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Not to be confused with Etto's Venators


"It's not just losing, its losing to them! They're barely even proper soldiers. No discipline, no uniform, and the worst breath you've ever smelt on anyone that wasn't an Ogre. So why do they fight like personal guards of the Emperor?"

—Count Emmerschein von Mirrenburg.[1a]

Voland's Venators is a famous mercenary band of knights who hire their members from Tileans, Imperials, and Bretonnians without distinction.[1a]

History[]

"We are Voland's Venators... The Drunken Calvary!... We cannot march, we cannot fight... What wretched knights are we!... But when we see the enemy... Our heads are very clear... We Charge straight for their baggage camp... and liberate their gears!"

—One of the favourite drinking songs of Voland's Venators (the others are too rude to print)[1a]
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Voland, titular Captain of the mercenary company.

Voland came to Tilea from somewhere within the Empire. At the time he was just one of many mercenary heroes hired by the Tileans in the never-ending civil wars that ravaged the land. He rose to prominence as leader of a band of mercenary knights called the Venators, which means "Hunters" in low Tilean. The motives of Voland and his brother knights could not have been more different from the Bretonnian or even the Empire traditions of Knighthood. They were soldiers of fortune interested only in two things, namely money and spending it. They were also expert cavalry whose thunderous charge could scatter the deepest enemy formations - something which the Tileans desperately needed, but lacked until that time.[1a]

Those who join Voland were more often than not the dispossessed, and frequently disgraced, sons of the rich and famous, owning nothing but magnificent suits of armour and well-bred warhorses. Their ambition turned mainly to fighting and money, though not necessarily in the order. Not only were they good fighters, but they were eager to practice and get even better. These young wastrels were joined by renegade knights of the Empire, and one or two of Bretonnian Knights Errant who somehow forgot their noble errands, leading to a lot of good-humoured rivalry and brawling.[1a]

Voland decreed that the Venators should abandoned all identifying family crests, and adopt new names in order to obscure their true origin. It is rumoured that Voland himself was really a disgraced son of some well known Elector Count. There were also rumours that he was none other than the bastard son of the Emperor. Voland himself never sought to affirm or contradict any of these tales, which consequently grew even more elaborate and unlikely over the years. The story that he was a shameful offspring of the Fay Enchantress of Bretonnia and an extraordinarily intelligent, one eyed pig called Eric is one of the less credible yarns spun in Voland's mysteryous past.[1a]

Voland's Venators fought their way through the Old World hiring themselves out for gold, which they spent mainly on debauched drinking sessions in which wine was consumed by the gallon. For a while they travelled east where they were hired by some of the more desperate of the Border Princes, tenaciously holding on to their tiny realms in the Orc-infested wastes. For entertainment between battles the Venators joust against each other while their companions make wagers on the outcome. It is quite common for Venators to be seriously injured or even killed in these fights, or in the drunken brawls which inevitably follow. The regiment is accompanied on the march by a long baggage train of servants, grooms, and raucous camp followers piled on top of trundling wagons loaded with casks of looted wine. The noise of their camp can be heard miles away.[1a]

Voland and his men once shocked Bretonnian chivalry by their sheer audacity of turning up at the great tourney of Couronne with their armour still tarnished with the mud and blood of Kislevite battlefields. Despite nursing gargantuan hangovers and against all expectations the Venators unhorsed the King's champion and a score of the best knights in the realm. The King of Bretonnia was so incensed that he swore Voland would never enter his realm again except in chains! Despised by Bretonnian knights and shunned by knights of the Empire, the Venators care not a fig! They have fought in many hard battles, against the worst of enemies, in places where nobler and more sober knights have never been seen.[1a]

End Times[]

During the End Times, Voland fought alongside the defenders of Middenheim against the siege of the forces of Chaos.[3]

Appearance[]

The regiment wears burnished brass armour and no heraldry except a V sign, while the harness of the mounts has a showy crest.[1a]

Notes[]

*1: Voland's lore doesn't specify what emperor he could be the son of, but due to a rumors about a lost Karl Franz son in The Enemy Within Campaign, he is more probable than his father Luitpold I.

Miniatures[]

Sources[]

Gallery[]

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