The Undead Legion
Introduction
With
such short lifespans and violent lifestyles, the race of humanity has always
been obsessed with the ever present threat of death. Humans are born, mature,
and die in mere decades whereas other races measure their lifespan over
centuries if not millennia. Worse they are frail, prone to sickness and
possessed of violent , selfish compulsions. Just as with real life, the Humans
of Warhammer have long sought to extend their lives, with the most ambition
seeking to end the threat the of death over themselves completely, if not over
others.
The
Undead Legion can be seen a culmination of that long, dangerous path to
immortality. Led by the Great Necromancer Nagash, master of death, and ruled
over by immortal nobility, the Undead Legion forms one of the most powerful forces
of the setting. Yet though their fear of death has been mostly conquered, their
desires of dominance, arrogance, and other dark impulses have taken precedence.
As a result the minority rule over a mindless majority with an absolutism
impossible to achieve with even the most complacent population in life. Hungry
for more, Nagash seeks to spread his undead rule over the rest of the planet,
until the silent planet only acknowledges one king- himself. Composed of the
vast hordes of the bickering, scheming vampires along with the organized
legions of the Tomb Kings- formerly his greatest foes- Nagash now has the power
to carry such a dream out.
The
military of this hybrid force is primarily composed of massive hordes of undead
skelatons, zombies and ghoulish cannibals. Spirits of the Damned and gigantic
animated constructs serve a myriad of specialist roles, while necromancers and
other magic users constantly replenish this force’s ranks with that of the
enemy. At the top are scheming Vampires and wrathful Tomb Kings, superhumans by
any standard!
“Om the other hand, this wasn't necessarily the end of
everything. Felix had fought the undead before and survived. He knew he was
more than a match for any ten of them, and Gotrek was more than a match for a
hundred. Still his stomach sank and his mouth went dry just looking at their
lifeless, upturned eyes. And it wasn't just the dread of something dead
returning to a travesty of life that chilled his blood, though that was
horrible enough. It was the sheer, mindless inevitability of them. They were
like ants, or water. A raindrop or a single ant was no threat. He could flick
them away without effort. But a million ants, or a flood of water, those would
find cracks in any wall, would spill over any barrier, would pull a man down
and drown him in sheer numbers.
That was the true horror of the walking dead. They couldn't
be reasoned with, couldn't be panicked into running away, couldn't be bought
off or convinced to change allegiances. They were an unnatural force, as relentless
as time or tides, and like time and tides, they would eventually wear you down,
as mountains were worn down into hills and dead cattle were slowly stripped to
the bone by thousands of tiny jaws.”- Gotrek and Felix: Zombie Slayer
LORES OF MAGIC
In Warhammer all magic comes from one source; the Winds of
Chaos, which themselves come from the great Realm of Chaos. Just as it is with
40k and the Warp all spells and lores below should be considered subcategories of
one single magical source.
Below are the many different lores available to the Undead
Legion. Some are general, such as the Lore of Death; others very specific, such
as that of Vampires. It should be noted
that, unlike 40k magic spells, these do not always automatically bypass armor
unless otherwise noted, and effectiveness will always be modified by that.
However all magical attacks and conjurations are considered of magical prowess,
capable of affecting immaterial ghosts and demons, and of a particularly higher
plain of effect than the physically mundane.
All spells are listed in order from weakest and most basic
to the strongest, which usually requires master wizards to successfully cast.
Or in the case of a weaker more ambitiously impatient wizard, more magical
power to be available. Just like Warhammer 40k, this list should not be taken
as an all-inclusive nor exhaustive; there are literally tens of
thousands of spells in Warhammer’s existence.
Most Lores of Magic practiced by any race will have weak,
but easily learned and well known spells known as ‘signature spells’. They are
so common that practically every wizard learning the lore knows them. Other
spells are more unique in taste and use, and it is unlikely and rare to find
two wizards in the same army group to know the same spell. As few are detailed
a lot of new the magic of individual lores can be considered by archtype as
they share standard rules and archtypes. For example the Lore of Vampires is mostly about increasing or maintaining the
size of the Undead Horde, as well as having death spells, while Lore of Shadow
is about sometimes fatal misdirection.
Magic in Warhammer is low-inclusion but powerful. This means
that most low-end spells in Warhammer can affect a half or a dozen at once,
with medium power one’s going in affecting dozens and the rare (but not ultra-rare) high end affecting even
hundreds at once(or more)! This number listing, of course, applies to necromancy, where necromancer forces often raise and mantain armies of thousands over their career. The specific numbers given below are their official stats in
game, but the amount affected can be higher (or weaker) in lore. However this comes at a cost, as magic in
Warhammer is both harder to control then other fictions and there are
comparably fewer mages. Even for battles where one side has many tens of
thousands, it is rare to see more than a dozen mages in a force.
The increased strength and power of each spell makes it
harder to cast, requiring a greater collection from the Winds of Magic
pertaining to that particular lore for its use, though the more skilled a
wizard is, the easier they can absorb and safely cast the spells. Skill levels
vary from the new and relatively inept Necroamncers (many of them) to powerful
Vampire Lords and Liche Priests. Personal stamina does factor into the amount
these wizards can cast too, and they will find themselves increasingly drained
the more they cast . Potent spells will exhaust them very quickly and mages can usually only
maintain one spell at a time. Dangers with using spells are common and many a mage, even skilled ones, are wounded or killed by magical misfires that may come from mispronouncing a word, giving the wrong gesture ect.
Note on Necromancer Power Levels: Though many necromancers never manage to become anything more then acolytes over their career those that rise can raise and maintain thousands or even tens of thousand of undead over their career (with the most powerful achieving that number all at once, rather then cumulative)! Many necromancers start out with simple zombies, as it is easier to maintain the recently diseased, however as a Necromancer's skill increases they can increasingly bring back ancient dead, even up to thousands of years back! In fact one of the best Necromancers, Arkhan, had his legions melted down into dust, stored into a huge urn, and then recalled hundreds of years later into a instant strike force (this is a extremely high end example though). The more a undead necromancer raises however, the more he must dedicate his energies to maintaining the army and less focus on spells. That said, necromancers often travel together in armies so some can dedicate their strength on the enemy. In addition Vampires are said to be potent enough in the ways of the undeath that they can naturally dominate the dead, and control them with minimal hardship while multitasking.
