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Isha Teams

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Sisters of the Thorn

Naiads

Great Sylph


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Background
As Blood Bowls popularity grew through the years more and more stadiums were erected throughout The World. With this - many many trees were felled for their construction.

The forest gods did not take kindly to this, for years forest fey materialized and were sent forth by Isha goddess of Nature and Kurnous god of the Wild Hunt to slaughter any creature that dared to set foot in these forests with bad intentions, but the numbers of foe were just too great and many forests died.

Despair gripped Isha, to see the death of any of her living beings caused much anguish. Her tears started to flow in to the mortal realm, pooling in the Moonspring Glades and flowing downstream throughout the Wood Elves domain. The trees of Athel Loren came to life and branches entwined forming an impenetrable wall in the middle of which a glade was created. The trees and the Asrai fey had constructed a giant organic Blood Bowl stadium on the border of their forest.

Creatures rarely seen by any mortal being began emerging, first Naiads; born of the water typically elemental in form took the shape of Wood Elf maidens. Next - Sisters of the Thorn emerged, although Elven in appearance they were really Fey, eternal creatures born from the roots of sacred trees. Finally a great sylph emerged from the depths of the forest, born in Isha's war aspect. Isha's tears flowed through their bodies; imbued with her protection they never seemed to injure and if they were ever slain then returning them to a sacred glade would see them reborn.

Isha was opposed to the killing of any creatures unless absolutely necessary. So now when any teams want to take wood from their forest they are first challenged to a match against the indominable Isha Fey. A team would emerge from the trees and rivers as if appearing from another world; their skin glowing white and blue, and eyes shinning with an etheral glow. Sisters of the Thorn, Naiads and Great Slyphs would appear before their opposition. If the interlopers won the match they would be presented with supplies of wood picked from the forest floor, if they lost they would be driven out empty handed.

After the forests of Athel Loren took this stand other forests started following suit. The Fey of Laurelorn were next, then Avelorn and on and on until Kurnous and Isha teams were found throughout The World, protecting their homelands and ultimately The World from destruction

Rationale

When designing this roster I wanted it to be the similar in strength to the Kurnous roster, a tier 1.5 Elf roster. Both are Wood Elf based, both represent 1 of their 2 main gods/goddesses. While Kurnous represented the frenzied war/wild hunt side of wood elves. Isha is the opposite, she is a facsimile for mother nature. So I wanted this roster to be the antithesis of Kurnous, to match their background, while still maintaining a similar "feel" in terms of roster design.

First was picking the players, the Great Sylph was an obvious big guy choice. As this is Isha's war form, just as Kurnous teams have a Kurnocervus. Then Sisters of the Thorn were also an obvious choice as they are maidens of Isha. Though in Warhammer they ride a spirit deer of sorts, that was obviously a no go for Blood Bowl, however their "character" remained. Finally I added Naiads. Which are very rare in the Warhammer world, and there isn't a great deal to go off in their background. They are essentially a water nymph. Somewhat like a dryad only water based.

It quickly became apparent I would be looking at a regen based Elf team here. Which makes things somewhat limiting. However Regen was a must because Sister regeneate when injured and if killed, they just return to the roots of the great oak and they are revived, Naiads are essentially the same, only they are returned to the a sacred body of water. Though the great information on great Sylphs doesn't explicitly state they can also regenerate it is not leap to take, as they are also Fey, rather than mortal elves.

Because Regen costs 30k in team development or 20k in some cases the Sisters stats could only really be 6347. I did decide to give them access to P access as well as the standard GA. The reasons for this were two fold. 1 - in wfb sisters are very dexterous, using ranged and magic attacks, 2 - because of how expensive regen is in a starting roster having access to P skills gives the team quick access to Leader, which for balance reasons stops the team being too much of a hard slog to get started.

Naiads though are like Dryads in their morphing/shapeshifting, they are not so tough. They are more like water elementals. So I gave them Side Step so there was a rationale through line there. I also gave them an extra point of Ma so the team can build to a reasonably quick elf team over time.

The Great Sylph starts with the standard big guy template, Wild Animal was the best fit here for a negatrait. Mighty Blow and Regen were must haves. After this I felt Side Step would be a good inclusion, as the team is meant to be more defensive than Kurnous, Side Step is very much the opposite to Frenzy of the Kurnocervus. It also stacks up nicely with the Side Step in the rest of the team as well. Disturbing Presence is there because of the banshee like shriek of the Sylph as she moves around the pitch. This deafening noise translating as a distraction felt a good fit, it could equally have been translated as Hypno Gaze, though it is not quite right looking at how the scream works in warhammer fantasy, and I also did not want this team to have that trick up their sleeve. They are already unique enough as they are.

Season 2 (2020 Edition) Changes
Gave the Great Sylph 3+ Pa, the Sisters 2+ Pa, and Naiads 3+ Pa. Spites are the same as in Treemen teams. Gave 3+ Loner to the Great Sylph so they are a slightly more attractive proposition. And reduced the cost by 5k.

Teams design by Garion and the CIBBL team.
Background and rationale by Garion.
Icons by Weresquid.
Player art by Garion.