Friday 1 January 2021

From SidneyR: The Book Golem (25 points)




***
For everyone, there's always that book. The one you saw as a child, which was possibly "a bit old for you", or was in that awkward place on the bookshelf which was difficult for your hands to reach. Maybe you didn't read all of the book - maybe you only read a few pages.  But however much you read, your imagination was never the same again. The book opened new worlds, introduced you to characters from myth and legend, heroes and villains, and led you to cities of golden spires or ruins which were salted with ashes and dust. 

Something magical was happening while you read that book. And nothing would ever be quite the same again.

If that ever happened to you, maybe you had received a visit from a book golem.  These magical spirits inhabit old books and young imaginations, waiting to seep from the pages into the mind of an impressionable reader.  They can assume any form, both female and male, and can be benign or.... mischievous.  

And being magical, they are spectral in nature and dazzlingly coloured - often in pink, or purple.  Something to catch a young reader's eye.

Number Appearing: One per favourite book
Armour class: Varies, according to book description
Intelligence:  Exponentially increased with the number of pages read
Number of Attacks: Varies, but can be as many as one per book chapter (additional attacks for any Horus Heresy book chapter)
Predominant colour:  Magical, changeable and frequently pink

*****




So here's my submission for "The Golem's Haunt".  I was going to try and sculpt my own green-stuff Golem, but I've had two Games Workshop 'daemonettes', from the 1990s, hanging around the lead mountain box for the best part of a couple of decades.  These are very politically incorrect - the sculpts being explicable only by being magical in nature.  One found its way to the classical statute in my "Hall of Traps" entry (minus its demonic horns), and here's the other one.  

The Book Golem is resting besides a pile of books from Midlam Miniatures, the pages of which are illustrated by some arcane knowledge.  One of the daemons depicted seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to the Level Three magical spirit in the Chambers of Challenge XI map....



Like so many of you, fellow Challengers, I've loved books all my life.  In addition to enjoying the hobby of painting miniature figures and wargaming (or rolepaying) with them, one thing all hobbyists seem to share is a love of reading.  And, as I've mentioned, there's always one book which sparks things off...

The first photo in this post is my book golem on a page from a classical dictionary, which my Mum rescued from a rubbish bin when she worked in a library.  Broken spined, with tattered and foxed pages, it sat on a bookshelf of my childhood home.  It looked out of place.  But to a young, impressionable, eager reader (me!) it was something unbelievably different.  I used to turn the pages, trying to understand the entries, sometimes picking out the classical names and legends.  


Something magical happened when I read the pages of that book.  And I'm sure you have your own books, fellow Challengers, from which your own book golems drifted into your impressionable minds!

Happy New Year, Challengers!


So, for the points, I'd suggest just 3 for the Book Golem (minus 2 for being small - its about 20mm) and a couple for the Midlam Miniatures books - so 5 points in total, and 20 for completing "The Golem's Haunt".



29 comments:

  1. This is just superb, Sid. I think there'll be many of us who have similar memories of 'older kid' or 'grown up' books that fascinated us. I like the idea of a spirit or golem being attached to books - it seems very fitting for any young mind brought up on Tolkien, Lewis or Carroll. What a treat!

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    1. Thanks very much, Curt! I had a feeling you'd recognise the feeling of a book golem reading over your shoulder!

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  2. Brilliant, colours are amazing

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  3. Wonderful writing, so evocative and captures the effects books have on us all (in my case Josephus’ “Jewish Wars” as a pre teen, set me on the road of an interest in history and the like ... and of course the vignette is delightful!

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    1. I love that, Simon - so very true that our book golems often use unique books, which might almost seemed tailored to our own interests. Dictionaries, classical authors, famous children's books, history tomes, White Dwarf magazines.... golems lurking on all of them ;)

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  4. Splendid vignette and a lovely idea!
    Best Iain

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  5. I haven't had you done as a Fantasy gamer, at least not in the GW kind of way Sid.
    Really dig the idea though and as ever love the execution. That semi-innocent daemonette reveals its naughty side only on closer inspection. Just like a book only reveals its content when you're engaging with it.
    My personal Book Golems definitely dwelled in the pages of The Lord Of The Rings, Märchenmond (Magic Moon for you English speakers) and, believe it or not, "Der deutsch Krieg 1866" by Theodor Fontane.

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    1. Thanks Nick! I've done a fair bit of GW Fantasy gaming... Mainly "back in the day', but there's a fair-sized river of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay running through Laarden (as you might now guess!). The daemonette is definitely from that GW Old School period!

      And I can totally believe that there's a book golem lurking in the pages of "Der deutsch Krieg 1866" by Theodor Fontane!!

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  6. Another wonderful post and vignette.

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  7. Stunning work Sidney, just great painting (and a great read)!

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  8. Awesome work and a marvelous idea.
    For myself, my book golem came in the form of Isaac Asimov. I still have a couple of his books, (new copies, the originals long since worn away to nothing) sat on my bookshelf.

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    1. Thanks Stuart.... I am sure book golems actually proliferate and multiply once their original books are worn away to dust and the pages fall out !!

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  9. This is a great idea, and really lovely execution!

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  10. I can only agree with all the above! Great story and an ingenious vignette... somewhere in Laardens bibliotheek (library) magical lights zoom around the shelves of the chained up books in the forbidden section...

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    1. Ooooooooo....not *that's* a really fun idea. A forbidden, chained section of the Great Bibliotheek of Laarden. Oh gosh, Sander.... is there a Chamber for that? ;)

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    2. Uhm with some fantasy there might just be a Chamber you could use this idea for...isn't there a Chamber with a "Spooky" or "Ghostly" theme?

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  11. Another top entry Sidney, did you have all these figs lying around pre challenge ?
    Regards KenR

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    1. Thanks Ken! I had the daemonette in the lead mountain pile for years and years, but the stack of books (from Midlam Miniatures) is new. Books, just waiting for their golem, in fact !

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  12. That’s a nice little piece!

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  13. A fantastic thoughtful and thought-provoking post and a truly wonderful vignette!

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