality, which causes reality to move to fill it. If two units contact, they are engaged but melee does not happen until a unit spends an action.
• Void Step: Pick one unit in range and move it 6” in any direction, ignoring everything in its path as if it did not exist.

This gives the army a lot of access to a core set of spells that help to define how they interact with the battlefield. You can ignore terrain entirely, setting up for a shooting attack, or reposition a unit for a charge, or remove an enemy unit from consideration at a pivotal moment.

So why “Godsworn?” Well, we’ve reworked the ratkin into the “Murren,” as they now call themselves. They lead a parliamentary democracy of sorts, with nine warrens contributing representatives to a central council that guides their society. These nine warrens (which are not necessarily underground warrens) are widely diverse, stretching across many landscapes. The Murren are an expansive race, reaching far and wide, just like real rats. In this rework, I’ve further cut down on their magitek elements, removing all gun units from the faction and focusing it in on a more “Redwall” style identity. We still have some of the fun stuff, but the focus now is more on being noble Murren marching into battle sword and spell. They’re almost the “Humans” of the setting, but a bit faster moving and more agile.

And then there’s the tenth warren. The one we don’t speak of. This is where the void cultists reside. This is where the Godsworn and Assassins come from. They believe that in the Fall of Verrance, they were finally adopted. See, the Nine Warrens have a unique relationship with religion: they acknowledge gods exist, but they don’t believe any god has ever come to their aide or guided them as a people. They’re the godless. But the tenth warren disagrees: they believe that in the void they’ve found a god that loves her Murren pups. They believe they’ve been adopted.

Therein lies the tension. No one wants to acknowledge their existence, but you cannot run a society with the help of the tenth warren. Their assassins keep things in check, and their access to the void has been helpful at multiple key moments in the history of the Nine Warrens.

Mechanically, this shifts the faction and focuses it a touch more. I’m happier with this direction as I feel like I don’t have to solve how to distinguish 20ish units, and can instead focus on a core ten to twelve. I’m still hashing out the details, but we’re on track.

Now if I could just finish the final Gold Seal and uninstall Against the Storm, I might finally finish those assassins.