Alba Mesa

Alba Mesa - a force for good?

I was bitten by the Tallowlands bug a few months ago when it came into my head to create a Cities of Sigmar 'Tempest Eye' force in a steampunk style.  As yet I lack any models at all to show off given the fact that the models I want to base it on have not been released for the most part and my family commitments.  I really dig the background the PCRC are coming up with though for the Tallowlands so I thought I can at least contribute some of that.

The plan is to convert these guys into pistoleers and outriders:

And convert up a Hurricanum using the same horses:

I will likely convert up a General on a Griffon as well.

The following background intentionally has things in common with Tempest Eye.  I hope it isn't too close and I would encourage the PCRC to tell me if they think it is verging on unoriginal, I liked the original background and wanted some way of transferring aspects of it to the Tallowlands.  Tempest Eye forces contain up to one quarter Stormcasts and one quarter Kharadron Overlords as well as traditionally relying on celestial magic.  Combining all those forces as allies will always give the same feel to almost any 'counts as' Tempest Eye background.

^^

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What is Alba Mesa?  It is more than just the cavalry, which aided the Sinian Emperors when called upon*.  It is more than just a place or indeed a marvel of ancient and modern engineering.  It is more than just the capital of the Celestial College**.  It is one of the few places where wizards and scientists, dwarfs and humans, stormcasts and mortals mix in peace.  

Nestled high up in the Dawn mountains lies a metropolis entrenched into the mountains, a city of two sides; the Western side, dominated by the Kharadron Overlords in Barak Mhorna and the Eastern side, Alba Mesa.  Atop the glittering peaks stands three magnificent buildings:

• The capital of the Celestial college, which has an observatory that you can see from many miles away.  Celestial magic in Rho is regulated here while the movements of the heavenly bodies and comets are monitored
• Crown Keep - a small keep which is home to the Stormcasts who are allied to the Celestial college
• The great lighthouse and aetherport of Salgrun

*Although significantly not its last Emperor
**Not to be confused with the celestial council despite their outsized influence on it

Extracts from the last publication of the Nobleman's guide to Rho, a publication that ceased when demand for its services fell with the Empire.

..of course it could all have been very different.  After the Age of Chaos, the Eastern side of the Dawn mountains was completely cut off from the rest of Roh (sic) both by the geography; the mountain ridges curve around to the East preventing any access of a peninsula of land trapped by the mountains, as well as the great storm which engulfed the mountain peaks for the first century or so of this age.  

The dwarfs colonised the western slopes while unbeknown to them, humans from a different land crashed into the rocks near the peninsula and settled it - for several generations that was their whole world.

When the tempest lifted there was conflict and war although eventually the pragmatism of the dwarfs in recognizing two entrenched defensive positions won out and an uneasy peace was reached...

...just speculation that the storm had been caused by an open realm gate on top of Salgrun peak and that closing it permanently has stopped the Tempest.  Although who or what had the desire or motivation to do this is unknown to me...

... by then the dwarfs had come to recognise that the humans of Alba Mesa were not going anywhere and made good trading partners.  Relations begun to thaw at that point... 

...that doesn't explain the interest that the humans had in technology.  That came from the Celestial college which was a mix of mystics and engineers like nothing I have seen before.  The mystics fully believed that it was the will of Sigmar to tame the mountains as a way of accessing the heavens.  Whether from self interest or prophecy they encouraged the development of mechanical beasts of burden, the forerunners to today's steam horse cavalry.  Given the unique climate and geography of course it would have been impossible to develop any cavalry without the aid of magic or mechanics...

...a golden age it would never again quite live up to with the treaty reached with Emperor Eldros II of the Sinian Empire which saw the forces and races of order fight together as one to expel...

...presented its own unique problems given the fall of the Empire although the solution they eventually reached preserved and protected Alba Mesa (and Barak Mhorna) at the cost of their effectiveness at projecting power.  Their forces remain on high alert given the frequent incursions from the charred lands to the North...

Extracts from the annals of the Kings of Roh (sic) and their bonds to the Sinian Emperors

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^^Art by Dmitriy Semyroz