The painted warriors, (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory) or men of stone, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet, Cobweb and Ivory) were a race of living painted statues created alongside humanity by the Original Mammoths of the pre-universe. They worshipped Cernunnos, the Enemy. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)
As the Carnival Queen showed to Chris Cwej in a vision of the pre-universe, the men of stone were originally the caretakers of enchanted gardens in the Mammoths' city. They were made incompatible with reality following the Time Lords' anchoring of the thread, (PROSE: Christmas on a Rational Planet) but some survived in an alter-time remnant of the Mammoth city. In their new state, the warriors were only able to move when not being observed. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory) The Time Lords had myths of a similar race of living statues known as Weeping Angels, (COMIC: Gaze of the Medusa) who they thought evolved at the Dawn of Time. (AUDIO: The Side of the Angels)
Avus encountered some of the painted warriors when he journeyed into their alter-time realm. (PROSE: Cobweb and Ivory)