FrostHeim Post 002 - Entities From Beyond...

*Post 002*

Entities From Beyond...

The Dark Young 

It wasn't difficult to find a candidate for my war-band's summoned 'Major Demon' role, as few creatures say 'Shub-Niggurath' quite like her grotesque, disturbing offspring; the 'Dark Young'.  First appearing in Robert Bloch's short story 'Notebook Found in a Deserted House' (first published in Weird Tales Vol.43 in 1951) these spawn of the All-Mother are described as horrifying monstrosities composed of a mass of ropy, branch-like tentacles and gaping toothed maws, standing upon deformed, cloven hoofed goat legs...

"It crawled up and it flowed up on its hoofs and mouths and snaky arms... The men bowed and stood back and then it got to the altar where there was something squirming on top, squirming and screaming..." - Robert Bloch, Notebook Found In a Deserted House.

Said to dwell deep within the forests where the All-Mother's power claims dominion, Dark Young can be summoned to attend followers of Shub-Niggurath's unnatural faith through means of esoteric ritual found within the black and terrible Book of Ebion. By moonlight, deep within the forest, the Summoner must offer up a blood sacrifice to the All-Mother upon a stone altar, leading his followers in a terrible chant with which to call the Dark Young to accept the sacrifice and bestow the blessings of Shub-Niggurath upon the faithful.

With lore like this I really couldn't ask for a better thematic fit for my war-band! Now it was just a case of finding the right miniature to represent this horrendous beast, a search that would not take me long... 

Summoning the Beast... 

Whist there were a large number of Dark Young miniatures on the market, most left much to be desired, with many of the sculpts bordering on comical. After a bit of research however, I found the miniature; Fenris Game's fantastic 'Cthulhu Wars: Dark Young' kit!

Above: "Despair, loathsome Infidels... Behold! An angel from the All-Mother's sanctum, come to aid us in our holy mission! Iä! Iä! Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!!" - The Wretched one, High Summoner-Preist of Shub-Niggurath

Sculpted by Ian Brumley of Fenris Games for the Cthulhu Wars board game, this beautiful resin kit went together fantastically, requiring minimal cleanup, and only a tiny bit of epoxy resin (green stuff) to re-position the tentacles. Once I'd finished the build I accidentally knocked the model off my hobby desk, and was both surprised and impressed to see that the model remained completely intact, and even bounced from its tentacles onto its base, waiting to be picked up!

Above: Shub-Niggurath's frightful and disturbing appearance in Id Game's classic 90s PC game, Quake.

Whilst many sources describe Dark Young as being pitch black in colour, I had a very different mental image in my head inspired by Shub-Niggurath's appearance as the final boss character in one of my all time favourite games, Id Game's Quake. As shown in the above image, Quake depicts Shub-Niggurath as a tree-like tentacled monstrosity, weeping gore and ichor over pallid necrotic flesh from a gaping wound-like maw. Wanting to capture this look for my own project I took inspiration from the sickly pale colour pallet, and made sure to include a liberal smattering of gore and viscera!

Above: A maddening mass of wreathing tentacles and gaping, gore-stained maws, it is said that few men can gaze upon a Dark Young for long and maintain their sanity... 

With so much going on in its disturbing and chaotic design, the Dark Young miniature looks striking and sinister no matter what direction it's viewed from. I'm hoping that it's going to make quite an intimidating presence on the tabletop when my Summoner manages to conjure a 'Major Demon'! 

My Thoughts...

Overall I'm very happy with how this miniature turned out! I toyed with the idea of a layer of extra highlights but I'm worried that this addition could detract from the pallid, sickly flesh tone. Whilst it is possible that I will revisit this idea in a later post, for now I'm happy to leave it be.

I used Tamiya Clear Red for the gore and viscera effects, a technique I've used many times before on previous hobby projects, only this time utilising a wash of Games Workshop's 'Baal Red' on the outer areas, which I feel helps blend the effect more naturally into the contrasting skin tone. 

What Next?

Now I've got a striking centrepiece model for the war-band I believe I'm going to take a side step and indulge in some thematically linked terrain pieces. I've always been keen to own my own set of wargames terrain, if only to facilitate gaming at home without relying on a local gaming club. With this project in particular I have an excellent opportunity to create some really interesting pieces of thematic scenery that will complement the war-band and make a great start to a fully-fledged 3x3 gaming board!

Obviously the war-band still lacks an apprentice, and is in dire need of both  'Imp' and 'Minor Demon' models for summoning, but with my mind teeming with ideas for creepy forest terrain these additions to the war-band will have to take a back seat... for now!

Once again,  if you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read my latest FrostHeim post! feel free to leave a comment below if you have any feedback, and stay tuned for more!