I never wanted this video to end.

Your script writing is well developed and masterful (no one needs me to say this to understand). Purposeful, non-obtrusive, and most importantly welcoming to all that wish to follow Alice down the mini rabbit hole of miniature painting. Thank you for your authentic voice in our community.

Outstanding. I was going to make a video covering this too, but I think you've done a much better job than I would have! Haha

Beautiful. A really important conversation to have and I'm glad you started it in such an eloquent way. I think as a result of countercultures in our hobby like the 28 community and the kitbash scene we're starting to see some influence on Games Workshop's design direction and I think that demonstrates the power of social media. Each era of miniatures comes with pros and cons, but I'm excited that now every model is beautifully sculpted and uniquely posed (at minimum), not just the special ones like days past. I always look back fondly at characterful miniatures I loved but somehow forget what it was also like to paint the same 3 miniatures 100 times because your army couldn't just be cool monsters, it also had to be blocks of boring spearmen. I miss multipart kits but we are getting more of that as GW is starting to find their way with their new digital sculpting methods. Hopefully, we will see more inclusive diversity soon, I imagine the production times for miniatures at GW scale is quite long, possibly years ahead, and that's why we don't have more inclusive options already. Let's all make a ruckus until it happens though, its gotta happen.

The edit on this is incredible. In fact, all your edits are! I really love the de-saturated look to this video in particular.

This was a beautiful video essay. In a world filled with jump cuts (of which I am guilty of contributing to), your pacing is really refreshing. Also: I really hope we see the day when we can see customizable, printable, armies like you mentioned at the very end. The closest thing we have right now are the character creators like HeroForge, but GW has a really beautiful aesthetic that I love. Maybe one day!

That book shop looks incredible.

Also a bit sad in the elf stuff is that the old Warhammer fantasy high and wood elves generally had quite some women that weren't very different from the men as rank and file troops

Loved this so much! I think that a good rapresentation of a non-creeply oversexualized female body is Shadowsun from the Tau empire, she's just a dope commander with a regular battlesuit and blasters

I was not expecting this when I saw the title.This is a very interesting video where you raise questions, speak your thoughts without ever giving objective answers, mainly because there is none. I should have been bored, watching this man speaking slowly, this man who loves books and listen to old music. Yet, I didn't check the time once. Excellent work.

It is just more interesting to create miniatures and paint them when there is variety.

Great video! Regarding the Lumineth; one thing most people don't notice (unless they've built the army themselves) is every unit includes both males and females. The differences are very subtle (thinner forearms, calves, softer faces), and there is no obvious distinguishing elements (breast armor, high heals) which is probably why you missed this in the first place. I'm sure you'll agree this is actually a great step forwards for GW and miniatures in general; male and female minis in the same unit using the same, practical, and appropriate armor & equipment! In fact, they did such a good job of it that most people don't even realize it to give them credit haha! As always, appreciate the fantastic content!

Tbf they have to sculpt exaggerated proportions if they want them to be readable on the table - it comes with the top-down perspective and the small scale. More diverse body types would obviously lead to fewer modular kit-bashable kits and GW cares a lot about producing good models. (Plus they probably don't want to take the hit in sales from Sigmar taking the best warriors and reforging them into the bodies of 21-century couch-potatoes instead of bodies suitable to them and their craft)

The fact you featured my favourite fantasy book of all time, The Deed of Paksenarrion, has a like, subscribe and comment from me.

We have Tolkein miniatures, we have comic book miniatures, we even have (literal) Game of Thrones miniatures. When will we finally see Gormenghast miniatures?

I was brought to this video by a tweet from the talented Dana Howl, and I am very happy I stopped by. Though I am not a Warhammer player (mostly D&D and other ttrpgs) the message rings true through much of this genre. I very much enjoyed the video from start to finish. A very creative and humorous approach bringing up a topic that so many (at least the vocal ones) seem to want to shoot down before any discussion can be had. Bravo, sir! Look forward to perusing your other works much like you did the books in that enchanting shop. 🖌🍚

You are a treasure. Also my favorite author is "hidden" in this video. So, nine Fingers up

Your conversations & discussions are a bit of intelligent sanity in an increasingly crazy hobby. Thank you!

The Hobbit, legend of a book. Warm and best wishes as always :)

I absolutely love these videos and really appreciate the time you take over them. Brilliant.

I want a bookshelf tour because I recognize some of my favorites.

Fantastic video! I too wanted it to keep going. It was like a good book you want to read again. Thanks brother

This has got to be one of my favorite videos that you have done. Most enjoyable!

