I never planned to do Aspect Warrior proxies. But I was thinking about Aeldari and Drukhari and noticed they both had units with actual wings: Swooping Hawks and Scourges.
And, given my Exodites had a bird theme, wouldn’t they have a similar unit?
So I threw together a prototype.
I was happy with the wings, which came from AoS Raptoryx. But the Guardian body was a mistake. It’s too recognisable, too Craftworldy.
So I left it for a while. And then I saw the AoS Tarantulos kit and knew I had to make some Exodite Warp Spiders too! So I had a go at both.
These were definitely much better. The Scourge body is a much better fit, and the grafting the Corvus Cabal mask onto the head works well.
The Warp Spider was pretty straightforward. I snipped the spindly bits off the Tarantulos head, added the Autarch’s spinner and popped a jump generator on the back.
The lore is as follows:
Exodite Vultures are servants of the Spiritseers, soaring high above battles to watch for fallen Exodites. Once they spot a corpse, they descend to harvest its bones, which they convey back to the tribe’s menhir so the slain Exodite’s soul can be bound into the World Spirit and saved from She Who Thirsts.
The menhirs are often hosted deep within the Maiden Worlds that host them. You would step into an enormous cave, at the centre of which would lie the enormous wraithstone menhir. Upon the stone and beside it are piled with the bones of the fallen, illuminated by torchlight and draped in cobwebs. And while most Exodites worship the world spirit, the wardens of the menhir come to identify too closely with the spiders that call these caves home. They call themselves the Silken Wardens, and go into battle draped in silks and totems of the spider, using ancient technology to hop across the battlefield and pin their enemies in terrible webs.