Dwarf Valkyrie

[FlameofChange]

A warrior waifu with convenient transport size for all kind of trips.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Ahhh!! That's why you didn't want Shadowheart to be used for a Valkyrie; so you could do it yourself!

Very nice. Love me some Dwarves, especially female (so few!), and a "Valkyrie" is a perfect fantasy concept that needs to exist in Warcraft. (I've had the idea for an undead Dwarf "Valkyrie" for the Forsaken for some time now...)

Would love to see a unit version (decay anims & such, even though that Death anim is sick)

 

[Dargen]

Very SHORT for a Valkyrie tittle

 

[Greedy Procrastinator]

Dwarves, especially female (so few!)

Exactly. Especially gnomes

 

[KarlKrump]

Very cool looking.

 

[ShadowMidas]

Cool

 

[Bleeq]

Ahhh!! That's why you didn't want Shadowheart to be used for a Valkyrie; so you could do it yourself!

Very nice. Love me some Dwarves, especially female (so few!), and a "Valkyrie" is a perfect fantasy concept that needs to exist in Warcraft. (I've had the idea for an undead Dwarf "Valkyrie" for the Forsaken for some time now...)

Would love to see a unit version (decay anims & such, even though that Death anim is sick)

An Undead, Dwarf Valkyrie? that's an... interesting combo. Is there a backstory?
Partly I'm too lazy to make a unit version, but I also think a Valkyrie should be a hero. It doesn't feel right for her to be some pissant that gets slaughtered by Firebreath in droves.

Exactly. Especially gnomes

I'm not a big fan of gnomes, but I have this idea for a sort of goblin version of Ghazkull Thraka, and might do a gnome conversion. But that's at the bottom of my priorities.
Oh wait, was the point about it being a chick? These were going to be fellas.

 

[Bleeq]

Updated all the models, mostly small things/polish. I think the shield looks a lot better now tho.

Also added a Blonde one for people so inclined.

 

[Kyrbi0]

Nice update

An Undead, Dwarf Valkyrie? that's an... interesting combo. Is there a backstory?
Partly I'm too lazy to make a unit version, but I also think a Valkyrie should be a hero. It doesn't feel right for her to be some pissant that gets slaughtered by Firebreath in droves.

(how did I miss this?)

Well it's a funny story... Not really ^_^, just some things I'm sketching out for my hopefully-eventual Forsaken faction.

Hidden

So I'm a big fan of Forsaken, but not how they're presented in WoW; almost entirely what we see from TFT, plus a lot of logical conjecture on my part. Forsaken are an off-shoot of the Undead Scourge of course, but some key differences include:

• Greater emphasis on ghostly/spiritual undead (vs. fleshy, corpsey undead; ala the "Banshee Queen")
• more 'guerrilla warfare' compared to the Scourge's 'endless ranks of the dead' strats (both because of no necromancy to 'come back' & because they're just inherently a smaller, more vulnerable faction)
• No "Northrend beasts" or "demonic partners" or frost magic or necromancy

On top of that, I figured that the Forsaken, because of their "origin"/history, would consist instead mostly of undead created from the Scourge's conquest of the northern kingdoms; undead humans (Lordaeron), undead elves (Quel'thalas)... and yes, undead dwarves (Ironforge). Anyone from the Alliance, really, who had been conquered by the Scourge & enslaved by the Lich King (we saw in the campaign that Sylvanas still hated Forest Trolls; I reckon that even if there were plenty of undead Orcs/Trolls/Ogres/etc around, she wouldn't be interested)

So thus we come to an aspect of Forsaken I haven't really seen anyone else engage with; Undead Dwarves. That's part 1 of the equation.

Part 2 requires another little digression: while I am basically ignoring WoW for all intents & purposes (this being a Wc3-centered project)... I'm also freely "stealing forward" stuff that I really like from WoW, and adapting it pretty liberally as I see fit. (I did the same for my Jungle Trolls; can't imagine a Troll faction with Raptor Riders right? Even though that's nowhere in Wc3).

