Taking the phrase “kill it with fire” to its natural conclusion, the Bright Wizard Siena Fuegonasus is one of Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide’s five playable classes, and developer Fatshark has released some more information about her backstory and abilities.
Siena actually starts the game as a prisoner of her fellow heroes, Witch Hunter Victor Saltzpyre and trooper Markus Kruber - wizards in Warhammer Fantasy aren’t quite as luckless as their 40K counterparts, but nobody really trusts them either.
”Blessed with a sharp intellect and a wicked sense of humour,” Fatshark writes, ”Sienna will generally pass for a well-adjusted individual, in a very loose sense. She is a wizard after all. Those who witness her in battle, however, may soon catch a glimpse of how deep her dependency on the adrenaline rush of pyromancy has taken her.
She likes burning stuff, basically, which is not a particularly bad trait to have in the middle of an invasion by the evil, ratlike Skaven. Siena uses a staff for ranged combat, hurling flame at her enemies in various configurations (one staff might blast a line of fire at enemies, while another might summon flaming spheres), and relies on a burning sword or a nasty mace for close-up work. Fatshark’s also gone into some detail on her design, which differs a little bit from your typical beardy Gandalf wannabe wizard.
”As we started looking into a backstory for our Bright Wizard,” the developers explain, ”we automatically pictured this temperamental individual as an elderly woman. Not only were we avoiding the classical silver bearded wizard but the thought of having one of the most complex and powerful members of our group of heroes be a lady with a wicked sense of humor just felt like a perfect fit. Sienna Fuegonasus had now joined the motley crew of Vermintide heroes.”
Pretty cool. Vermintide is coming to the PC and consoles later this year, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will offer some quality, grimdark fantasy violence.