Note on Necromancer Power Levels: Though many necromancers never manage to become anything more then acolytes over their career those that rise can raise and maintain thousands or even tens of thousand of undead over their career (with the most powerful achieving that number all at once, rather then cumulative)! Many necromancers start out with simple zombies, as it is easier to maintain the recently diseased, however as a Necromancer's skill increases they can increasingly bring back ancient dead, even up to thousands of years back! In fact one of the best Necromancers, Arkhan, had his legions melted down into dust, stored into a huge urn, and then recalled hundreds of years later into a instant strike force (this is a extremely high end example though). The more a undead necromancer raises however, the more he must dedicate his energies to maintaining the army and less focus on spells. That said, necromancers often travel together in armies so some can dedicate their strength on the enemy. In addition Vampires are said to be potent enough in the ways of the undeath that they can naturally dominate the dead, and control them with minimal hardship while multitasking.
LORE OF LIGHT
Hysh is the Wind of Light, and associated with the Lore of
Shadows. Its abstract intangible, abstract
and all-permeating, making its lore one of the most difficult to master.
It requires the total determination of mind and will in order to channel to a
spell. The lore is attracted to forms of light such as candles, lanterns, true
hearts, and harmonious chanting and ritual. Thanks to its purity, it is harmful
to the very existence of Undead and Daemons, and will do greater damage to them
than anything else. This does not stop, however, Liche Priests from using the
lore.
-Shem’s Burning Gaze:
Bolts of cleaning energy fly from the Wizard's hands, searing evil wherever
they strike.Has a range of 300 meters and can functions as a magical missile,
burning those it strikes. With greater effort the wizard can increase the
potency of the light missile to even burn monsters and increase the range to 1
kilometer.
-Phâ's Protection :The Wizard calls upon the
beneficient Guardian of Light to protect his allies from harm. Vast on a single
unit within 50 meters, or, with increased magical effort, all units within the
same range, this spell makes it harder for those protected to be hit.
-The Speed of Light: Light knows no burden of flesh, and nor do those that receive its
blessing. Boosts the target unit’s skill at arms and reaction speed to
legendary measures (faster than even a vampire) while the spell lasts. Can be
cast on a single unit in fifty meters or, with additional effort, all units
within 50 meters.
-Light of Battle: Reaching into the Wind of Hysh, the Wizard draws forth ennobling energies
to steady faint hearts. Essentially it stops units from fleeing and gives them
near flawless willpower when in effect. Can be cast on a friendly unit in 50
meters or all of them in 50 meters. However as the Undead do not feel fear,
this probably won’t be used often by them.
- Net of Amyntok : The
legendary Net of Mayntok was rumored to have been woven to hold the Great
Deceiver itself. It functions as a magical snare on any unit within 300 meters(
1 kilometer with more magical effort) causing them to struggle to move, fight,
or shoot. Those that can’t overpower it get crushed beneath the magical net.
-Banishment:
The purest light can destroy anything untainted by darkness. With a range of
300 meters or 1 kilometer (with increased power) this spell can destroy the
existence of the targeted enemy unit, with the potency increasing the more
light wizard are nearby.
"‘The Wind of Hysh repels you!’ shouted Jovi Sunscryer, standing on the riding plate of the Luminark and gesturing fiercely at the strange apparitions. The skies flashed white, and two of the wraiths were obliterated by lances of energy that darted from the gloom.
A second later a latticed net of light flickered into existence in front of the remaining wraiths. They galloped right into it and were held fast in the air, the strange magical trap curling around them as it threw dancing shadows everywhere. The fell creatures screamed curses in a language that Bernhardt did not understand, though the wizards were shouting louder and louder in a repetitive chant that sounded suspiciously similar.
There was a chime of glass as Khalep swung the apparatus around, releasing a searing blast that burned straight into the trapped wraiths. When Bernhardt blinked away his shock, the figures were no longer there, and the echoes of their dismayed shrieks were fading away to nothing." - Sigmar's Blood, illustration of previous two spells
"‘The Wind of Hysh repels you!’ shouted Jovi Sunscryer, standing on the riding plate of the Luminark and gesturing fiercely at the strange apparitions. The skies flashed white, and two of the wraiths were obliterated by lances of energy that darted from the gloom.
A second later a latticed net of light flickered into existence in front of the remaining wraiths. They galloped right into it and were held fast in the air, the strange magical trap curling around them as it threw dancing shadows everywhere. The fell creatures screamed curses in a language that Bernhardt did not understand, though the wizards were shouting louder and louder in a repetitive chant that sounded suspiciously similar.
There was a chime of glass as Khalep swung the apparatus around, releasing a searing blast that burned straight into the trapped wraiths. When Bernhardt blinked away his shock, the figures were no longer there, and the echoes of their dismayed shrieks were fading away to nothing." - Sigmar's Blood, illustration of previous two spells
-Birona’s Timewarp: The Wizard infuses his allies with Light Magic, freeing them from the
passage of time and speeding their actions. Thanks to time manipulation it
allows them to move and attack much faster and get more off. Can affect one
unit in 50 meters or, with increased magical effort, all in 50 meters.
- LORE OF NEHEKARA
"The magic of Nehekhara's Liche Priests is based on
long, monotonous enchantments that connect the mortal world to the world
beyond. The wording of these arcane spells has been recorded on dusted papyri,
written in the mysterious hieroglyphs of Nehekhara's ancient language. These
incantations, uttered in rituals unchanged for uncountable millennia, cannot
reach the peaks of sheer power achieved by their perverted versions that are
the necromatic spells taught by the heretical Nagash to his disciples. On the
other hand they are far more reliable and, when relentlessly intoned in unison
by several of the unliving Liche Priests, they are almost unstoppable."
Like other undead lores, when cast on friendly units this can help restore
undead units to life. In current lore Nagash serves as a facilitator of Nehekaran magic, courtesy of his devouring of Usirian and his forced placement on the Nehekaran panthenon, so he allows this magic for his servents.
"Over half of the unliving warriors were strewn across the ground, decapitated or dismembered. Though their attack had slowed, and seven of their number lay dead or writhing in pain amongst the fallen enemy, the Norse held the upper hand.
Kurt swept his sword low, severing both legs of an enemy warrior at the knees, tumbling it into the dust.