Man I love your story telling. You inspired me to return making KZfaq videos, in a different light. Cheers brother.

Another great video. As a side note, I love your grading.

Amazing video! We do need a lot more discussions on diversity and representation in all aspects of our hobby and I really appreciate both your video production as well as your thoughts on the matter. The male gaze is way to prevalent in both sculpting and artwork in the hobby and as a newbie 3D-printer enthusiast and miniature painter I am a bit sad to se how this also dominates in the world of sculpting made for 3D-printing. (Måste även få tillägga hur kul jag tycker det är att ha så fantastiskt duktiga svenska producenter som du och Squidmar här på youtube! Hoppas få se många fler av dina produktioner framöver🙏)

Found this through Miniac… that intro had me subscribing right away! 🤣 splendid

Thank you for this video. Our hobby would benefit greatly with more diversity and inclusivity. Keep up the amazing work.

Loved the video, Didn't expect deep thought at 7am but I'll take it.

I think what you are talking about here is some of the reason why the game Mordheim is still so popular. There is a culture of heavily kitbashing the models for ones warband, the factions to pick from are quite dominated by mercenaries, humans that are poor but come to a very dangerous place in search of riches. Mordheim is a game where there is space for lots of diversity. As for warhammer 40k or age of sigmar armies, I believe the solution is 3d printing and kitbashing to bring more variety into ones army. (like I have seen you do a lot with your stormcast)

Thanks for taking the obvious time, thought, and care it required to make this video essay.

Very interesting perspective, delivered in a calm and reasonable way. I thoroughly enjoyed this over my after dinner coffee! You definitely deserve double the amount of subs good Sir...

Simply Beautiful Alex. Thank you for your reflections my friend.

Great ideas and thoughts. A lot of interesting things to think about and some good takeaways. Really always a good thing to step back and analyze the hobbies we engage in so we take the good and remember to separate the "bad" out before we hop back in.

What a wonderfully relaxing, thoughtful and enjoyable video. I also look forward to the inevitable increase in customizability that more affordable 3D printing will bring. It's also exciting that it will likely open doors for amateur artists to see their work in the hands of happy gamers (or just painters) without a massive investment in equipment. Also, I now want to visit Stockholm! The local tourism board should put you on the payroll.

Beautifully video. Always a pleasure to watch. The effort you put into all the B roll stuff really elevates what you're doing.

Such a well made video. Thanks for adding your very well-thought-out contribution to this important discussion.

Yes! I really enjoy reading about diverse characters of every gender in fantasy and scifi books. I would love to have more individuality in my army... but I guess we already had am exchange about our shared wonder at the size (and price) of female Sigmarine heads.

Éowyn: "Am I a joke to you" Great video! I honestly believe that Tolkien didn't limit the females on his world in being symbols of purity. Anyway the video was quite interesting I really enjoyed your thought process

Great insight here. One of the minor reasons I've never gotten into wargames is that lack of diversity - when everything looks the same, it get so boring. Some games (Such as DGS Games Freeblades) have much more gender diversity without necessarily making it sexualized.

Tbf once you play FO:NV there's little else that beats it

Thank you for another wonderful video, your work is very inspiring.

This is perfect (and I like the books in shot,Gormenghast an all time fave). Your channel is one of the best!

Interesting video, thanks. The "kalos kagathos", the beautiful and good, is an old problem. But beyond heroes, I think the inescapable problem of miniature wargames is militarism itself: if we are only portraying armies and soldiers, then the "uniform" prevails, with little space for diversity, since that uniformity - of clothes, bodies and minds - is key ideology for any chauvinism and imperialism. If we could move to portrayals of civilian life, or of resistance struggles or at least of moral grey areas, then a universe of possibilities opens up.

dude, you HAVE to make audiobooks, ur voice is terrific

I get a real sense of place when watching your videos, love it. :)

That's a really fantastic video essay. These kinds of criticisms do have a pedigree -- refer to Michael Moorcock's essay "Epic Pooh" (1978) for example, found easily online via a search.

This might sound strange, but the lumineth does have regular women on every unit, they are just not particularly different. If you look closely they do have female faces, they just don't have obvious female features. GW actually supports almost equal amounts of females and males on their elf factions in both AOS and 40K.

For female miniatures, the Frostgrave Wizards 2 and Frostgrave Soldiers 2 are really good. They are wizards and soldiers that happen to be female, they wear clothing that makes sense for adventuring, have normal equipment and have diverse sculpts in their heads (not only young caucasian). I would like to have more variety like that, and really hope there'll be Stargrave mercenaries 2 or something similar.