So I do love the "Apothecary" concept/class, as well as the whole "New Plague" thing. Keeping those fo' sho'. Another thing I see everyone do is give Forsaken those darn "Val'kyr"... Well I don't like 'em. But I do like the idea of them! Valkyries, after all, are a classic mythological concept, Norse (unique from the usual Greek/English); angel-esque battle maidens of the Norse warrior gods, who gather the spirits of the greatest warriors after death to take them to Valhalla, land of eternal feasts & battles. Warcraft is a great place for adapting classic mythological tropes, so why not these guys? I mean that's literally exactly what they did in WoW to make the "Val'kyr", duh. ^_^ I'm just doing the same, but taking it in a different direction.


Thus the synthesis of Parts 1 & 2: I've long wanted some kind of cool undead "lady warrior spirit", perhaps with some battle-related & supporting/healing abilities. Something spooky & Banshee-esque (befitting Sylvanas), but human?... elven?... What about... dwarven?

After all, Norse mythology maps reasonably well onto the Dwarves (at least superficially). In fact, I'm already planning on incorporating the "Draugr" of Norse mythology (ala Skyrim) into my Forsaken as well, using this nifty model (with some edits)... If I add a Valkyrie-inspired undead dwarf lady spirit into the mix, well now we're starting to really flesh out this sub-faction of Forsaken!

 

[Bleeq]

Nice update

I'm procrastinating by polishing up some older stuff. I was going to steal this girl's face for something new, but then got caught fixing things I didn't like instead lol :/

(how did I miss this?)

Well it's a funny story... Not really ^_^, just some things I'm sketching out for my hopefully-eventual Forsaken faction.

Funnily enough, another dude and I were just talking about forsaken

My feeling for Forsaken is a little similar to yours in the sense that it's 90% inspired by TFT. I was playing her levels on hard recently and I actually really appreciated their creativity.
It's like when you play it easier, You just steamroll stuff so you don't notice. Also I was such a nub in the past that possessing things never seemed like a legit strategy, it was just RP. I agree about the more guerilla style, and taking a bit from Wrath/apothecaries.

That draugr model is actually pretty cool, it has a lot of character. I'm not so sure about mixing all those different themes together though, It's a bit like the WotLK vrykul etc. There was too much going on. Undead, vikings that are also giants, that also used to be stone people but got cursed by a spookums old god and rode dragons, but not those dragons these are ugly for some reason or whatever. Also Humans evolved from vrykul or something. I think it could just be a bit too eclectic.

I wrote a fair bit of rubbish about my ideas in PMs so I'll just copy paste it in spoilers if you're interested.

Spoiler: Forsaken Ranting

It's pretty barebones, but for my Forsaken they would be mobile and sneaky, I think Night Elves were supposed to be more like that originally, but they ended up getting played more brutally.
Another gimmick would be about 50/50 of the army is undead/living, so if you're allied or against a DK/Pally you can focus on living or dead exclusively if you want.

Heroes:
Ogre Tyrant - Living - Strength
Bandit Lord - Living - Strength(?)
and then 2 more from:
Ranger - Dead
Demon lieutenant (Varimathras) - Dead
Apothecary (Putress) - Dead

I really like Varimathras, but it might be weird to have him so common, and also make him different to normal Scourge Dreadlords.

The only spells I've come up with are:
Focus Fire - medium range channel to increase damage against the target. Like commanding the troops to focus that target.
Evanesce - Short range mass blink. Your units evaporate into mist and float to the target location. If you remember the last Sylvanas mission, there's an item called "Diamond of Summoning". I'd base the spell on that.
Both of those would be for the ranger.


Units:
Husk - dead - zombie peasant. Can't become militia. Leaves a snaring cloud on the ground when dead (as a passive base/raid defense).
Alteraci Enforcer - T1 living - 3 food melee. Like a bandit bouncer that Learns Takedown/Restrain. Channel to root the target in place and force air to the ground. Powerful ability, but the Enforcer can't attack while channeling it.
Blah - T1 dead - 2 food ranged undead unit. I haven't though about this one much
Blight Catapult - T2 mechanical - Siege unit like those ones from WoW WotLK
Monstrosity - T3 dead - 4 food melee. Like an abom, but an ogre instead, with slightly different stats.
Bandit Assassin - T2 living - 2/3 food melee. Has stealth mode and slow poison. If it became ranged, it would be too similar to dryads imo. But as melee it's kinda like the enforcers :/
Crushridge Magi - T2 living - 3 food melee caster. Weird unit like spell breaker. The gimmick is he is pretty good in combat, and has good spells, but they are expensive with long cooldowns. So you kinda get limited uses (and so he's probably not good in massed armies like 4v4 RT).
Highborne Banshee/Spectre - Dead Caster - A bit different to normal banshees:

