Battle Yak Sketchbook | Worldbuilding (Patreon)

Hey folks! The latest Battle Pack, the Draugyr Soulreavers, has been released (now with pre-supported files available!) and work has begun on the upcoming November Battle Pack, the second release of the Sentinels of Primus faction. Plus, it's Halloween this month, making it the most wonderful time of the year! So, October's looking pretty good so far!

Now, typically with these sketchbook posts, I show some sketches of future figures that I plan to sculpt (some of which will be coming pretty soon), but this time I want to share something a little different.

When I started making monthly Battle Packs, I only had a vague idea of the various characters and creatures existing in some nondescript classic fantasy world - some place with orcs, goblins, dwarves, you know the kind. With every release and lore post, this world gradually started taking a more distinct and concrete form. I got to scribbling the odd note about place names, as well as excavating some older gaming concepts from the deepest darkest archives of my writing folder, and built them together into the current setting for the majority of Battle Yak Miniatures factions.

And here it is: The world of Jerra.

It's still just a rough outline right now, but this is the world that has grown up around the bug-elves and shark people and scarecrow jerks that I've been sculpting over the past year and a half. And if you've been following the lore posts I've made, you might recognize a name or two shown on this map.

Most of the action so far has taken place on the eastern continent of Zurvan, named for an eldarch deity worshiped in the ancient ages before their great civilization fell. The Bloodgreed Makoragh are a successful mercenary clan of makoragh, shark-like humanoids who inhabit the lawless port town of Bloodgreed Bay. North is the great metropolis of Guildenstern, whose undercity hides the laboratories of the Blightergast Reanimators, mad scientists striving to master the art of necrotechnology.

The incredibly hostile southern jungles of Phyllarc conceal the enigmatic Primal Heart Eldarch, whose life-shaping magic has made them into deadly living weapons. Near more civilized and traveled lands north of Phyllarc, the swamplands known as the Cankerfen have been expanding with every passing year, the tribes of the Cankerfen Boggrots presenting a growing danger to trade between the inhabitants of the realms of Corym and Hyndland.

Hyndland boasts rugged plains and ancient forests, and are the widely settled ancestral lands of the hynd race, the humans of the setting. Many remote settlements and towns have recently suffered from the ravages of the Harrowhaunt Fryghtmares, creatures of fear and dark magic. Greater kingdoms are also found throughout the region, including proud Nostalia, a realm under the protection of the frightful but chivalrous Knighthaunts of Necronnia, ghostly undead that guard their homeland from beyond the grave.

The separatist magnai of the Frostforge Reclaimers, leaving behind their former homeland in the mountainous Corym region, have journeyed to the forbidding realm of Uhmber, a place of frosty mountain peaks and evergreen forests. Once heavily populated by the magnai race in their heyday, the realm was largely abandoned after centuries of warring with other races. Now its many mountain holds are infested with numerous threats, including the treasure-hungry Drakkisan Wyrmspawn, draconic monstrosities always seeking more wealth to grow their progenitor's great hoard. Also infesting the deeps are the Moulderbloom Fungaren, mobile fungal entities guided by a truly alien intellect. And these are only a few of the dangers that lurk below the surface of Jerra...

Far to the north, in the perpetually frozen land of Nul, the Dynasty of Nul have built their undying kingdom through the dark art of necrotechnology. Somewhere beneath the ice in the frigid and lightless seas lies the sunken realm of Draugheim, where the Draugyr Soulreavers drag the souls of their victims to nightmarish fates.

On the eastern edge of the continent, in the land of Whitecrown, the reclusive Bloodborn Eldarch have established their kingdom of Scarletmoon, where they seek to rediscover the secrets of their fallen ancestors. Infesting forests across the north are the savage beastfolk of the Satynath Wyldhunt, ever on the prowl for unwary flesh to sacrifice in profane rituals.

The inner region contains the arid and rocky Veskarn Steppes, where the skies are growing darker with the smoke of industry as the Ironskarn War-Horde readies for a campaign of conquest and destruction. Somewhere in the sprawling poisoned marshes bordering the Steppes, the Skitterkin capitol of Blighthaven can be found, where the mechanically-inclined Clan Wyzerd plots and schemes to elevate themselves above the other clans of their kind.

These are only a few of Jerra's lands and inhabitants. Yet to be explored are the warring beastfolk tribes of Rakai, the aloof races of the Zemzillit archipelago, the living machines of Guildenstern striving for freedom, the horrors of sunken Octogoplis, the western continent of Dormin and its many empires and monsters, mysterious Mandalia and dread Iznadnost...

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Suffice to say, the world of Jerra is host to a vast number of races, factions, and realms, and only a handful have been revealed so far. Future Battle Packs will expand on the setting and develop the lore further, revealing new races and new lands, as well as beginning a growing narrative of interactions and conflicts between the many factions that will determine the very fate of Jerra itself.

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I hope you enjoyed this look into the world of Battle Yak Miniatures! There's much more still to come!

In the meantime, check out the latest releases and sales on the online store - the Cankerfen Boggrots are on sale for a few more days! And be sure to check out the Halloween Sale coming soon, featuring all the spookiest Battle Yak Miniatures sets! Halloween forever hundred years!

Drop by the Official Battle Yak Discord to see the latest news and chat with the community about what kinds of projects you'd like to see next! You can also follow Battle Yak Miniatures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram!