The Sorcerer Who Never Was

Reconstructing Aly Morrison’s Unreleased Dark Elf Sorcerer

Some unreleased miniatures are easy to understand. They are abandoned concepts, alternative sculpts, or models that simply never progressed beyond the studio.

This one is rather more complicated.

For many years, the miniature shown here has been known among collectors simply as an unreleased Dark Elf Sorcerer by Aly Morrison. He is unmistakably a Dark Elf: pointed ears emerge beneath the elaborate helmet, while the high collar, armour, robes and staff place him firmly within the visual language Aly was developing for the army during the mid-1990s.

And yet he does not quite look like the other Dark Elf characters released alongside the army in 1995.

There is a reason for that.

The standing Sorcerer was not originally conceived as a conventional infantry character. He was part of a much more ambitious miniature: Trish Carden's unreleased War Hydra and its mounted Sorcerer.

What survives on foot therefore provides an unusually tangible glimpse into the development of the fourth-edition Dark Elf range – and perhaps even into the production process that ultimately prevented this particular version of the Sorcerer from ever reaching the shops.

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An unusually early Dark Elf

The underside of Trish Carden’s
War Hydra is clearly dated 1993

One of the first clues to the model's history came not from the Sorcerer himself, but from the Hydra he was intended to ride.

A surviving casting of Trish Carden's War Hydra carries a Marauder mark dated 1993.

That is surprisingly early when viewed against the eventual Dark Elf army release of 1995.

For a while, that date led me down a rather different path.

The Sorcerer shares several visual elements with Chaos miniatures of the period. Most conspicuously, the back of the miniature carries a Chaos-star-like device, and the figure bears a striking resemblance to two Chaos Sorcerers Aly sculpted around 1994.

There was even an intriguing textual connection: the fourth-edition Warhammer Bestiary mentions mad Chaos Sorcerers daring to ride Hydras into battle.

Taken together – the early 1993 date, the iconography, the similarities to Aly's Chaos Sorcerers and that curious line in the Bestiary – it was tempting to wonder whether the model might originally have emerged from a Chaos-related idea before finding its way into the Dark Elf range.

It was an entertaining hypothesis.

It was probably also wrong.

Alan Merrett was quite clear when I discussed the miniature with him that it belonged to the development of the Dark Elves. And the sculpt itself never really concealed its identity: beneath the helmet are clearly modelled pointed ears.

It is also worth remembering that the visual vocabulary of early-1990s Warhammer was considerably less rigid than it later became. Symbols and stylistic elements that we now associate very specifically with Chaos were not necessarily used with the same exclusivity.

The more interesting explanation for the early date is therefore much simpler: development of what eventually became the 1995 Dark Elf range had begun considerably earlier.

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A Sorcerer inspired by a player's army

The origin of the rider himself is particularly characteristic of the way miniatures could emerge during this period.

When I showed Aly the miniature in Hamburg in February 2020, he studied it for a moment and then pointed to the runes on the stole.

“I remember sculpting this part.”

From my archive: Dark Elves Sorcerer
Lord riding Warhydra, painted 2000

I loved that response. More than twenty-five years later, it was not the miniature as a whole that immediately triggered his memory, but one small piece of his own sculpting.

I told him that the Sorcerer was one of my favourite miniatures – particularly because I found the idea of a Dark Elf Sorcerer riding a Hydra so wonderfully outrageous, and so characteristic of the dark humour and imagination of fourth- and fifth-edition Warhammer.

That prompted another memory. Aly recalled seeing a similar idea in a player's army and thinking that it was something he and Trish should make. As he remembered it, he said to Trish: we have to do this!

The precise circumstances have faded with time, and when I later asked Aly about the story again he could no longer remember whose army it had been or exactly where he had seen it. But the essential memory remained: the idea had come from something he had encountered in a player's army and was compelling enough that he wanted to turn it into a miniature.

