MORDHEIM - CITIES OF
GOLD
TEMPLE CITIES
The typical Temple City occupies a clearing in the jungle, and is often bordered by
swamps. The paved roads that lead into the city often cross over these swamps by means of
paved causeways. In turn the roads and causeways are flanked by avenues of lizarddaemon
statues, carved from massive blocks of stone. Most of the temple cities are somewhat
ruined or neglected and the jungle often intrudes on the paved roads and covers the
statues in vines.
The causeways become processional ways as they proceed into the heart of the city. They
are lined with carved stone stele covered in sculptured scenes and glyphs recording
various events, myths or rituals important to the Lizardmen inhabitants. The roads may
pass between tall obelisks which are positioned to define the alignment of the axis of the
city on various stars and planets. At the heart of the city is a great paved plaza. The
pyramid temples face onto the plaza from all sides. This place is where the population
gathered to observe rituals and where the army of the city paraded before marching off to
battle.
The pyramid temples rise up in platforms, giving a stepped appearance. The temple
itself is located on the flat topmost step and one or more staircases ascend the pyramid.
The pyramids are built from white stone that gleam in the sun and are decorated with
sculptures painted in striking colours and strange carvings depicting glyphs. The treasure
sought by the plunderers can be found inside and below the pyramid temples, located in
chambers or lining corridors. However the golden plaques, that tell of the Old Ones' plan,
are protected by traps and located behind hidden passages.
The barrios of the Skinks form the suburbs of the city. Here the Skinks lived and
pursued their craft of making the artifacts of Lizardman civilization. There were many
types of craftsmen here: the makers of scrolls, beaters of copper, brewers of intoxicating
potions and the sculptors of glyphs, as well as vast numbers of workers, skilled and
unskilled, and their overseers. These clusters of small houses, courtyards and workshops
were crowded and full of activity with Skinks scurrying about attending a various tasks.
In many cases vast quantities of gold can be found in the workshops of Skink
glyph-sculptors. The glyphs are made of gold for its shining surface, but the precious
metal was otherwise seen as useless.
BUILDING A TEMPLE CITY
Nick Davis' Jungle Fever articles in WD 223, 225 and 232 offer loads of ideas to make a
Lizardman city and it will not be that hard to make ruins using those ideas. Also the new
40K jungle terrain looks quite good and is sold seperately so you can really make a nice
jungle or place jungle trees on the bases of lizzardmen buildings. I made a few ruin bases
myself using the doorframes from Warhammer quest. I glued one or two to a base of
cardboard, covered most of it in tvines made from plastic aquarium plants and some lichen
around the edges to flesh it out. I cut a few frames in two to place as single pillars or
lying down, to give the piece that half-ruined look. They turned out pretty good.
However not everyone want to build all that jungle/city terrain and a good and cheap
alternative is Lego. You can also use books to create stepped pyramids or upside turned
boxes as houses. The following is a little story from Eric Ostermann that really
illustrates the good use of alternative "terrain".
"As both me and my wife are playing Warhammer I am lucky to come home and see the
dining room table frequently already set up with lego houses, lego walls, and blue cloths
as water, green ones as forest areas and overturned bowls as hills. But last night my wife
created a whole Temple City. The Slann had a huge flat topped pyramid in the city center
to stand on and he could see the whole city from his vantage point. She had made walls,
city sectors, market places and best of all my sons newest block set had dino's and she
mounted these on pillars to make cool obelisks and stuff. It looked very Aztec like, it
was breathtaking. Her and the kids worked all afternoon on it. Fighting city block to city
block was fun, a city street could only fit 5 models across so it was a lot of brutal hand
to hand combat as well as archers on the rooftops. Also, you'll love this, a cloth covered
parts of the city which were only unveiled as I moved troops through it. Talk about dead
end alleys and such. You can use many items on hand and still enjoy the game. They might
not look as real, but imagination goes a long way and legos are easy to assemble/
disassemble due to damage, and best of all very inexpensive. I only wish I had
pictures..."
Plaugelord Lepri of Clan Pestilen
Tommy Punk - UIN: 9946419 - Kalmar, Sweden
Archive Skaven
Archive Pestilen
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