I recently purchased a 3d printer, and it's amazing how much it opens up the hobby. There's a lot of variety to comb through and niches to dive into in regards to model subject matter and aesthetic styling. I believe that we'll see something of a cultural renaissance within the hobby culture as more people get their hands on the devices. The technology is a fantastic enabler.

loved this video, defs gonna be trying to customise my miniatures to be more diverse when i get around to working on my backlog lol

Great job sir! Will look forward to the next 20 videos just to get another one like this!

This is the most swedish video ever. Half of the Lumineth Vanari Wardens and Auralan Sentinels are female (You can see the difference in the faces and torso build). Ellania is also female. It is the same with the dawnriders, even the unit leader can be built as either a female or male. So your research is not well researched when you say that there is one lady in the lumineth model range the "Scinari Cathallar". The Scinari Cathallar is one of the models that truly stands out in the Lumineth range, the rest of them are just white armor clad elves.

That was a wonderful journey through your inner thoughts and dialogue, like a beautiful mosaic being laid in front for me to marvel at it's construction. Bravo. Ona side note, can I get audiobooks with you reading them, pretty please haha

Fantastic video, it's nice to hear someone talking so well about this subject and your cinematography just keeps getting better!

Great video, you have addressed this often divisive issue in very mature and well.. inclusive.. way. Well done! I decided not to mention it in the video at the time, but when I converted my traitor guardsmen from Blackstone Fortress, I noticed that almost half of them were probably meant to be women. They are slightly more slender and have slightly smaller hands and a different body stance, but otherwise do not seem any more overtly female than any soldier in full gear would.

A lot of nuance on this topic that I think you covered well, and honing in on the core point of "more people to share our hobby with" I think was a good one. It's simple, and not really something people can fundamentally argue with. Also, once again, stellar production. Unfortunately, a lot of your gripes in terms of design have their roots in very archaic, and sometimes practical places, which makes it tougher to nudge things in the right direction. The idea of an army having a clearly defined 'silhouette' is something that a lot of designers still have drilled into them early on in their careers. It's something that is important in video game design and those roots exist very much on the tabletop side. Other things to consider (or were, the tech has changed a lot in the last decade which is great) are the physical construction limitations of moulding plastic. Often-times really cool designs simply could not be executed in the clunky tech of the day, wether they be metal, then resin, then plastic. Those design philiosophies unfortunately still linger in a lot of companies, even though their excuses are very much run out. Tech has come to the point (especially on the injected moulded plastic side) where much more complex and intricate models can be the norm. I think this oldschool mentality - coupled with your accurate pop culture assessment is why we are finding GW lagging behind a lot of other companies on this front. The advent of 3D printing Patreon (and 3D printing in general) will hopefully be the kick in the ass they need to start branching out and addressing the market that is slowing starting to become more and more prevalent. Here is hoping!

Once again I am simultaneously saddened and encouraged that such a bookstore exists - even if it is somewhere I am likely to never visit (sad), at least it is there for others to visit. And that they have coffee...yeah I can see the time warp aspect. Excellent vid as always, I envy your editing talent and skill. Cheers!

Our favorite mini painters' mini painter :) Recently discovered your channel and I am hooked, in the most positive sense possible.

I find this a really interesting issue since I'm addicted to making every model in my armies unique through conversions. I would absolutely love the customization you mentioned at the end where you can choose which features you want on your models. So, I'm right there with you wanting the ability to build more diverse armies, but with so many models and factions, the logistics of providing diverse options for each would be mind boggling. Until 3D printing advances to the point where prints don't require cleanup to look like GW-quality models, I don't see them making too many 1st-party options aside from maybe head swaps. Even then, all of the options would still have to be sculpted, which in and of itself is a daunting task. All in all, very interesting discussion. I hope GW finds satisfying solutions to this since having more models is never a bad thing :)

Thank you for an extremely interesting video! Very thought-provoking. You put into words whats been bothering med since I first felt happy when found a big bellied scheriff miniature for a TTRPG-campaig but felt dissepointed when there were less diversity among the rest. For example no female models without the same thin body-type. On another note: I recently found your channel and love it! The format, what you do and talk about is so interesting. Fortsätt med det du gör!

Great video. Perhaps your Chaos Champion with a smile is Khagra, of the Underworlds warband Khagra's Ravagers. Her face is a wonderfully sculpted arrogant sneer, the expression of a woman that knows she won't even break a sweat as she whams you with her mace. I love her very much.