Raising his blade for another strike, he paused. His sixth sense detected a magical presence, an arcane energy that leeched up from the ground. The fiery eyes of the undead blazed more brightly for a moment and, to Kurt's horror, those that had fallen began to stir. Torn limbs knitted themselves to severed joints, gaping wounds closed over seeping black blood. The warriors of Nephythys pulled themselves to their feet, clutching for discarded weapons, pulling battered shields from the sand."- The Blades of Chaos
"Over half of the unliving warriors were strewn across the ground, decapitated or dismembered. Though their attack had slowed, and seven of their number lay dead or writhing in pain amongst the fallen enemy, the Norse held the upper hand.
Kurt swept his sword low, severing both legs of an enemy warrior at the knees, tumbling it into the dust.
Raising his blade for another strike, he paused. His sixth sense detected a magical presence, an arcane energy that leeched up from the ground. The fiery eyes of the undead blazed more brightly for a moment and, to Kurt's horror, those that had fallen began to stir. Torn limbs knitted themselves to severed joints, gaping wounds closed over seeping black blood. The warriors of Nephythys pulled themselves to their feet, clutching for discarded weapons, pulling battered shields from the sand."- The Blades of Chaos
Khsar’s Incantation
of the Desert Wing : Harnessing the power of Khsar, god of the desert
winds, the Liche Priest summons forth a sandstorm that engulfs the undying
warriors of Nehekara and carries them across the battlefield while protecting
them from harm.Can be cast on all unengaged unit within 50 meters or, with
increased magical effort, all within 300 meters. Allows for quick tactical
redeployment.
Djaf’s Incantation of
Cursed Blades: As the Liche Priest utters this ancient mantra, he imbues
the weapons of the Nehekharan warriors with the essence of Djaf, the
jackal-headed god of the dead, who hungers for the souls of the living above
all things.This makes the targeted units blows super powerful, killing many
foes out of hand. Those whose blows are already excellent just become even more
powerful. Can be cast on any unit within 50 meters, or, with increased magical
effort, 300 meters.
Neru’s Incantation of
Protection :As the Liche Priest intones this blessing, his foes find their
sword strokes mysteroiusly turned aside as Neru, wife of Ptra and goddes of
protection, reaches out tho shield Nehekhara's warriors from the evils of the
night. Can be cast on any single unit within 50 meters of the caster or, with
increased magical effort, all units within the same area. Essentially while it
lasts it makes it extremely difficult for these untis to be hurt with mundane
weapons, and magically enchanted or particularly powerful weapons are needed to
break this ward.
“Then came the
thunder of hooves, and several squadrons of light horsemen charged out of the
haze towards the line of archers. The cavalrymen wielded compact horn-bows of
their own, and the Khemri warriors unleashed a ragged volley as they bore down
on the bowmen. Arrows sped back and forth across the killing ground. Horses and
men went down in a spray of dirt and rock, but the bowmen of the Bronze Host
shrugged off the enemy fire. Protected by the invocations of their holy
priests, most of the Khemri arrows broke or glanced harmlessly from their bare
skin.”
Pta’s Incantation of
Righteous Smiting : As the verses of this incantations are spoken, a fierce
light emanates from the empty eye sockets of the Nehekharan Undead as the power of Ptra infuses
these warriors with the speed and fury to smite their foes. Essentially
everyone gets a speed boost- archers fire faster, melee fighters attack faster
ect. Can be cast on all Nehekaran units in 50 meters or, with increased magical
effort, all units in 300 meters.
Uisiran's (now Nagash's) Incantation of Vengeance: Skeletal hands
burst from beneath the surface to drag those above into a grave as the Liche
Priest invokes the names of Usirian. Has a range of 100 meters or, with greater
magical effort, 500 meters. Essentially the targeted enemy unit must constantly
fight to even move and will struggle to do anything while this spell is under
effect. Some will die as the hands succeed in pulling them into the earth.
Usekhp's Incantation of Desiccation : As the Liche Priest intones the curse of
desiccation, every syllable strips the moisture from his victims' bodies,
sapping their vitality. Has a range of 300 meters and cast on a single unit,
with the longer its cast the weaker that unit will be (until they become even
weaker then zombies!) .
Sakhmet's Incantation of the Skullstorm:A whirlwind of skulls tears across the
battlefield, devouring everything in its path in the name of the goddess
Sakhmet.With an average diameter of 12 meters, more likely than not the
soldiers in the path of the storm are eaten. Tough,durable foes are needed to
survive.
Miscellaneous spells:
“Ahmet ben Izzedein knelt before the bowl
and began to chant the Invocation of the Raging Wind. Drawing his knife, he
added his own blood to the bowl, and then drew up a fistful of sand and blew it
in a hissing spray across the surface of the crimson pool.
At once, the desert wind stirred around the
assembled warriors, raising a pall of stinging sand into the air. By the time
they had leapt into the saddles of their graceful steeds the whirlwind was
raging around them. Their war shouts were lost amid Khsar’s hungry roar, but
their bone horns cut like blades through the noise and sent the raiders
sweeping over the dunes and racing across the rocky plain towards the enemy
army.
The living warriors of Nagash’s host saw
the hissing cloud sweeping down upon them and knew what it portended. They
leapt, fearfully, to their feet, reaching for their weapons or the reins of
frightened horses. Trumpets blared in alarm, and the warriors of the Living City
responded as swiftly as their exhausted bodies would allow. Within minutes,
ragged bands of heavy cavalry were racing headlong into the storm, while spear
companies formed up amid the decaying bodies of their kinsmen and prepared to
receive the enemy charge.
Of all the gods, Khsar the Faceless was the
least inclined towards humankind, and honoured the great covenant grudgingly at
best. His gifts were often two-edged, and his worshippers called upon him only
when they must. The raging storm called up by the Hierophant ben Izzedein
lashed at both friend and foe, concealing the battle between the raiders and
the cavalry in a hissing, knife-edged maelstrom. Riders literally crashed
together out of the murk, striking at one another with a handful of frenzied blows,
before pulling apart and disappearing once again. The screams of the dying were
torn apart by the hungry wind, and the bodies of the dead were reduced to
scoured bones within moments.”- Nagash the Sorceror
"Djubti gave a hoarse curse and raised his staff. A string of croaking syllables slipped from his desiccated lips, and as Felix watched in horrified fascination, the skulls of those warriors already fallen rose into the air with a communal shriek. The skulls were drawn towards the liche-priest and they swirled about him, as if he were the eye of a maelstrom.
