Cad’s Chaos Draugr for Norsca
This mod adds a new unit, the Chaos Draugr, to Norsca.
An eerie and northerly twist upon Aspiring Champions, Chaos Draugr are elite infantry that can absorb lots of damage, making them well-suited to the protection of lords, casters, or damage-dealing infantry. They are onerously slow and don’t have particularly good damage output (even with magical damage and bonus against infantry), but they take concentrated effort to destroy, particularly from enemies without a means of bypassing defensive bonuses—for their armor is thick and their shields (are) broad. As Undead that both cause fear and provide bonuses to characters through Guardian, they can disincentivize (or at the very least soak up) direct attack. They won’t turn the tide of battle, but they’ll hold it in place and send unworthy challengers packing.
In order to recruit them, you’ll need both a tier-3 infantry building as well as a Ruinous Altar. [Originally the secondary building was from the Raiders’ Remains –> Trove Temple of Champions line, as this made more sense flavor-wise, but the Altar and other alternatives like the Skull-laden Embankment are not as regionally limited.] They are capped as well to prevent spooky scary skeletons from replacing godly mortals in your campaigns upon the south.
Is this lore-friendly?
Of all the Weird Norsca mods I’ve made this one is definitely the least grounded in canon detail; while there are mortal Necromancers who join forces with Chaos (most famously Heinrich Kemmler in A Specific Part Of Warhammer Fantasy Canon), there were never any Undead units within Chaos factions in the tabletop as far as I know (with a few exceptions exclusive to the aforementioned Specific Part). My goal with this and several other mods, however, is to help give Norsca a vibe distinct from its monogod/WoC brethren, as well as to gift it with balanced and unique units which don’t seem especially likely as future additions in the long prophesied, discussed, and possibly even real Norsca rework/DLC. Canon tells of many northern tribes which hold to a smorgasbord of beliefs and rites, including worship of southern gods and exchange with foreign powers; this mod merely proposes one of the dishes upon the board/bord. Ultimately it’s up to you to decide if you find this, uh, accommodating interpretation of canon appealing or not.
The plural of Draugr is Draugar, not Draugr or Draugrs.
This is correct. I’ve gone with Draugr rather than Draugar because it feels more in the spirit of Warhammer Fantasy, which is absolutely riddled with technically-these-are-grammatical-errors-but-we’ve-done-them-intentionally-for-the-vibe nomenclature (tsar vs tzar is an obvious example). However, if a sufficient number of people yell at me, I’ll change it.
Bugs, Compatibility, & Critique
Besides some clipping issues, the broad shields used by the Draugr may be a bit overlarge, and the models look a bit rough on lower LODs. My rig struggles a bit to edit complex meshes like furs and feathery capes, but I hope to improve these issues in the future. I’ve run into no compatibility issues (though MCT and Tabletop Caps are not incorporated here, and would require submods, as will game overhauls like SFO) and I hope these guys are distinct enough in their uses to not overlap too much with other additions from other mods. If you encounter issues, let me know and I’ll see if I can deal with them!
Cheers
Thank you so very much to the community over on Da Modding Den, which has been integral to me as I’ve learned about modding. Extra thanks are due to to Drazhir, PropJoe, Cataph, Calm, and Cryswar, all of whom have come to my aid when I’ve asked questions there. Cryswar has put some wonderful modding guides up on Steam and the aforementioned Discord is a great resource for modders and mod aficionados alike.
