Little Weirdos
There are few things better than little weirdos. By that, I mean gribbly little monsters of various stripes, from goblins to Gremlins to smaller, weirder things. And while there are plenty of examples from throughout history, folklore, and media, some of the original little weirdos are the ones that appear in the margins of medieval manuscripts.
These early illustrations varied considerably – from the elaborate illuminated manuscripts and illustrations meant to accompany and elucidate the text to bizarre marginalia of knights jousting with snails to the equivalent of doodles and modern day stick-figure drawings. However, for our purposes, we’re interested in the monsters.
These share creative DNA with the grotesques and gargoyles that can often be found decorating churchyards. I’ve neither the time nor the inclination to get into a whole history of how these various weirdos came to be, other than to suggest that there are certain similarities of form that crop up again and again in medieval marginalia, in gargoyles, in heraldic beasts, in depictions of demons, and elsewhere.
It is these similarities of form that bring me to the specific little weirdos I’m here to talk about today. In the new Cities of Sigmar line from Games Workshop, the various human residents of the eponymous cities are accompanied into battle by a wide array of weird little guys who, like the grotesques and creatures from the margins of medieval manuscripts that inspired them, are mostly there to serve a decorative purpose.
Saddled with the unfortunate name “Gargoylians,” these weirdos would have been right at home in the margins of a medieval manuscript, an idea that has previously been pursued by other miniature lines, such as Medieval Marginalia Miniatures. They aren’t the first time that GW has delved into similar inspirations for little guys to decorate their bases, either. The line of Gloomspite Gitz (that’s goblins to you and me) have a wide array of delightful “squiggly beasts,” though they’re more inspired by mushrooms and the design of the original squigs than by medieval marginalia.
One need not look far to find precursors to the “Gargoylians,” though. Check out the extremely weird Chaos familiars in Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower which include a book with feet, and fish… with feet. Apparently, the Ruinous Powers love to give things feet.
Still, as a longtime fan of weird little guys, the “Gargoylians” are some of the best that GW has done. They simultaneously feel like they could have stepped straight from the margins of a medieval manuscript, while still feeling right at home in the Mortal Realms – the setting of GW’s Age of Sigmar tabletop game.
As someone who enjoys a lot of what GW puts out while also bemoaning a steady loss of the personality and “handmade” touch that the games once had, the whole new Cities of Sigmar line feels more like something that could have come out of the Mordheim era of the game than anything they’ve done in a while – and that’s a good thing.
I don’t really play Age of Sigmar. My patience for tabletop wargaming is apparently pretty much limited to skirmish-level engagements, which mean that I interact with the Mortal Realms almost exclusively through games like Warhammer: Underworlds and Warcry. And the only even modest AoS army I have is a Gloomspite Gitz force, who will always have my undying affection and loyalty.
If I were inclined to pick up another army, though, the new Cities of Sigmar line would be tempting, and their array of marvelous little weirdos a big reason why. In the meantime, I’ll just enjoy looking at them online, and seeing all the ones that folks paint up as the line is actually released.
