Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Dawnbringers' New Heroes Explained

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar adds two new heroes to the Forces of Order.

By Christian Hoffer

Warhammer: Age of Sigmar is bringing back a formidable Stormcast Eternal as the Dawnbringers Crusade continues. In a few weeks, Games Workshop will release Dawnbringers: The Long Hunt, the third book in its Dawnbringers narrative campaign books. These books push forward the narrative of Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and detail the tumultuous twin crusades that set off into two of the Mortal Realms simultaneously. The new book adds two new heroes to Sigmar's forces during the campaign, both of whom represent the forces of Order. 

The first hero is Ionus Cryptborn, a fearsome Stormcast Eternal adorned with a skull visage. Ionus Cryptborn is a Lord-Relictor, a potent warrior-priest with a mastery over lightning. While this isn't Ionus's first miniature in Age of Sigmar, his Dawnbringers miniature has him mounted on the Draconith Cthorak, a withered but still powerful draconith. In addition to being a mounted unit with flight, Cthorak provides players with several additional powers and abilities, including a flame attack that marks those its hit with a soulburned unit that wounds and prevents healing. Cthorak also prevents enemy units close to it from receiving the rally and inspiring presence commands. Of course, Ionus is also known for his ability to call lightning, and he has a powerful Lightning Tempest prayer that can blast chains of enemies with deadly lightning. 

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The other new hero is Belthanos, First Thorn of Kurnoth. Belthanos is a new Sylvaneth character, a champion of the fallen hunter god Kurnoth who rides a massive Greatsprite made of pure nature magic. By keeping an eternal hunt alive, Belthanos keeps the spark of his fallen god alive. Belthanos's most potent ability is his Kurnothi War-Horn, which grants Sylvaneth characters the ability to charge even if they ran in the same turn. Belthanos can also imbue various pieces of terrain with additional rules, a byproduct of his potent magic and a standard for the Sylvaneth.

Of course, both characters come with impressive new miniatures that can serve as centerpieces for their respective armies. Belthanos comes riding his Greatsprite and blowing into his warhorn while carrying an impressive glaive (which carries the last remnant of his dead god). Ionus, meanwhile, sits atop Cthorak, who is perched upon a piece of rubble. Ionus wields a holy mace and looks particularly terrifying given that his armor is adorned with skulls. 

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If you're looking for a new centerpiece of your Stormcast or Sylvaneth armies, or you just want to build a pretty cool miniature – both Ionus and Belthanos are available for pre-order now and will likely be available for a limited time. While neither is necessarily a good "first miniature" for the uninitiated, neither are difficult to build, although their size means that they could be more of a project to paint than a typical miniature. Not including the secondary figures, both miniatures took about two and a half hours to build but had very few "fiddly" parts that could result in major errors.  

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To check out how Ionus and Belthanos factor into Age of Sigmar, which appears to be barreling towards an explosive end to the Era of the Beasts, be sure to pick up Dawnbringers: The Long Hunt when it comes out next month.  

Note: Games Workshop provided copies of Dawnbringers: The Long Hunt and the miniatures for review purposes. 

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