I used to live in Stockholm great place awesome to see more Swedish channels!

Great video! I really appreciate you going out of your way to make such thought out commentary, and I really hope more youtubers do the same!

interesting.. just saw a video from Eons of Battle that had similiar take on using books (art books, codex) to come up with paint schemes

I believe the storm cast eternal and the fact that they come back from the dead to living again is something reminiscent of a game that came out to slightly before the fantasy warhammer became revamped, that game being destiny. There are characters by the name of guardian that all dresses suits of armor, science fiction of course, taking lots of notes for more hammer 40k. Every player in the game is a resurrected person.

Hero Forge offers the ability to create your bespoke army with an expansive and still growing offering of options for bodies both human and non. Like a video game character creator session, you have at your fingertips sliders to make your minis shorter or taller, thinned not thickened, superhuman or super average, with as few or as many clothes, armours, weapons, chicken legs, coffee cups or wings that your minis wish to take into battle or 28mm office block. The results must be 3D printed, and you can use their printing service or print your own. While this kind of customization may not fly with some well established (and litigious) companies, there are plenty of mini-agnostic games that can take advantage this kind of offering. We will still see some cheesecake and beefcake armies, bit we will also see some middle aged and rotund middle management defenders of the space lanes or plunderers of the dungeons deep. We are moving away from the few sculptors and thier briefs to sell mixes of plastic based on cleavage or strongman bulk, and into the wilds of imagination from hundreds of thousands of people who want to bring thier ragtag crews inspired by generations of tales and stories told not of a grim dark future, but of that cool thing that Bob did last year on a skateboard while swinging a cricket bat or Julie from Finance's tale of her paint ball game win from 5 years ago that she tells at the Christmas party every year. As you say, this is an emerging market, but it exists, and with services like Patreon, it is getting bigger. I'm a little surprised you don't have a 3D printed miniature of yourself.

I hope it doesn't sound stupid, but one of my favorite minis GW has ever made is Fecula Flyblown from Warhammer Underworlds, as she is the polar opposite of the stereotype I hate of slim, "pure," barely-wearing anything, delicate, young, sexily-posed female sculpt I've come to hate in the hobby. as the game is a deckbuilder I actually have a lot of cards to make her stronger, tougher, and she really gets the job done quite nicely. And she's blessed by Nurgle so that's also a plus. I really loved the video and I'll make sure to share it with my fellow players. I am glad to have found your channel like this!

Your videos have always been good, but this is next level

Thank you so much for making this video. Representation matters.

I'm with you on this one. I remember painting a WH40K sergeant with a dark skin tone (this is the late 90 Partha Paint days), and everyone at the store was amazed at the idea - and this was in a country where we aren't exactly blond with golden hair. Interestingly, my daughter (10) is a lot more interested in miniature games than my son (8). We have painted a few skeletons from AoS and a few non-affiliated models (monsters, animals, "normal" people). She's in love with the idea of a female Necron overlord - can't really mess that up since those beings are spooky scary metal space skeletons. Where I'm getting at is that by the time she's 13 she's likely to be fed up with the lack of "good" way to address this unless something shifts. Sisters of Battle may do it - but who knows, maybe she'll just like monsters and creatures that roam the land without any gender luggage, let alone any of the other diversity issues. The most recent depressing thing I heard about this is that a very powerful and severe looking Sister of Battle model "looked like a man". So yes - please more options to build a diverse universe!

I see Knife of Dreams. I'm rereading Wheel of time right now. My favorite fantasy series ever.

