How does Aranessa Saltspite get and control undead zombie units?

[Googley Eye'd Bastard]

As I understand it Arenessa is dispite her heavy mutations still a human and very much alive and undead are controlled through magic by vampires or necromancers, does she work like a necromancer or how does that work?

[Zoie Shales]

Her vampiric first mates recruit for her, as far as I know, the Sartosa Free Company reluctantly fight alongside the undead.

[Cacomistle]

You know how there is a loyalty mechanic? Think of it this way. Through some methods equivalent to the loyalty mechanic, she secured the loyalty of some vampire first mate who summons all her undead for her.

[Harmania]

From what I understand; within her lore, she's a mutant who's considered, but never confirmed by anyone in or out of universe, to be close to Manaan. It was somewhat decently suggested that she was in fact associated with him, as when she was tossed into the ocean as a baby, she managed to not immediately drown, starve to death, or the like.

In-game, CA ran off with that idea, and has her working directly under Manaan, who's making her work with the navally undead, to defeat the Dreadfleet and the like.

So, god+vampires, is how she does it. She herself is a mutant pirate.

[Fuzzybeard3]

Originally posted by Dio Brando:

As I understand it Arenessa is dispite her heavy mutations still a human and very much alive and undead are controlled through magic by vampires or necromancers, does she work like a necromancer or how does that work?

Also she has no necromantic ability which is something not just granted to you in established lore by a god, and manaan cannont just grant people necromamncy that's just and excuse there's no evidence in the lore to prove that. Saltspite was never known to wield the winds of magic and especially dark magic no question about that. And we know in established lore sartosans are major enemies of the undead so CA's excuse for sartosan's working along side undead is weak. So to me it's quite obvious she was forced into the dlc along with sartosa. Even though saltspite belongs in a dogs of war/southern realms faction. CA is just making lore breaking excuses at this point as there was enough lore for 4 actual undead/necromantic characters. And considering CA's weak reasons for the made up character again no more excuses for the lore breaking of saltspites character.

[Bladiumdragon]

Originally posted by Fuzzybeard3:

Originally posted by Dio Brando:

As I understand it Arenessa is dispite her heavy mutations still a human and very much alive and undead are controlled through magic by vampires or necromancers, does she work like a necromancer or how does that work?

Also she has no necromantic ability which is something not just granted to you in established lore by a god, and manaan cannont just grant people necromamncy that's just and excuse there's no evidence in the lore to prove that. Saltspite was never known to wield the winds of magic and especially dark magic no question about that. And we know in established lore sartosans are major enemies of the undead so CA's excuse for sartosan's working along side undead is weak. So to me it's quite obvious she was forced into the dlc along with sartosa. Even though saltspite belongs in a dogs of war/southern realms faction. CA is just making lore breaking excuses at this point as there was enough lore for 4 actual undead/necromantic characters. And considering CA's weak reasons for the made up character again no more excuses for the lore breaking of saltspites character.

Really? Oh no...

[flyons_gary]

I mean the divine mandate of a god isnt exactly a weak reason for her to be getting dominion of all that dives into the sea through extended means. Theres actually plenty of ways she could gradually gain control over lots of nautical artifacts,creatures and etc with a mandate like that and some mystical support.
You might blame Games Workshop for not actually going more into Manaan but they are really weird with Gods in general soooo....

[Gigiauz]

CA wanted to include at all costs Aranessa in the DLC and has not the slightest concern to guarantee her a faction and a background in line with the tradition of warhammer and the latest events of the Dreadfleet novel.
There are no plausible excuses (not even by Andy Hall himself) that can justify the presence of Aranessa as a leader of a faction called Sartosa Free Company and the total absence of a proper (living) Sartosan army roster / buildings chains.
They turned in their favor a lore not completely known to all and for pure convenience they quickly delivered Aranessa and the living Sartosa in the hands of these "vampire first mates" ...an easy and not very honest escape route.... I'm happy for those who believe this farce ... I cannot do it ... sorry

"How to quickly pack a "potentially fabulous DLC" and push it down into the fans' throat."

[Ruinae Retroque Rursus]

Don't worry, for all the hate on Cylostra & Aranessa we've still got two very nice lords of Luthor and Harkon.

Two lords isn't a lot, but hey, that's what you'd get from the Wood Elf DLC back in the day.

[Mactalon]

Originally posted by Gigiauz:

CA wanted to include at all costs Aranessa in the DLC and has not the slightest concern to guarantee her a faction and a background in line with the tradition of warhammer and the latest events of the Dreadfleet novel.
There are no plausible excuses (not even by Andy Hall himself) that can justify the presence of Aranessa as a leader of a faction called Sartosa Free Company and the total absence of a proper (living) Sartosan army roster / buildings chains.
They turned in their favor a lore not completely known to all and for pure convenience they quickly delivered Aranessa and the living Sartosa in the hands of these "vampire first mates" ...an easy and not very honest escape route.... I'm happy for those who believe this farce ... I cannot do it ... sorry

"How to quickly pack a "potentially fabulous DLC" and push it down into the fans' throat."

I mean, he did use the lore that exists for her to justify it, plus he helped make it in the first place. It makes exactly as much sense as any of the supposedly lore-breaking stuff Dreadfleet did, and just solidified her previously open background as either a direct descendant or pawn of an already rather volatile sea god.
I'm not sure what's dishonest about it, the pirate content for Warhammer has always been some of the crazier stuff and already had characters who weren't vampires/necromancers raising and fighting alongside the undead through artefacts and alliances. This really isn't anything new.