With a sharp gesture, Djubti sent the whirling storm of skulls spinning towards the enemy galley. The warriors crossing the boarding planks were caught and torn to shreds by the chattering cloud of skulls, and their own skulls joined the storm as it swept across the galley. The galley heaved as the skulls tore through wood and metal and bone. Djubti clenched his hand and the storm rose up, the skulls swirling faster and faster. They shattered the masts of the galley and tore the sails to shreds. Bodies were caught in their wake and drawn up into the swirling vortex. Then, with a cutting gesture, Djubti let the spell fade. A rain of cracked and broken skulls thudded to the deck of the enemy galley, and nothing moved upon it."- The Serpent Queen
With a sharp gesture, Djubti sent the whirling storm of skulls spinning towards the enemy galley. The warriors crossing the boarding planks were caught and torn to shreds by the chattering cloud of skulls, and their own skulls joined the storm as it swept across the galley. The galley heaved as the skulls tore through wood and metal and bone. Djubti clenched his hand and the storm rose up, the skulls swirling faster and faster. They shattered the masts of the galley and tore the sails to shreds. Bodies were caught in their wake and drawn up into the swirling vortex. Then, with a cutting gesture, Djubti let the spell fade. A rain of cracked and broken skulls thudded to the deck of the enemy galley, and nothing moved upon it."- The Serpent Queen
LORE OF SHADOW
Ulgu is the grey wind of magic, and is associated with the
Lore of Shadows. Ulgu is a mysterious wind, which spreads disorientation and
confusion amongst those it touches. It is spoken of as a thick grey fog, and it
is drawn to still lowlands and waterways where natural mists gather at dawn. Deception,
mystery, and illusions also instinctively draw this wind. Ulgu invokes the
sensation of being lost, or perplexed by something that you can’t quite put
your finger on. The Shifting Isles off the coast of Ulthran are shrouded with
the power of Ulgu, and provide an impenetrable maze to protect the isle from
invaders.
Its wizards are masters of illusions. Their spells have
minor teleportation woven within them, and they can switch places with
characters nearby, up to 100 meters nearby, after a spell is cast.
-Melkoth’s Mystifying Miasma: This spell
conjures up a mystical numbing fog enemies to foolishly wander about and
stumble. Used on any unit within 1 kilometer (meaning it can be used on
artillery) this drastically reduces the accuracy and skill of that unit’s range
as well as makes their movement and actions clumsy and uncoordinated.
-Steed of Shadows: Conjures a single flying shadow
drake that can pick up a beleaguered friendly character or the wizard himself
and extends their movement to have flight characteristics.
-Enfeebling Foe: Deceived by the Grey Wizard’s magic,
the enemies burdens become literally heavy, sapping the strength of a enemy
unit. Can be done on any unit within 100 meters or, through increased casting,
500 meters.
-The Withering: This spell reaches into the minds of
the foe, instilling feelings of doubt and weaknesses. The mental weakness makes
them more vulnerable to the enemy on the physical realm. Can be cast on a enemy
unit anywhere over 300 meters or, with more casting power, 500.
-The Penumbral Pendulum: A ghostly razor-edged
pendulum swings above the wizard. At a command it swings straight for the enemy
and upon release bounces like a ghostly cannonball. Enemies that don’t move out
of the way quick, and are unlucky to get hit by the bounce, die unless super
durable. This bounce has a max range of 500 meters or, if the wizard puts a lot
of power into the cast, 3 kilometers!
-Pit of Shades: The Shadow wizard opens up a
vortex to the infamous pit of shadows, swallowing up any that don’t get out of
the way quick enough. Those that fall in a realm of infinite shadow and the
wailing of those that lie beyond. At its base the vortex is 10 meters wide,
though with greater casting it be 20 meters.
LORE OF DEATH
Shyish is the purple wind of magic, and is associated with
the Lore of Death. The power of Shyish comes from the ending of things, the
slow decline of the soul, and the certainty and terrible awe of death that all
sentient creatures must face at some point. Shyish tells us that even though
physical form must inevitably come to an end, creation is permanent, and there
exist forces larger than our mortal selves that deserve respect and even
reverence. Shyish is drawn to places where death must be faced, or where things
are brought to an end. It blows strongly around battlefields, lingers around
gallows and courts of justice, and hangs in the mournful silence around fresh
graves. It is said to be strongest around times of obvious transition, when one
state ends and another begins. Dawn and dusk are the most obvious examples of
this, but also spring and autumn, and the equinoxes that mark the beginning of
the end for winter and summer.
It is because of their ability to gain from slaughtering the
enemy that wizards of the Lore of Death can sometimes “re-charge” their Winds
of Magic, utilizing their expended life force for energy, allowing them to
summon greater spells or cast more.
-Spirit Leech: The caster chooses a single enemy
character (1) and tries to drain his soul. The success depends on enemy overall
willpower, with the greatly willful capable of fighting it off entirely. Has a
range of 50 meters normally, that can be via more energy extended to 300
meters.
-Aspect of the Dreadknight: The wizard targets a
friendly unit within 300 meters and surrounds them with a invisible aura of
horror, making enemies scared to fight them. The wizard can upgrade this power
to make them even more horrifying, so that only the bravest would consider
tangling with them.
-The Caress of Laniph: Laniph was a Arabian
sorceress known for both her capriciousness and passions that haven’t stopped
after death. In casting this spell the wizard calls her back from the spirit
world and sics her on a single enemy character. While she might just caress him
she has a chance of trying to forcibly drag him back to the spirit world.
Should the enemy not be strong enough to fight her off, she’ll succeed. Has
range of 50 meters or can be enhanced to 300.
-Soulbright: Harnessing the sickly power of death,
the conjurer hexes a enemy unit and weakens his will to live. This correlates
into being slightly weaker and less durable in combat. Can be cast on any unit
within 300 meters or, with additional prowess, cast on all units within 300
meters.
-Doom and Darkness: With this terrible spell, the
wizard has spirits of the departed assail a enemy unit, sapping its willpower.
This makes it easier and more likely to rout, along with its willingness to
follow orders. Has a range of 300 meters that can be upgraded to a range of
about one kilometer.