That wonderfully informal origin fits the period rather well. Not every miniature began with a tightly specified concept drawing. Ideas could come from the game designers, from the sculptors themselves – or, in this case, from something interesting spotted across a gaming table.

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Built together

The 1993 date on Trish's Hydra also gives us an important clue about the Sorcerer's own date.

When I asked Aly whether the rider might have been sculpted considerably later, he explained that this was unlikely. When he and Trish were making a rider and beast, they would normally try to work on them at approximately the same time. That allowed the components and fittings to be matched as closely as possible.

A date around 1993–94 therefore seems considerably more plausible for the Sorcerer than 1995.

This changes how we should view the miniature.

Rather than being another character produced during the final push for the 1995 Dark Elf army, the Hydra Sorcerer appears to belong to an earlier phase in the development of the range.

And that may help explain why he looks slightly different from the Sorcerer that eventually reached the shops.

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Two Dark Elf Sorcerers

The comparison becomes particularly interesting when the unreleased figure is placed beside Alys  subsequently released Dark Elf Sorcerer.

At first glance, the two figures are clearly related. The tall headgear, high collar, robes and overall silhouette belong to the same developing visual language.

But the similarities go considerably further than the overall silhouette. Two details are particularly revealing. The construction of the left arm and its transition into the shoulder is remarkably close on both miniatures. Even more striking is the distinctive ornamental pattern along the lower robe of the unreleased Sorcerer. The same motif reappears on the later model – horizontally along the hem and vertically down the front of the robe.

The unreleased Sorcerer and Aly Morrison’s later production model. Identical construction details in the left arm and the repeated robe ornament strongly suggest a direct sculptural relationship between the two.

Yet they are not simply variants of the same sculpt.

The unreleased Sorcerer feels heavier and more self-contained. His pose is remarkably static. Rather than creating character through exaggerated movement, Aly concentrated it into the silhouette, face, helmet and arrangement of the clothing and equipment. The released Sorcerer, by contrast, belongs much more obviously to the developed 1995 range.

This difference became particularly striking to me when I met Aly at Warhammer World in Nottingham in April 2026 and showed him my painted example of the unreleased miniature.

He took the figure, turned it around in his hands and studied it closely. I cannot reproduce his exact words, but the essence of his observation stayed with me. This, he explained, was precisely the sort of quality he tried to teach younger miniature designers: how to create a figure that has presence and communicates its character by itself.

The miniature does remarkably little in terms of movement.

And yet it does not need to.

There is no sweeping weapon, flying cloak or exaggerated pose. The Sorcerer simply stands there – and still manages to look imposing. That conversation made me appreciate the sculpt rather differently. What initially appears to be an extremely simple pose is actually doing much of the work.

Taken together, however, the similarities suggest something more specific than stylistic continuity alone. The later Sorcerer appears to have been developed using surviving elements of the unreleased sculpt.

Exactly how much of the original figure survived is impossible to determine. But the closely matching construction of the left arm and, in particular, the unusually specific ornamental pattern of the robes make a completely independent resculpt unlikely. Parts of the abandoned Sorcerer appear to have been retained and reworked into a new miniature suitable for the eventual Dark Elf release.

The unreleased Sorcerer was therefore not simply replaced. Parts of him appear to have survived in the model that finally made it into production.

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Following Paul Muller's original

There is another reason why the painted studio miniature is particularly important to me.

The original was painted by Paul Muller, and his wonderful paintjob became the reference for my own version.

Rather than reinventing the colour scheme, I deliberately tried to remain close to Muller's interpretation. His choice of colours is part of how I have known this miniature from the surviving contemporary photographs, and preserving that appearance seemed the most appropriate way to paint my own example.

My miniature is therefore not intended as a reinterpretation of the Sorcerer so much as a tribute to the original studio model – and to the way Paul Muller presented Aly's sculpt more than thirty years ago.

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Hiding in plain sight

The painted studio miniature also provides some of the strongest evidence for the history of the standing Sorcerer.

