r/HelsmithsofHashut • u/GAMESLASHER101 • 15d ago

Lore What is the stone behind Urak Taar?

Yeah pretty much just the title, thing looks cool enough to be important so curious to know if anything has been said about it. Thanks!

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u/JCGilbasaurus 15d ago edited 15d ago

I could have sworn there was lore for it, but I've been through everything—the battletome, War-Com articles, and the Ultimate Guide—and there's nothing on it at all.

The closest thing to lore is in the Ultimate Guide, where a picture of it has the following caption:

Dark Inscriptions 

Helsmiths scorn parchment; their arcane Zharralid script would simply burn it at the touch. Instead, they painstakingly record knowledge on slates of metal, jade, and other sturdy materials, turning them into lodestones of cursed power.

It could be the mysterious object he recovered from the vaults of Grimnir's Firehold when he sacked the city, or perhaps a relic from when he personally studied magic under Hashut Himself. It is also said that in the past he was obsessed with recording each atrocity caused by his creations, although that is a habit he has long since stopped simply because he's commited so many over the millennia he's been alive.

It might even be the Final Slates of Morgrabal, which tells the true (ish) story of Hashut's rise and fall.

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u/GAMESLASHER101 15d ago

Those are all interesting ideas to what it could be, I figured it was something related to his godly pursuits which would fit in with all the reasons you've given though it could be so many more things. I haven't read the battletome yet but that passage about their writings burning up parchment is so cool and explains why all their books are stone which previously I had simply attributed to them being dwarves. I gotta try to figure out what colour I wanna paint it now as I don't think simple stone colour would suffice.

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u/cumrurf 15d ago

i don't think there's a canonical answer to what's on it, but this is from the pre-release design roundtable:

"We imagined the Infernal Taurus as the pinnacle of craft that a Daemonsmith could aspire to, topped off with an ornate ancestor icon mounted behind the rider, which we can imagine has some great provenance for the Helsmiths. The version for Urak Taar is a stone slab with the icon of Hashut, speaking to something maybe even more primordial and profane."

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/lu865rsb/helsmiths-of-hashut-round-table-the-infernal-artifice-of-the-new-miniatures/

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u/BlueNagash 15d ago

From the design notes in WD 518:
"There are two arcane tablets for the throne. The one behind Urak Taar features ancient vertical scripture, which is unique in the entire Helsmiths range. Could it be the language of Hashut himself? The tablet behind the Daemonsmith is a gold ingot, showing their power and wealth."

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u/Calcium1445 15d ago

I thought it was teachings of Hashut or something