-Fate of Bjuna: This odd little spell conjures the
fate of the warrior of Bjuna, a powerful warrior infamous for never smiling. He
then laughed so hard his sides burst, perishing that way. This spell targets a
single enemy character and causes him to laugh uncontrollably, with the
potential of his sides literally bursting from the strain. Should he survive he
still has giggling fits the rest of the battle, and thus won’t be totally
mentally competent.
-The Purple Sun of Xerus: The lore of death’s most powerful spell, this conjures a colossal orb of purple edged darkness over the battlefield.With a diameter of 9 meters, it will then start to roll in a direction directed by the caster. Any that fail to get out of the way die immediately. How far it moves is a bit random, but many dozens of meters easily. The wizard can, through increased casting, upgrade its diameter to 20 meters!
However this power comes with a drawback, for death can be
incredibly fickle. Should the wizard mess up the cast the giant purple orb will
always still appear, but directly on top of him! It will then roll in a random
direction for a couple dozen meters,
killing those allies nearby (for wizards are usually near the back of
enemy armies).
DARK MAGIC LORES
Lore of the Vampires and the Lore of the Undeath both are
forms of Dark Magic. Dark and High Magic can be considered the combination of
many “colors” of magic into one consistent force. However while High Magic is
done through finesse and care Dark Magic is done through force and will. There
is little filter for the harmful energies of Chaos Magic and it is for that
reason this magic is perhaps the most dangerous to master. It coalesces in the
dark places of the world- graveyards, battlefields and dens of sin.
“The necromancer
straightened, gauging the acolytes’ approach. To his mind, they seemed
ponderous and slow, stumbling haltingly across the wet ground towards him. When
they were halfway to him, he raised his dagger skyward and reached out with his
will.
Slay them!
Blinded by eagerness
and lashing curtains of rain, the acolytes did not register the figures rising
up from the dark ground until they’d charged in among them. The skeletons
reared up with disturbing speed, rain coursing from their age-darkened bones,
and closed in on the barbarians from all sides. Obsidian blades flashed,
severing limbs and spilling entrails. Bony hands grabbed at the acolytes,
dragging them to the ground by their robes or by their hair. Leering skulls
closed in, jaws snapping, their eye sockets alight with green flame. In
moments, the acolytes’ bloodthirsty shouts had turned to confused and agonised
screams, punctuated by the clang and clatter of blades as the survivors rallied
and fought for their lives.
It took several long
seconds for the priests to grasp what was happening, and when they did their
response was potent but poorly coordinated. Nagash felt a ragged volley of
invocations from across the field as the priests tried to seize control of his
warriors. Here and there one of the skeletons stumbled beneath the onslaught,
and the acolytes lashed out at them, smashing several to pieces. The barbarians
took heart, sensing that the tide of battle was about to turn – and then Nagash
raised his left fist skyward and hissed a dreadful invocation of his own.
An ominous rumble
echoed through the clouds overhead, followed by stuttering flashes of
lightning. Moments later, the priests were stunned by a single arc of burning,
green light that plunged to earth and struck the barrow mound between them with
a sputtering hiss. Another glowing mote fell from the bruised clouds, then
another, and then there was a clap of thunder and a shower of burning hail the
size of sling stones plunged down upon priests and acolytes both.
Men fell dead with
their skulls dashed in or their necks broken. Others shrieked in agony as their
robes burst into greenish flames that the rain could not quench. The priests
scattered under the onslaught, running in every direction to escape the attack,
and the sight of their panic unnerved the beleaguered acolytes, who tried to
break free from the clutches of the undead and escape into the darkness. Many
were cut down as they tried to flee, or were dragged to the ground by claw-like
hands and torn apart. The last thing the survivors heard as they fled for their
lives was the sound of soulless, mocking laughter riding the howling wind.
The skeletons made no
effort to pursue the fleeing barbarians. Heedless of the sizzling hail, those
undead warriors with no weapons of their own began plucking weapons from the
bodies of the dead, while the warlord and his skeletal retinue went about
killing the wounded that had been left behind. Perhaps a third of their number
had been destroyed in the fighting, their bones scattered across the
smouldering ground.
The losses mattered
little to Nagash. Close to forty-five dead barbarians littered the
battleground, some still burning as the magical fire consumed their flesh. They
would more than make up for the numbers he had lost.
Grinning cruelly,
Nagash returned his attention to the ritual circle. His army had only just
begun to grow.”- Nagash the Sorceror
LORE OF THE VAMPIRES
Lore-wise both Necromancers and Vampires can use this lore
however the Necromancer must use corpses to shield himself or else s/he will
slowly turn into a wraith. Vampries however can utilize the lore freely with
very little to risk to him or herself. As a inherent trait for this lore the powers of Dark Magic utilized for
necromancy allows its unwholesome
energies animate and invigorate the Undead. This means that whenever the caster
successfully casts a spell, he regenerates.
-Invocation of Nehek:
The caster intones the dread syllables of Nagash, breathing unlife into
cadavers sown across the battlefield. Any undead unit caught in the spell’s
range will see its members regenerate and reknit their wounds, and while it
does not totally replenish the destroyed caught in battle (particularly those
hacked to pieces) it is very potent in keeping undead regiments “alive” longer.
Ethereal, Vampyric and Massive units of the Vampires can also regenerate with
this spell, though its effect is lessened on them. Siege weapons made of bone can be remade with this spell. This spell normally has a
range of 25 meters, though can be upgraded (with additional magical effort) to
50 or even 100 meters.
Vanhel’s Dense
Macrabe: This spell causes the undead to jerk forwards on the attack with
tireless and unnatural speed. It will
cause undead who are unengaged with the enemy to charge forwards with the speed
of horses and those engaged in combat to attack much faster. Can be cast on a
single unit within 100 meters or, with additional magical energy, all units
within 100 meters
“Nagash reached out
across the camp, summoning every one of his surviving warriors. Then he uttered
a powerful incantation, increasing the vigour of the warriors in front of him
threefold. They surged forwards, into the Forsaken line, their weapons moving
almost in a blur. The sudden push caught the northmen by surprise. Several of
them fell, slain outright or bleeding to death from mortal wounds. The rest,
including their warlord, found themselves on the defensive. It wouldn’t last
for long, Nagash knew, but it would give him the time he needed to deal with
the witches.”-Nagash the Sorcerer
“Behind them, Renar
continued to rage and curse. The necromancer could see that the pickets he had
seized control over would never catch the fleeing knights. Exerting more of his
dark power, he forced the lumbering zombies into a magically-charged run,
driving them to greater and greater effort. Some of the most rotten of the
sentries collapsed as their decayed bodies broke from the strain, wormy legs
snapping, brittle bones cracking, bloated organs ripping through desiccated
skin. But enough of the zombies were whole enough to withstand the sorcerous
punishment.” –The Red Duke
Hellish Vigour: The
caster invigorates the creatures under his control, who attack the foe with
new-found speed and ferocity. Makes them far more formidable in combat. Can be used on a single undead unit in 100
meters, or, with additional effort, all of them in the same range.
