A decade of Eastern Empire

On October 4th, 2006, Eastern Empire was quietly launched.

Originally just a section of my Scythes of the Emperor site at the time, it soon showed a need to build the growing cadre their own home.

Since then it supported my articles in White Dwarf, expanded my love of Warhammer Quest without boring Advanced Tau Tactica to death with Fantasy models, and lastly; survived two attempts of malware and outright hacking.

I have waxed and waned with my additions to the content on Eastern Empire. Adding swathes of content in spurts of interest between my Scythes of the Emperor website (18yrs old) and Advanced Tau Tactica forums, now 10 also.

I have been a good hobbyist supporting others, and I have failed when trying to support others too. Much like life, my hobby efforts sometimes don’t work out, and other times; grow popular with a life of their own. (Tael Helm anyone?)

It has been enjoyable, sometimes disappointing but on the whole, great to share what I build with others in the online community.

With a decade behind me for Tau and Warhammer, there is a vast amount of models and art to draw upon. Much of it is available in the various sections above (pulse theory, blue bood, Aeronautica cards, Creature Feature, Vehicle Designer, Galleries and so on).

So today, I’m going to hit a few high notes and more than likely miss a couple of obvious choices to review.

These, are my first Tau firewarriors, a test scheme.

Based off artwork on the cover of Inferno! short stories by Black library. I wasn’t sold yet..

Actually.. I am going to back even further..

This is a drone I designed for a disporia period advanced Imperial culture of settlers now part of an advanced human fleet traversing the outer reaches as they come back into our galaxy after the Warp cast them far out millenia before (Can you tell I read ‘Wake’ a French new wave comic?).

I created this in 1999 as part of my Tri-Sec culture, three planetary systems that supported each other and were the basis for my Imperial Guard army the Raehaniv Regulars.

So imagine my delight when an advanced alien race was announced and their drones were near facsimile of my own idea. I was sold, I had to buy them the day they came out!

Much of what folks know me for came from the period 2003-2008, where I was crafting new weapons, new shas’ui, variants of battle suits and even the well known Stealth XV (ancient precursor to the Ghost Keel haha!), including the Urban suit with the now ubiquitous “Tael Helm“.

This even period also produced ‘Happy Tau Sushi’ the bar. Which Ryuu is now a Brand Ambassador for. (read: Poster Boy)

None to soon after I was given the opportunity to feature in Australian White Dwarf 313 and 316, then Canadian inuagural issue 1.

During and after this period I went crazy with model building:

From 2008 to now it has been more sporadic as I began to focus on Warhammer Quest, travel alot and in general lose focus on the hobby for quite some time. Still, I wrote two books; Counterpoint and Wake:

At this stage, modelling wise we’re largely caught up – it has been slow since 2014 as I went sailing until 2015 and then been involved in a startup and other projects. During this time I got into Lord of the Rings models (Elves, Gondor and Goblins) after the death of Warhammer Old World really threw me for a creative spin.

The Future?

My mojo is back and I am really getting into my Warhammer Quest again. Also, with this tenth birthday year ahead; I have bought the new Firewarriors, ordered some Forgeworld suits and aim to craft a Tau Kill Team.

Goals are to complete my first Warhammer Quest campaign book to kick off my Knights Quest as well as reunite enthusiasts since Warseer and WHQst.com went down. Complete my Goblin army, which like the Tau were to my Scythes of the Emperor marines; nearly took over the project focus.

Should be a good year ahead.

Thanks for reading over the years and if you’re new – welcome and enjoy a deep catalogue of hobby goodies to be found on the site 🙂

regards,

Sebastian Stuart, aka Tael