Blood Eagle: Powers Behind the Throne

One of the roughly planned adventures I'd like to put together involve the Blood Eagle and SAGA systems.  I blame it all on Bernard Cornwell mostly but the cinematic Vikings and even The Last Kingdom adaptation (I rarely appreciate screen over book) have to take some of the responsibility (because I can't be angry at Mr. Cornwell) for this recent distraction.

From what I have read in the period I find it all quite fascinating.  Tales of epic adventure and fighting men and sadly far more bureaucracy and weaseling than I might have expected before reading these and actual historical accounts.  At least in the fiction the weasels usually find themselves on the wrong end of axe or sword.Still not much point to fighting if you aren't fighting for something.  I suppose gold and titles are nice in real life but aren't very interesting in the context of a table top.  I really need to build some scenery for this project.  My long term plan is to build an Anglo Saxon force drawing my inspiration from Cornwell's stories of Uhtred.  This will involve some generic terrain that will perform duty in other games but some stuff that will enliven the table and set the scene for the Dark Ages.  I haven't got round to making so much as a hut but I have started painting up some gripping beast townfolk who could be used in scenarios for either of the aforementioned systems.

First up is, "the pretty one".  This lithe, fetching young lady is likely the talk of the town, village or steading.  Maybe she has caught the eye of the Earl and hopes to elevate her status by gold digging and getting some heirs.  On the bright side maybe she is the epic beauty from a saga who might drive an aspiring hero to deeds worthy of song.  Maybe she should be doing that sort of thing for herself.

Next up is, "first wife".  Maybe she isn't the beauty of her youth but this woman is the true power where she calls home.  While the Earl has been raiding, fighting emptying his ale horn this woman has been making the trains (wooden floating ones) run on time.  The defacto planner, steward and the mother of all the Earl's heirs of any consequence she is not one to be reckoned with.  Entrusted with a key when few locks even exist she is a very important person indeed. 

Hopefully this will work better than the posting system I have been using up until now.  I had been trying to create, "meaningful articles" and as a consequence burned a lot of time thinking and plotting them, and found the process not half as fun as actually painting miniatures.  I still plan to produce more involved content but think that in the interest of actually doing something with the blog I will let go of my, "lofty editorial standards" and just produce more content for the love of producing content and getting some pictures of miniatures that I enjoy painting out there.