Gaze of Nagash:
Bolts of Dark Magic leap from the caster 's eyes, withering flesh and
blackening the bone beneath. Has a range of 300 meters though can be upgraded
to a full kilometer. See quote beneath for description of how it was used
against the Tomb Kings though do note those with flesh may well have died
sooner.
“When the moving wall
of chariots was less than 200 lengths of their skeletal horses from Nagash, the
Great Necromancer unleashed a withering beam from out of the hollow sockets of
his eyes. The bones of those that bore the brunt of its rays immediately began
to blacken, so that by the time the chariots were 100 lengths away, those
affected were reduced to a walking pace- the skeletons of the crew and steeds
slowly disintegrating, simply falling away with each step. By the time the
chariots were in fifty lengths they had wasted way to less than nothing. "
-End Times Nagash, Chapter 5. He used this spell to kill at
the least a couple dozen chariots, though didn’t manage to destroy the whole
force.
Raise Dead: One
skilled in the art of necromancy can awaken mortal remains to reinforce the
Undead legions under his control. This spell can allow the caster to summon up
units of zombies or, with additional effort, skeleton warriors. Has a range of
100 meters.
Curse of Years:
The Wizard spits out an ancient curse and his enemies age at an incredible
rate, hair turning white and skin shriveling.This potent spell can doom entire
units, though individuals in that unit can age at different rates or some
(lucky few) don’t age at all! Has a range of 100 meters and ignores all armor.
Curse of Years:
The Wizard spits out an ancient curse and his enemies age at an incredible
rate, hair turning white and skin shriveling.This potent spell can doom entire
units, though individuals in that unit can age at different rates or some
(lucky few) don’t age at all! Has a range of 100 meters and ignores all armor.
“With a horde of
ratmen clamouring to reach him, fighting over one another, Mannfred raised his
fist to his lips and opened his fingers. He blew once, sharply, sending a thick
plume of smoke out over the fat-bellied ratmen. The stench of death clung to
the living, fed on their fur, as dissolution set in wherever the smoke touched,
the smell growing ever more sickening as the fur, hide and flesh rotted from
their bones. They fell at his feet.
It was a cruel death,
but the cloud dissipated before it could claim more than a third of the
rodents. Their cries were wretched as they writhed on the ground. The vampire
relished them. “- Vampire Wars, Retribution
“He raised the rune axe over his head for the final blow to the neck,
but on the dais behind him, Kemmler thrust forwards with his staff and the
skull that topped it opened its mouth, puking out a stream of roiling black
energy.
Gotrek grunted and went rigid as the darkness struck him in the back,
his grin turning into a rictus grimace as every muscle in his body tensed.
Felix stared. It was a rare thing to see the Slayer affected by magic at all,
let alone paralysed by it, but as shocking as that was, that wasn't all it was
doing to him. As Felix watched, the lines in the Slayer's face deepened, and
his cheeks grew gaunt. His body was growing leaner as well, every detail of his
muscles and veins standing out from his skin as if he had been flayed.
Nor was he the only one affected by the spell. The flesh of Felix's
fingers was shrinking and his knuckle bones poked through his tightening skin
like tent poles.
Max and the twins were the same. Max's silver hair was turning white at
the roots, and the magister and the father were ageing before Felix's eyes,
their spells and invocations weakening and flickering out. Kemmler's withering
blast was pressing them all into the grave--a hand like that of time itself,
crushing them with the weight 214
of years--while more and more zombies broke through Marwalt's ward and
shuffled into the room.
The Slayer turned, inch by straining inch, as if frozen in ice, and
raised his rune axe in a shaking hand, but he couldn't turn fast enough. He was
weakening with every half-step. He would never be able to reach the necromancer
before the spell turned him into a walking skeleton.
Felix struggled to his feet, as weak as a broken reed, and drew his
dagger, but as he raised it to throw at Kemmler, something flashed down from
above and stuck in Kemmler's shoulder.” -Zombieslayer
Wind of(Un)Death:
The Wizard calls forth spectral winds that howl through the
ranks of the foe, tearing their souls from their bodies. The lore of vampire’s
most powerful spell, this conjures a moving mini-maelstrom of purple edged
darkness over the battlefield. With a diameter of 9 meters, it will then start
to roll in a direction directed by the caster. Any that fail to get out of the
way (or are powerful enough to resist)
die immediately. How far it moves is a bit random, but many dozens of meters
easily. The wizard can, through increased casting, upgrade its diameter to 20
meters!
"“Taking a deep breath, Neferata filled her undead lungs before exhaling a howling blast of deathwind. Enclosed by the piled rubble, the street was like a trench, channeling the mystic gale straight down the marching columns of troops, allowing none of its deadly impact to dissipate. Such was the dark power of the spell that hundreds of skeleton warriors who were trapped screamed in anguish, as their souls were torn from their corporal forms a second time”.- End Times, Nagash
It should be noted that in older lore this spell also existed as the Wind of Undeath which, though conjuring a weaker maelstorm, would allow the vampire to pull souls from the slain to create Spirit Hosts.
"Irritated by the sudden flush of need, he shoved past his bodyguards and thrust his gangly arms forward as if stabbing the air. It responded, thickening and curling around his gesturing fingers. He motioned towards the line of skaven and suddenly, the cavern echoed with the moan of spectral winds.
Cold and cacophonous, the air rushed across the dips and gullies of the cavern and washed across the skaven. Even as it did so, strange shapes seemed to gain shape and form within the roll and weft of the wind and they struck, grasping the skaven and tearing at them like phantasmal beasts. Everywhere the wind touched, skaven died, collapsing like grisly puppets that had just had their strings cut. And as they fell, wisps of something rose from their bodies to join the howling wind, adding to the spectral ranks that were now, like some deep-sea tick, freshly infused with blood, fully visible to the horrified eyes of the survivors.