• T1 Lamentation/Dirge - cast on a corpse to heal nearby friendly units. I'd like it to be a short aoe HoT.
• T2 Fleet Foot - Autocastable buff that makes the unit very fast and removes collision. Basically Windwalk without the invis.
• T3 Possession. Same as normal.

Renegade Conjurer - Living Caster - bandit dude, I would probably recycle some unused spells from other ideas.
Battle Barge - T3 mechanical - ultimate unit, a flying ghost blimp/battleship kinda like this. It would be a bit like a Chimaera but with long range siege cannons and guns/rockets against air. So Chims counter buildings and ground but helpless against air. Battle barge would counter buildings and air, but weak against ground forces.

All that leaves space for 1-2 more units, either dead or mechanical. Probably 1 flying, 1 weird unit.

I think I'm more attached to the bandits than the ogres.
I'd consider making unique models for Bandit Lord (if a good one doesn't already exist, I haven't really looked) and Battle Barge. Maybe make a female bandit assassin to mix things up.

There was another dude on here who had his alt-Classic ideas for Forsaken, which got me thinking about Alterac. I found it on mmochamp but he had a link back to this site. Only prob is he mods Reforged ;P And I forgot/lost the link.

ED: If you were going to have an undead one, could we just base it on this?
I think this face turned out alright:

Spoiler

We could ghost-up some of the other bits, too.

 

[ILH]

A lovely dwarf heroine.
Works in-game. Approved!

 

[deepstrasz]

All it could need for completion is a mounted pegasus version.

Platinum is more towards gray-white, methinks.

 

[Bleeq]

All it could need for completion is a mounted pegasus version.

Keep dreaming then ;P

Platinum is more towards gray-white, methinks.

You're probably right. Does that even naturally occur?

 

[deepstrasz]

Keep dreaming then ;P

I'm used to it.

Does that even naturally occur?

Maybe in an alternative universe.

 

[Villagerino]

Quite lovely, I like her facial structure, the texture choice for her chest and the 'Death' and 'Attack-2' sequences especially

 

[StonemaulMidget]

Maybe redesign her body so it is fitting like a dwarf?
She looks more like a hobbit with twiggy arms.

 

[Bleeq]

Quite lovely, I like her facial structure, the texture choice for her chest and the 'Death' and 'Attack-2' sequences especially

Thanks, It's a bit of a pastiche.

Spoiler

Age of Mythology
And a bit of Diablo 2, like the death animation.

I'm very happy the leg texture gives her underwear

Maybe redesign her body so it is fitting like a dwarf?
She looks more like a hobbit with twiggy arms.

I kinda agree, so I'll think about it.

 

[Bleeq]

Maybe redesign her body so it is fitting like a dwarf?
She looks more like a hobbit with twiggy arms.

I chubbed up the arms a bit, and did some other small changes. If you want more than that, you're on your own.

 

[Kyrbi0]

I'm procrastinating by polishing up some older stuff. I was going to steal this girl's face for something new, but then got caught fixing things I didn't like instead lol :/

Funnily enough, another dude and I were just talking about forsaken

My feeling for Forsaken is a little similar to yours in the sense that it's 90% inspired by TFT. I was playing her levels on hard recently and I actually really appreciated their creativity.
It's like when you play it easier, You just steamroll stuff so you don't notice. Also I was such a nub in the past that possessing things never seemed like a legit strategy, it was just RP. I agree about the more guerilla style, and taking a bit from Wrath/apothecaries.

