DIARIES OF A CHAOS SPAWN: I
"Re-enter the Realm of Chaos..."
Hello globs and globules! I'm Nick, a fairly chaotic warp entity with a love of Warhammer art, books, and various miniatures! This love spawned from a day when a young boy went to a mall in West Nyack, NY with his family. At the time, there was a "Games Workshop" store there, packed with metal minis in their blisters and beautiful boxes labeled "WARHAMMER" and "WARHAMMER 40,000" accompanied by large flocked tables set up beautifully with little houses and hills. This is where I first saw them, the lost and the damned, the slaves to darkness, tiny evil men and demons fighting against knights perched on little green squares! It was a beautiful. As a young boy, witnessing such a scene of knights and monsters really stuck with me, and I immediately wanted in on the action! However, being around 7-8 years old, my parents did not want to stick around and watch as two grown men sling dice and consult tomes, nor did they want to fork over a small fortune for me to purchase a unit of metal bloodletters and paint! So, alas, as I took one final longing glance back at the beautiful metal Bloodthirster laying waste to those pesky Bretonnians, we left the store. That day I vowed that I would, eventually, have my all-metal, all-beautiful Legion of Chaos! But, I had to settle for a Star Wars action figure and a pack of Pokémon cards, left to wonder about the strange little models I saw. Ce la vi.
Not Exactly, but this is the closest picture I could find. Flash forward to me around the age of 11, walking though a large flea market in New Jersey with my father who was (and is) an avid flea-market lover, collecting toys, comic books, video games and the like. We come across a table and something catches my eye: A METAL MINIATURE! I immediately scooped it up, memories of that early encounter with those strange little models flooded back, I knew I would buy this miniature. I had to. As the seller noticed my fervor for the little silver lump they asked me: "Do you like Warhammer?" I of course didn't really know anything about the game other than what I remembered seeing as a child, but I immediately responded "Yes!", and then it happened: that seller produced a brown paper bag filled with layers of foam, blisters, and carboard boxes and I saw the logos again: WARHAMMER and WARHAMMER 40,000, I remember rummaging through the bag, wanting it so badly, I don't remember how much it was, but I do remember my dad asking me, "Do you want them?" and I couldn't even speak, I only nodded. This was it, that hazy memory of seeing all of those models at the Games Workshop store returning to life, I now owned Warhammer miniatures! A bag full of chaos space marines and some fantasy beast men! As well as a few random inquisitors and other models I don't quite remember thrown in. I remember feverishly painting them up with cheap craft paint and brushes, layer after horribly thick layer. As time went on, I sadly fell out of love with my thickly painted army, seeing as I had no one to play with, and none of the books or rules to even play by myself! One day, I decided I wanted to get more into Magic: The gathering, and sadly I traded off most of my Warhammer models for cards (The only model I kept was a CSM Chaos Lord model that I particularly liked). BUT, I regretted it and later on in high school, after finally getting a part-time job, I met new people that also played and loved Warhammer (40,000 only though, I sadly had to give up on my dreams of a fantasy army)! and I made the reverse trade, selling off a bunch of my Magic cards for the Warhammer 40k Starter box, DARK VENGANCE! The store clerk explained that I could convert the Dark Angels to be MORE chaos marines as they were "Basically heretics anyway", and that my old metal Chaos Lord could still lead them into battle! I remember spending hours each night after school and work painting and converting these minis, and this box set is extremely nostalgic for me.
The Chos Lord Model and Box Set in question
Once High school ended, it was time for college, and I began to focus on playing Magic "Seriously" as many other students at my college (and the girl I was dating) played. We would all travel together to tournaments and try to 'go pro'. It was fun, but it always felt a bit empty, like a drug, we were all chasing the competitive dragon. Essentially I was living an empty lifestyle of true
Chaos.
This cycle continued, I was trapped in a sort of hive-mind mentality, not really taking into account what I wanted, but more what the others around me where doing. Once in a while I thought about that old fantasy army I always wanted, but sadly, WHFB was killed off, and The Age of Sigmar took its place. My dream felt completely crushed. The last thing Warhammer related I did for years was make a Legion of the Damned army (that won a painting competition I might add!) and left it on display in a game store, allowing my dreams of Warhammer to float away into the warp. It all eventually ended up that after moving in with the love of my life, Maria, I finally found a sense of peace. I chose to sell off 90% of my Warhammer and Magic cards to pay help pay rent and keep us afloat as we looked for better jobs, only holding on to the models and cards that were extremely important to me.
My Legion of the Damned, finally home after being lost in the warp for years.
A few years later, Maria and I found better jobs and moved into a nice new apartment together. Finally, things are all settling down. We both have stable jobs, and have time for hobbies and relaxation, running occasional old school Magic: The Gathering tournaments (Where we only use cards from 93/94), I began to revitalize my classic CSM army (pics eventually), retrieved my (long thought lost) Legion of the Damned army, and now proudly display them on my shelves. One day, we decided to stop in a new game store (Gadzooks in Hasbrouck Heights, NJ. Check them out.) on one of our walks and I saw something that absolutely blew me away...
THE OLD WORLD RETURNED!
Now over the past year I have amassed a collection of metal miniatures (mostly non-GW as I love the look and feel of many of the other brands) and have begun the process of creating my NEW Warhammer Fantasy army, all metal, and all on those beautiful little green squares I remember, and they look even better now as Maria does some AMAZING basing work! I am excited to begin a new chapter in my hobby life, one that feels as though I am finally completing the cycle: I will now have the Chaos Legion a young me could only dream of! Soon I will post pictures and stories about my army in the "My Chaotic Forces of Fantasy" tab. Until then, thank you for reading, and I hope you got something out of all my rambling and reminiscing!
- Nick, The Chaos Entity.
P.S. Special thanks to Maria for supporting me through everything! She is my rock and I could never have gotten to this point in my life without her.
Images of the army are starting to trickle in through the warp...
QUICKLY! CAST THE SUMMONING!!