Because he did not simply disappear into a drawer.

He appeared in official Games Workshop photography:

First, he appears in one of the two large army and battle photographs printed on the reverse of the front cover.

The unreleased Sorcerer among the Dark Elf studio army in one of the large battle photographs on the reverse of the front cover of Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves.

Second, the same painted miniature appears again on the book's 'Eavy Metal pages, this time standing behind a unit of Dark Elf Warriors fighting Skaven Warpfire Throwers.

The Sorcerer appears again on the 'Eavy Metal pages, overlooking Dark Elf Warriors fighting Skaven Warpfire Throwers.

Finally, he appears once more in the battle against the Empire reproduced on the inside of the back cover.

Another appearance of the same studio miniature, this time in the battle against the Empire on the inside of the back cover.

Into battle – Raid!

The sorcerer’s appearances in White Dwarf went beyond studio army photographs. He was actually fielded in Raid!, Ian Pickstock and Jake Thornton’s three-part campaign pitting an Orc settlement against a Dark Elf slaving party.

After the opening scenario, both players were allowed to reinforce their surviving forces for the second battle. Jake spent his entire 500-point allowance on a Level 4 Sorcerer – bringing the unreleased miniature into the campaign as a major reinforcement. The accompanying account even describes his spells and their effects during the battle.

That makes this more than another background appearance of an unreleased miniature. The sorcerer was being used as a fully fledged character in a published White Dwarf battle report.

Lord Yeurl’s Raiders. The Dark Elf army featured in the White Dwarf 192/193 battle report. The unreleased sorcerer can be seen among the studio miniatures, already fully painted and incorporated into the army.

The sorcerer goes to war. Brought in as a Level 4 reinforcement for the second battle of Raid!, the unreleased sorcerer can be seen with the Dark Elf force. Remarkably, the later production sorcerer also appears in the same army – placing the released and unreleased miniatures side by side in an official White Dwarf battle report.

Unreleased and released side by side. The battle report provides the unusual sight of both versions of the Dark Elf sorcerer serving in the same studio army.

The sorcerer continued to turn up in White Dwarf 210, including photographs of the Dark Elf army facing the High Elves. These appearances suggest that, whatever prevented the miniature from reaching general release, it remained an established part of the studio collection.

Still in service. The unreleased sorcerer appears again with the studio Dark Elves in battle against the High Elves.

Finally, the model can be found in one of the most impressive photographs of the period: a full two-page portrait of Games Workshop’s studio Dark Elf army. Among the ranks of released miniatures sits the same unreleased sorcerer – a model that had clearly made it into the studio army, into White Dwarf, and onto the gaming table, but never into the range itself.

The Games Workshop studio Dark Elf army. The unreleased sorcerer remained part of this extensively photographed collection despite never receiving a commercial release.

What is striking is how comfortably the unreleased Sorcerer seems to have found a place within the studio Dark Elf army. It was repeatedly used in photographs and even on the gaming table, suggesting that whatever prevented its commercial release did little to diminish its appeal as a character.

Perhaps that is not surprising. With its tall silhouette, raised sword and dramatically extended staff, the miniature has considerable presence even among large formations of troops. Paul Muller’s vivid paint scheme only adds to that effect.

As a commercial miniature it never made the range. As a studio character, however, it clearly had a life of its own.

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Originals, production castings – and recasts

The Sorcerer’s appeal did not end with its disappearance from the range. Quite the opposite. Like many desirable unreleased Games Workshop miniatures, it has been copied repeatedly over the years, and numerous recasts are now in circulation.

For collectors, that creates an obvious problem: how can an original casting be distinguished from a later copy?

In this case, an unusual comparison provides a useful reference.

The photographs below compare three contemporary Games Workshop castings: the released Dark Elf Sorcerer on the left, a production casting of the unreleased Sorcerer in the centre, and a master casting on the right.