Greetings 52, I've previously thought a lot about the topic of your video: the questions of diversity, politics and aesthetics in miniatures wargaming. While the 2 former topics can be discussed with no end, I would like to share my thoughts on the phenomenon of warhammer aesthetics that you discuss in the video since my thoughts on this subject are more concise and formed. I am a sculptor of 80's nostalgia minis so this matter is of significant semi-professional importance. My explanation for the state of warhammer aesthetics is social and abstractly economic. back in the olde days of yore nerding communities were largely isolated. Comic books, video games, manga/anime, D&D/warhammer were very separated fandoms. Prior to social media and the internet these communities largely only interacted with similarly interested folk in their communities and larger ties within these communities were maintained with newsletters, fan magazines, and announced conventions. Consequently, each community developed their own aesthetics in isolation. What many people don't realize is that each aesthetic community communicates in different ways - for example, what poses come naturally to a comic book artist in the 80's are very different than the poses used by manga artists. Effectively, these different groups created their own aesthetic "languages" - different poses mean different things, motion is telegraphed in different ways, bodies are portrayed with different default proportions, how form is communicated is different too. Warhammer in its early days was influenced to a large degree by LotR which is very high fantasy as you noted, but more so by sword and sorcery novels (think Conan the barbarian, Moorcock, Terry Prachet etc), and even sci fi like Dune. So much of their aesthetic draw comes from the early cover artwork from these books and the severe limitations of their small budgets at the time - hence the early artwork was largely ink on paper doodles from the staff. Now, we have to talk about the internet. The internet started to open up these isolated nerding communities. This resulted in increasing awareness between communities and an increasing cross-pollination. Whereas before one might go to a comic book convention, these days one can go to a "convention" and expect all the nerdy things to be there. This means that the markets for the different products have changed - warhammer is no longer marketed to the niche wargaming community. It's marketed to the nerdying community writ large. This cross pollination has also resulted in artists who were trained in one tradition moving into other domains of the nerdom. And this is where we have to discuss abstract economics. Google Hotelling's law it'll save me time having to explain it. Generally, hotelling's law is used to describe Geographic distributions of firms and posits that inorder to maximize market share they are incented to be parked right next to each other. We can think of this like politics in a 2-party system where candidates are purportedly incented to position themselves near the center and assume that they will garner the votes of their respective extremes. Now imagine that we are discussing where you are going to design your miniatures. Imagine a spectrum, on the one end traditional warhammer aesthetics, and on the other Manga aesthetics, and you are deciding where to set your design to attract the most business. If your market was just flooded with manga nerds it'd make commercial sense to adjust your aesthetic and shift closer to the manga end of the spectrum. Now, let's imagine, instead of a single vector/spectrum of manga vs oldhammer we instead have a multitude of vectors for each of the nerdoms and their respective aesthetics. Now we have to imagine that the market has changed from the internet - you now have mass gatherings of all nerds, and nerds are hearing about all corners of the nerdom. How do you react aesthetically to this change? If you are the big players in the market you shift to the center to maximize market share. This is why everything feels like Overwatch or WoW now. Markets are driving the mass adoption of this bland unified aesthetic that smears everything together in order to maximize appeal. Niche game producers can take up spaces around the fringes more easily, but the big firms are moving toward the center.

Pure caviar. I really like the way you express your thought. Great work!

Another awesome video sir!

This is awesome. I'm going to watch it again once I've had some time to understand and reflect on what just happened

Just stumbled upon your work this past week and I've had quite the wonderful stay here thus far. Another wonderful piece here. I truly appreciate the way you share your experience with the hobby

My take is that things are moving in a good direction. That female stormcast is one of my favorite sculpts, never noticed or thought to look that she had "high heels". The new female warrior in Cursed City looks amazing. I hope GW can figure out female faces soon, most are not great (Sisters of Battle are mostly bad imo) but other than that as someone new to the hobby I dont see many issues. I would guess there are more male than female for the same reason we see a lot of Space Marine units and Lieutenants. People buy more of them hah. As for physical characteristics, Warhammer is the land of 8 foot tall super soldiers and everything is exaggerated.

Time stamp 9:36. That printed cover art of the 70s animated film Lord of the Rings. Boy that brings back happy memories. Those are still some of my favorite adaptations of the series in film.

Lovely video!

Agree. Blacktalon model is an awesome Sculpt!

Great stuff as always my man!

I have felt that GW is listening and creating more diversity within their products but not on the AoS or 40K army scale. As you said part of it is due to lore, part of it though is due to time and money as well, another part is due to the medium in which they operate though. To create a sense of character in some miniatures you have to really make the details bold to stand out while also creating something uniform to feel like they are all part of one faction. They have brought diversity in at the box game scale where it is easier for them to create more dynamic sculpts, I just hope we may see some of that diversity spread deeper into AoS/40k at least with Heros. There are a couple factions I would certainly love to see diversity really come into play, for some it is hard to say what that diversity would really be (necrons are an example of what could create a sense of diversity). Personally it is on people like you, myself, or other army builders to add that touch of diversity through modification or painting. One last bit, your comment about 3d printing. With the low cost of resin printers able to make High quality results we are in this early age of modification. Makers like Artisan Guild create some cool products with what I feel is a good dynamic between male and female. though the body type diversity you mention isn't really there as again I feel that is left out to create a better sense of unification and that those models belong to that faction. However, 3d printing is in this place where you can look for a variety of bits and parts to say create diversity in your female head options, or with the weapons models carry or in the accessories attached to their armor. Like everything in life though a quality print file will cost money but to me can be worth it to bring personality to your army.