The spectral host spread like the water from an emptied bucket, splashing over more and more of the skaven, ripping whatever vile essence passed for their souls from their bodies and adding them to its own ghostly ranks. Skaven died in droves, toppling in heaps and piles, the ghastly vapour rising from their twitching corpses. W’soran stepped forward, grinning happily. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. The spirits of the dead swirled about him like leaves caught on the wind, and their moans caressed his ears like the sweetest music.' - Master of Death
"“Taking a deep breath, Neferata filled her undead lungs before exhaling a howling blast of deathwind. Enclosed by the piled rubble, the street was like a trench, channeling the mystic gale straight down the marching columns of troops, allowing none of its deadly impact to dissipate. Such was the dark power of the spell that hundreds of skeleton warriors who were trapped screamed in anguish, as their souls were torn from their corporal forms a second time”.- End Times, Nagash
It should be noted that in older lore this spell also existed as the Wind of Undeath which, though conjuring a weaker maelstorm, would allow the vampire to pull souls from the slain to create Spirit Hosts.
"Irritated by the sudden flush of need, he shoved past his bodyguards and thrust his gangly arms forward as if stabbing the air. It responded, thickening and curling around his gesturing fingers. He motioned towards the line of skaven and suddenly, the cavern echoed with the moan of spectral winds.
Cold and cacophonous, the air rushed across the dips and gullies of the cavern and washed across the skaven. Even as it did so, strange shapes seemed to gain shape and form within the roll and weft of the wind and they struck, grasping the skaven and tearing at them like phantasmal beasts. Everywhere the wind touched, skaven died, collapsing like grisly puppets that had just had their strings cut. And as they fell, wisps of something rose from their bodies to join the howling wind, adding to the spectral ranks that were now, like some deep-sea tick, freshly infused with blood, fully visible to the horrified eyes of the survivors.
The spectral host spread like the water from an emptied bucket, splashing over more and more of the skaven, ripping whatever vile essence passed for their souls from their bodies and adding them to its own ghostly ranks. Skaven died in droves, toppling in heaps and piles, the ghastly vapour rising from their twitching corpses. W’soran stepped forward, grinning happily. ‘That’s more like it,’ he said. The spirits of the dead swirled about him like leaves caught on the wind, and their moans caressed his ears like the sweetest music.' - Master of Death
LORE OF THE UNDEATH
As death magic
spreads throughout the world and the power of Nagash rises, the restless dead
forsake the grave. Every single
Wizard can harness the Lore of Undeath, drawing Zombies, Skeletons and
worse to the battlefield. The faction in question does not matter, and even
those that abhor necromancy, from High Elves to Chaos, can use this lore in at
least an emergency fashion (though obviously, the forces of Nagash will be more
inclined to use it). It’s a self-sustaining lore in that each time a full unit
is resurrected the power of Undeath in the world temporarily increases,
allowing the necromancer of this scenario to sum mon a few excess units (so if
a Necromancer summoned a couple dozen zombies, the excess necromantic magic
would bring up an addition 3-4 more than otherwise).
Ryze: Drawing
forth the dark energy coursing the land, the caster sends tendrils of power seeping
into the ground in search of long dead bodies to answer his summons. This spell
can allow the summoning of such creatures as zombies and skeleton
warriors, dire wolves or, with increased
effort, even elites like black guards (wights) .
“It was time. The necromancer tossed the bag
aside and stepped into the centre of the circle. He felt each tiny tremor of
energy in the web he’d created – a net of sorcerous power that he merely had to
speak the proper phrases and draw tight over the plain.
Nagash looked out across the open ground.
Skeletal figures waited in the darkness, silent and patient as death itself;
the hetman stood among them, his rune-sword glinting balefully.
Clenching his fists, Nagash threw back his
head and began to chant, spitting the arcane words into the sky. The arcane
symbols within the ritual circle blazed with light, and the bruised clouds
recoiled overhead, receding in every direction as the power of the
necromancer’s invocation spread in a great wave across the barrow plain.
Power flowed in a torrent from Nagash’s body,
racing across the fields and sinking like claws into the hundreds of barrow
mounds. The energies sought out every corpse, burrowing into rotting flesh and
yellowing bones and stirring up the ghosts of old memories buried within. The
spell was attuned to the worst passions of the human soul: anger, violence,
jealousy and hate, and it lent those memories a semblance of life.
Bodies trembled. Limbs twitched. Dead hands
clenched, scattering dust from decayed joints. Pitiless flames burned in the
depths of old, dead eyes.
Nagash felt them stir, hundreds of them,
caught within the strands of his sorcerous web. Ragged lips pulled back in a
triumphant snarl. ‘Come forth!’
he shouted into the tumult. ‘Your
master commands it!’
Sealed up in their earthen barrows, the dead
heard Nagash’s command, and they obeyed.
Hands clawed at muddy earth, or tore at
wooden boards. The earthen surfaces of the barrow mounds rippled and heaved.
Flashes of lightning silhouetted the stark outlines of skeletal figures
dragging themselves free from their graves.
Silent figures shambled out of the stormy
night, drawn by Nagash’s command. When the southern barrows had been emptied,
and a horde of more than a thousand skeletons stood at his back, the Undying
King stepped from the glowing circle and ordered his army to advance.”- Nagash
the Sorcerer
Morkhan - Breath of Darkness: The
wizard draws tendrils of the Wind of Death into a dark fog that restores the
undead and fills them with unholy vigor. Targets any undead unit within a
hundred feet of the caster and that unit will regains lost units and those
units become more formidable to damage. . For example it was this spell that helped the Undead weather volleys of longbow and trechubet in the siege of La Masontail Abbey, greatly reducing causalities. Has range of 50 meters.
Sulekhim- The Hand of Dust: Grasping hold of his foe,
the wizard pours forth the decaying power of ages, desiccating armor, flesh and
bone, and reducing his victim to dust in a heartbeat. Can only be done in close
combat and, if successful, all that stolen life force can be used to boost the
next spell cast.
“Eltharion lunged with
a roar worthy of his slain mount. Arkhan released his captive and spun.
Eltharion slammed into him, his hands closing about the liche’s bony neck.
