Above: Tabletop- rulebooks from 1984 to 2011. “Warhammer” by Games Workshop is played on sculpted terrain tables with 1/58 miniatures depicting fantasy creatures. Because of this scale the collecting, painting and playing with miniatures is a way to get in touch with really large creatures or big hosts of critters which just cannot be build for larp- conventions (although we´re working on it...).
Threatened universe? Yup. “Chaos” in the Warhammer- sense is an immaterial primeval soup “outside” of our universe whose denizens constantly strive to break in “here”. Their final goal is to assimilate the material cosmos by turning it into this chaotic shape, changing its conditon quite drastically during the process. So the opposite of “order” in this case would not be “disorder” but ... something entirely different. The most powerful entities of this “beyond” are the four rivaling supreme gods of chaos whose names though shall not be mentioned here.
While these gods do of course not appear personally their agents on the other hand are very active indeed- undercover or in the open, most of them deluded and without the knowledge that an existential war is fought in the background- they´re just interested in the usual things we all covet: world- domination, immortality, superpowers, fabulous wealth, you name it, while only a few are aware that they´re serving a “higher” purpose.
And because not everybody who explores this website reads fantasy: lemme tell ya again that nothing you read here has a real background- not even an esoteric one: everything is purely fictional. Which makes it perfectly suited for playing with- no real gods or religions get treaded onto their proverbial toes.
Ok: a few years ago some highly motivated guys established the player- formation “Horden des Chaos” (“Chaos- Host”). Its members (whose numbers have meanwhile grown to a serious tally) draw their inspiration from the GW- universe and in zillions of working- hours transport the literally fantastic look of these body- and- soul- corrupted warriors onto the playing fields of the gameworlds.
In the larp- hobby to depict the influence of Chaos on its followers it is necessary to draw on a variety of materials that normally are not well- received by larpers because of their “synthetic” nature; but in these cases it won´t work any other way: Foam applications, thermoplastic materials and fibreglass- elements complement, modify or replace classic metal suits of armour, thus creating an impressing high- fantasy- look.
Such mixed- material- outfits made by members of the “hordes” are shown here. The pictures can be enlarged with rightclick “show graphic”.
But first something else: since this year (2018) Chaos has a fortress that with normal larp- fortifications has only the framework in common and fills the dark gods as well as their servants with great, suitably unholy pride:
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