[Fuzzybeard3]

Originally posted by Mactalon:

Originally posted by Gigiauz:

CA wanted to include at all costs Aranessa in the DLC and has not the slightest concern to guarantee her a faction and a background in line with the tradition of warhammer and the latest events of the Dreadfleet novel.
There are no plausible excuses (not even by Andy Hall himself) that can justify the presence of Aranessa as a leader of a faction called Sartosa Free Company and the total absence of a proper (living) Sartosan army roster / buildings chains.
They turned in their favor a lore not completely known to all and for pure convenience they quickly delivered Aranessa and the living Sartosa in the hands of these "vampire first mates" ...an easy and not very honest escape route.... I'm happy for those who believe this farce ... I cannot do it ... sorry

"How to quickly pack a "potentially fabulous DLC" and push it down into the fans' throat."

I mean, he did use the lore that exists for her to justify it, plus he helped make it in the first place. It makes exactly as much sense as any of the supposedly lore-breaking stuff Dreadfleet did, and just solidified her previously open background as either a direct descendant or pawn of an already rather volatile sea god.
I'm not sure what's dishonest about it, the pirate content for Warhammer has always been some of the crazier stuff and already had characters who weren't vampires/necromancers raising and fighting alongside the undead through artefacts and alliances. This really isn't anything new.

Sea god does not equal command undead there is no lore behind it. And no just because andy is part of ca does not make the lore breaking okay thats kinda weak. Saltspite in none of her lore is an ally of undead. Shes a sartosan pirate so we go by what a sartosan pirate does. Your also forgetting the mountain of lore citing sartosa being major enemies of undead. Also what alliances are you talking about Sylvania for example is an outlier and different from sartosa so it's like comparing apples to oranges. Also artefacts if your talking about ebony skulls then no that is calling harkon and his servants to your aid and also dams your soul to harkon. Not really seeing the logic here.

[victorlopezdelosmozogomez]

CA said that she made a pact with the vamps

[Mactalon]

Originally posted by Fuzzybeard3:

Sea god does not equal command undead there is no lore behind it. And no just because andy is part of ca does not make the lore breaking okay thats kinda weak. Saltspite in none of her lore is an ally of undead. Shes a sartosan pirate so we go by what a sartosan pirate does. Your also forgetting the mountain of lore citing sartosa being major enemies of undead. Also what alliances are you talking about Sylvania for example is an outlier and different from sartosa so it's like comparing apples to oranges. Also artefacts if your talking about ebony skulls then no that is calling harkon and his servants to your aid and also dams your soul to harkon. Not really seeing the logic here.

I didn't say that the sea god gave her power to command the undead, just that her motivations are based on what he instructs her to do, and also gives her a strong power base of her own to make alliances with the Vampires that she's now using in her crew.
Why does the fact that she's not done it before rule out the possibility of her doing it now? There are many characters in the lore who have both fought against and allied with certain races depending on circumstances.
She fought against Noctilus, that doesn't mean it's impossible for her to ally with other Vampires now, especially if a god tells her to. She's got that god backing her and a predeliction for being incredibly cruel and violent, power and cruelty are two things a lesser vampire can respect. Stranger alliances have happened (again, Dreadfleet being a prime example of multiple occurances of this)

Okay, she's a Sartosan pirate, let's talk about that. One of Sartosa's longest residents was Neferata - the original Vampire. She made a deal to live there without raiding the city, but obviously her network of vampires and spies would've been living there too. Again, there are times when the Sartosans fight the undead and times when they ally or have arrangements with them.

Yes the ebony artefacts are one example but if it's possible there it's certainly possible for the same power to exist or be created in other artefacts, it doesn't all have to be a monkey's paw. On top of that, the living who do use those skulls don't know they're enthralling themselves to Harkon, but they are making the willing choice to fight alongside the undead. My point is that there are precedents for everything occuring here in the lore already.

You seem to think that the world and Sartosa are static entities that can only do one thing, but that sort of defeats the purpose of them in the first place. Sartosa is an example of exactly how strange and changeable Warhammer gets, the city has had multiple leaders, groups and iterations of who and what lives there and what they want. The setting is much more complex than you seem to give it credit for.

And yeah, Andy being part of the creation does actually give it some decent credence since if anyone understands the malleability of the lore, especially with some of the more ridiculous stuff like the pirates, it's going to be him. I generally will trust the judgement of one of the original writers on this kind of thing.

[Gigiauz]

An interesting point of view, perhaps a bit 'too broad and benevolent. Your thinking is certainly much more structured than the developers one. However, I would like to remind you that Lore is static by definition. No matter how little Lore exists for Aranessa and Sartosa, it matters if you change this little and fragmented Lore to make your life easier. According to your statement then it is permissible to change the Lore or invent a new Lore ... We are talking about a game that deals with Warhammer Fantasy Battle or a modern reworking of warhammer full of the most recent commonplaces?
Cmon... This is not a Disney movie

[Iriath Zhul]

I will be totally happy with Aranessa's vampire alliance IF she has a smaller diplomatic penalty with Living factions on account of how she is opposed to the Dreadfleet.

[Cacomistle]

The question of how she has undead is easy to answer. She recruited some vampire to raise them. Considering the game already has a loyalty mechanic with many plausible actions she could have taken to secure the first vampires loyalty doesn't seem lore breaking at all. Unless you call the whole loyalty mechanic into question.

The question of why seems a bit strange. From the little I know about her, it doesn't seem like she'd have much motivation. There are reasons people have listed above, it's just whether you find those believable.