What is striking is the difference in size between the two versions of the unreleased Sorcerer. The master casting is visibly larger than the production casting, providing a particularly clear example of the dimensional shrinkage introduced during the production process. In contrast, the released Sorcerer shares the same dimensions as the production casting of its unreleased counterpart, providing an independent contemporary reference for its scale.

A contemporary scale reference. Released Sorcerer (left), production casting of the unreleased Sorcerer (centre) and master casting (right). Despite their different production status, the contemporary castings remain consistent in scale.

This provides important information when assessing an unknown example. Some dimensional reduction can occur during the traditional vulcanised mould-making process used for these miniatures. Comparisons of size and weight with genuine reference miniatures are therefore essential, but can become difficult or even impossible when dealing with unreleased miniatures or rare variants. The released Sorcerer nicely demonstrates how a later variant can provide such a reference: as a contemporary production miniature of essentially the same dimensions as the unreleased production casting, it provides an independent benchmark against which the scale of an unknown example can be assessed.

When a copy becomes smaller

A known later recast provides a useful demonstration of how this dimensional reduction can continue through another generation of moulding and casting.

Production casting and later recast. Aligned at the feet, the dimensional reduction of the recast becomes readily visible.

Placed beside an original production casting, the recast shows a clear reduction in size. The difference is subtle when the figures are viewed separately, but obvious once corresponding features are aligned.

Size alone can hardly establish authenticity, and casting quality, metal, mould lines and provenance all need to be considered. But here the original production casting provides something unusually valuable for an unreleased miniature: a genuine dimensional reference against which later copies can be compared, independently supported by the scale of the contemporary released Sorcerer.

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The clue beneath his feet

There is one final detail on the miniature that may help explain why the Sorcerer never made the transition from Hydra rider to a separate release.

Turn him over, and his original purpose becomes immediately apparent.

Unlike a conventional Games Workshop infantry miniature of the period, the Sorcerer has no integral Slotta tab. Instead, a simple mounting pin projects from beneath his feet.

For a figure designed to stand on the Hydra, this makes perfect sense. The pin allowed the Sorcerer to be located and secured on the monster; there was no need to engineer him to fit a standard infantry base.

This also explains something that is otherwise rather curious. From above, there is nothing about the pose that identifies him as a rider. He stands upright, staff and sword raised, and works perfectly well as an independent character – which is exactly how Games Workshop repeatedly used him in the studio army. Underneath, however, he remained a component of the Hydra project.

That distinction may offer a clue to what happened next.

Rather than adapting the existing casting for a standalone release, Aly subsequently produced the Dark Elf Sorcerer that entered the commercial range. Significantly, the new figure was not an entirely fresh start: elements of the earlier design were reused and reworked for the production model.

We have no evidence that the mounting pin itself was the reason the earlier Sorcerer was never released separately. But it does reveal an important distinction: despite everything Games Workshop later did with the miniature, it had never been designed as a standalone infantry model.

The studio could easily put him on a base, paint him, photograph him and send him into battle. Turning him into a commercial infantry miniature was a different matter – and Games Workshop ultimately released another Sorcerer instead.

In that sense, the small pin beneath his feet may be the most revealing feature on the entire miniature. Above it stands a perfectly convincing Dark Elf character. Below it survives the evidence of what he had originally been made for.

He was still the Sorcerer from the unreleased War Hydra.

Which leaves the larger question: why was the Hydra never released?

More than thirty years later, there is no definitive answer. I asked both Rick Priestley and Alan Merrett about the project, but neither could remember the specific circumstances surrounding its disappearance.

Importantly, Alan did not recall a particular manufacturing problem that had caused the model to be rejected. His assessment was rather more prosaic: most likely, it had “simply missed its release slot and never found a new one later on.”

Whether that was really the whole story is harder to establish. The Hydra belongs to a wider group of Dark Elf miniatures that were developed, and in some cases prepared surprisingly far towards release, but never reached the range.

That, however, is another story.