That draugr model is actually pretty cool, it has a lot of character. I'm not so sure about mixing all those different themes together though, It's a bit like the WotLK vrykul etc. There was too much going on. Undead, vikings that are also giants, that also used to be stone people but got cursed by a spookums old god and rode dragons, but not those dragons these are ugly for some reason or whatever. Also Humans evolved from vrykul or something. I think it could just be a bit too eclectic.

I wrote a fair bit of rubbish about my ideas in PMs so I'll just copy paste it in spoilers if you're interested.

Spoiler: Forsaken Ranting

It's pretty barebones, but for my Forsaken they would be mobile and sneaky, I think Night Elves were supposed to be more like that originally, but they ended up getting played more brutally.
Another gimmick would be about 50/50 of the army is undead/living, so if you're allied or against a DK/Pally you can focus on living or dead exclusively if you want.

Heroes:
Ogre Tyrant - Living - Strength
Bandit Lord - Living - Strength(?)
and then 2 more from:
Ranger - Dead
Demon lieutenant (Varimathras) - Dead
Apothecary (Putress) - Dead

I really like Varimathras, but it might be weird to have him so common, and also make him different to normal Scourge Dreadlords.

The only spells I've come up with are:
Focus Fire - medium range channel to increase damage against the target. Like commanding the troops to focus that target.
Evanesce - Short range mass blink. Your units evaporate into mist and float to the target location. If you remember the last Sylvanas mission, there's an item called "Diamond of Summoning". I'd base the spell on that.
Both of those would be for the ranger.


Units:
Husk - dead - zombie peasant. Can't become militia. Leaves a snaring cloud on the ground when dead (as a passive base/raid defense).
Alteraci Enforcer - T1 living - 3 food melee. Like a bandit bouncer that Learns Takedown/Restrain. Channel to root the target in place and force air to the ground. Powerful ability, but the Enforcer can't attack while channeling it.
Blah - T1 dead - 2 food ranged undead unit. I haven't though about this one much
Blight Catapult - T2 mechanical - Siege unit like those ones from WoW WotLK
Monstrosity - T3 dead - 4 food melee. Like an abom, but an ogre instead, with slightly different stats.
Bandit Assassin - T2 living - 2/3 food melee. Has stealth mode and slow poison. If it became ranged, it would be too similar to dryads imo. But as melee it's kinda like the enforcers :/
Crushridge Magi - T2 living - 3 food melee caster. Weird unit like spell breaker. The gimmick is he is pretty good in combat, and has good spells, but they are expensive with long cooldowns. So you kinda get limited uses (and so he's probably not good in massed armies like 4v4 RT).
Highborne Banshee/Spectre - Dead Caster - A bit different to normal banshees:

• T1 Lamentation/Dirge - cast on a corpse to heal nearby friendly units. I'd like it to be a short aoe HoT.
• T2 Fleet Foot - Autocastable buff that makes the unit very fast and removes collision. Basically Windwalk without the invis.
• T3 Possession. Same as normal.

Renegade Conjurer - Living Caster - bandit dude, I would probably recycle some unused spells from other ideas.
Battle Barge - T3 mechanical - ultimate unit, a flying ghost blimp/battleship kinda like this. It would be a bit like a Chimaera but with long range siege cannons and guns/rockets against air. So Chims counter buildings and ground but helpless against air. Battle barge would counter buildings and air, but weak against ground forces.

All that leaves space for 1-2 more units, either dead or mechanical. Probably 1 flying, 1 weird unit.

I think I'm more attached to the bandits than the ogres.
I'd consider making unique models for Bandit Lord (if a good one doesn't already exist, I haven't really looked) and Battle Barge. Maybe make a female bandit assassin to mix things up.

There was another dude on here who had his alt-Classic ideas for Forsaken, which got me thinking about Alterac. I found it on mmochamp but he had a link back to this site. Only prob is he mods Reforged ;P And I forgot/lost the link.

ED: If you were going to have an undead one, could we just base it on this?
I think this face turned out alright:

Spoiler

View attachment 507621

We could ghost-up some of the other bits, too.

Gonna try to respond to the "ranting" later but I love that face, very good

(BTW, if you and/or @Scias like rambling about custom factions you oughta join us on at Factioneers!)