Wonderful video. This was really pleasant and thought provoking to listen to. I'd love to hear your thoughts on similar topics.

Came for mini painting, stayed for the thoughtful commentary. Amazing channel. :)

I'd love to see more diverse skin tones in armies and minis overall

Yes. Well done. Thank you.

Saying what needs to be said in a very sensitive way (for many hobbyists)

Interesting thoughts and fun to listen to. I don't agree with everything said, but that's part of a conversation, so thanks for putting this out there :)

Good video, diversity is definitely an important topic to discuss in relation to wargaming. The freeguild are pretty good as far as more realistic body types go (with the restriction that they were designed to be very interchangable), definitely not as far as gender goes though unfortunately. If they got revamped to include women they'd do a great job fitting the everyday people role, playing a good foil for the more superhuman factions. This would make sense lore wish too as age of sigmar is a more diverse setting less tied to a real world era (the empire in warhammer fantasy having mostly male soldiers makes sense when comparing it to the holy roman empire). As far as the more characterful side of things, the Gloomspite Gitz (updated goblin faction) are pretty good and have a lot of fun details, their rank and file spearman being an exception but honestly when I have to paint 60 models the uniformity can be nice to help with speed. Honestly a big factor when it comes to variety in miniatures comparing new models to old ones has to do with the push for more customization and interchange parts, hopefully with the push-fit kits that came out a few years and have been used for a lot of warhammer underworlds and for small units can allow for more interesting sculpts similar to retro miniatures without sacrificing detail.

I came from this just after watching your ravaged star painting video, and two points, after the not required but absolutely deserved praise of your writing, video editing, and care in making this video. First, as a more 40k player than sigmar, personally I see what kinds of models GW has done for the sisters armies as better, mostly. That comes a lot from the models I found available on the proxy style for female space Marines and the like being far more sexualized, with vneck t shirts for front line infantry and the like. GW seems better at not making it a focal point and trying for more balance, but is that better, or just more subtle? I can't say; things are shifting, but I think the hobby world needs more diversity that you speak of available and successful before it will change. It's certainly worth watching for and trying to focus our hobby dollars there. And second, less a point and more a question i don't think we can answer; as describes white male, how do i, or anyone, make it more inclusive? After all, we sure feel like it's a welcoming place. Of course there are certain things we can say are egregious and must be fixed or ways of inviting people into the space that are better, but . . . is that even what makes a thing like this hobby inclusive? I have two daughters, and I want them to feel included, but how can I explain this amazing story and lore and cool space of adventure and imagination without making it feel awkward for someone else, possibly them? . . . I guess, everyone in it is terrible, horrible, no good very bad? Except Tau? Maybe? I guess everyone being genocidal maybe helps make it better, but I'm not sure how to even know. (Edited because I am a wordy, rambly doofus)

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

Love it, thank you. Please stay safe.

Such a thoughtful and beautifully made video. Diversity hits the nail on the head so perfectly - if there was more than just the one ‘ideal’ there’d be more for more people to love.

Thank you so much for all the help your give us 🤩🤩🤩

Loved this video. It really would take some small steps

Brilliant, leave me a lot to think. I also find interesting to write our lore taking example in the Odyssey, Beowulf or other classics. Always amazed with your content.

The draw of fantasy is precisely that, that it is fantasy. I rather look at heroic, perfectly physiqued creatures/humanoids than something resembling the less than perfect because if I want imperfect I can simply look in the mirror. I paint and play to disconnect from daily life and immerse in a setting not at all like ours. I believe the draw for a more diverse audience doesn't stem from representation, but what the game actually is. My wife is a perfect example of this, as no matter how many women there are in any army it is the core concept of the game that does not attract her. Although she thinks my minis are "cool", the complexity, rules and math involved instantly turn her away as she feels she rather not "do homework" to have fun. I have found this to be a similar issue for either males and females I have tried to bring into the hobby. The reality is that this fantasy isn't something everyone will enjoy, and that is quite alright. We all have things we love and things we don't, but I would disagree that representation would equal more people coming in. Simpler rules or simpler games may draw more people willing to put less time into reading a codex and more into actually having fun playing with others. Also, that bookstore looks like an amazing place to easily spend countless hours.

This is fanastic, we need more content like this. It's always worth thinking about things we like critically, no matter how, sily they may seem

Well said and well thought. A comment for your algorithm, and a subscription along with it!