Arkhan glared at the elf. ‘Release me, warrior.’ Eltharion
slammed him back against the cauldron as if to snap the liche in two. ‘Very
well. I have no more time for mercy.’
Arkhan’s hands snapped
up and caught the elf’s wrists. Instantly, a cloud of rust billowed up from
Eltharion’s vambraces. As Mannfred watched, the entropic curse consumed him. It
rippled across metal and flesh with equal aplomb, warping and cracking armour
as it withered flesh. The elf’s hair turned white and brittle, and his flesh
took on the consistency of parchment, but he did not release his hold on
Arkhan. To the last, his gaze held the liche’s.
Then, with barely a sigh,
Eltharion the Grim, Warden of Tor Yvresse, burst apart in a cloud of dust.”
– End Times: Return of Nagash
Khizaar- The Soul
Stealer: The Wizard tears souls from his victim’s bodies before breathing
unlife into their sundered corpses. Can be used on any unit within 50 meters,
with morale and leadership being the modifier. The weaker the unit’s morale and
leadership, the more this spell kills and any that are killed can be used as
fuel for further necromantic attacks.
Razkhar- the Abyssal
Swarm: The wind binds the bones of predatory creatures with dark magic,
drawing them from their grave. This spell can be used to summon bat swarms,
dire wolves, carrion vultures or locust swarms.
Kandorak – the
Harbinger: The greatest practitioners of the Dark Arts can summon forth the
most fearsome champions and creatures of the undeath. This can be a Cairn Wraith, Tomb Herald,
Necrotect or Necromancer. With additional power the caster can summon a monster
(such as a Necolith Colossus), chariot or war machine (like a shrieking skull
catapult).
Arkar’anan – the Dark
Riders: At the Wizard’s command the ground opens up to reveal a portal
through which long dead knights ride forth to do battle. This may include Tomb
King Skeletal Horsmen or Black Knights.
===LINE INFANTRY===
“Ululating Asoborn war horns signalled the
advance, and the infantry moved forward, moving at a brisk trot to cover the
ground between the two armies. Freya led the advance, her chariot thundering
towards the serried ranks of the dead with hundreds more behind her. The hard
ground threw up no dust with their passage, and the entire army witnessed the
horror of what happened next.
Before Freya’s horn blew to signal the turn,
Khaled al-Muntasir aimed his sword at the earth before the charging chariots.
The hard ground cracked and split as hundreds upon hundreds of dry, fleshless
corpses clawed their way to the world above, dust and earth spilling from their
empty skulls and opened jaws. Unable to stop or turn, the chariots slammed into
them with a tremendous crash of dried bone and wood.
Asoborn chariots were never meant to be run
straight into the enemy, but raced along the front of a foe’s formation.
Archers would loose arrows into the faces of the enemy at point-blank range,
and spear bearers would hurl heavy, iron-tipped shafts into the warriors
pressing in from behind. To run a chariot straight into the foe would certainly
kill a great many of the enemy, but would, more often than not, destroy the
chariot and kill the riders and horses.
The chariots came apart in a screaming bray
of pain, both animal and human. Most simply shattered in the impact, but some
overturned, crushing their crews and breaking the horses’ legs. The queen’s
chariot vanished in a crash of shattered timber, broken apart by the violence
of the impact. Hundreds more were destroyed in explosions of splintering
timber, hurling their crews to the ground or breaking them beneath the wheels
of those behind them. Only the quickest crews were able to avoid the catastrophic
collision of dead bodies and screaming horses, but in doing so they bled off
the speed that kept them safe.
Grasping skeletons clawed their way onto the
chariots, attacking with broken swords or cudgels salvaged from the vast swathe
of wreckage left by the destruction of the chariots. Khaled al-Muntasir swept
his sword up and hundreds of rotten-fleshed wolves burst from the ranks of the
dead warriors at the river. They fell upon the struggling Asoborns with
dreadful hunger, jaws tearing open throats and claws raking warm flesh from the
bone.
The warriors blocking the river crossing
marched forward in dreadful unison, each bony footfall crashing down at the
same time as they fell upon those the wolves hadn’t yet killed. Swords and
spears stabbed and slashed with mechanical precision, and the entangled
Asoborns were cut down without mercy.
(....)
“Aldred and Laredus turned and ran towards the gates of the
citadel, but they had covered barely half the distance when the ground
trembled. Glittering particles swirled in hundreds of miniature whirlwinds,
dust devils that spun and twisted like living things of spectral light. They
gathered form and solidity until hundreds of translucent figures stood between
them and the citadel, a lambent host of ancient men and women with eyes of pale
white and mouths stretched open in soundless screams.
The blood froze in Aldred’s veins.
An army of the dead behind them and a host of hungry ghosts
ahead of them.
They were trapped.”
“- Heldenhammer, Legend of Sigmar
End Times Magic
The End Times have come and with it Chaos in a much more powerful incarnation. The Magic of the End Times have been ripped from the Great Vortex that once stabilized it, resulting in the world being saturated with greater amounts of magical energy. Though this magic is far beyond the majority of magic users to utilize, those who have mastered the lores can deploy wholly unique spells of ultimate battlefield potency.
It should be noted that End Times Magic is not synonymous with Storms of Magic; as discussed later, these magic events represent breaks in reality that saturate the world with far more Chaos energy then exists on the planet now.
Summon Arcane Fulcrum: A magical fulcrum is a arcane conduit that inherently draws magic towards it, making it very powerful for the one who controls it. Though it can only be occupied by one at a time the sheer amount of magic surrounding the building gives the one who controls it magical protection in the form of a force-field that keeps most everything but artillery, magic, and exceptionally powerful foes out. As the fulcrum usually rises way above ground its difficult to assail by ground forces, too. That said the effect of any miscast on the fulcrum is magnified to terrible proportions.
As of the End Times, level 3-4 wizards (masters essentially, most wizards 1-2) can summon a fulcrum into existence.
The Spells the Undead Legion can use as a result of End Times Magic are below:
Assault on Stone (Lore of Light): Connecting his will with the dormant strands of Light Magic, the wizard reshapes the battlefield to his desires, crushing those unfortunate enough to be caught in the way of progress. Essentially it drops a small hill on a unit within 300 meters . If they fail to move out of the way in time, its crushed.
End Times Magic
The End Times have come and with it Chaos in a much more powerful incarnation. The Magic of the End Times have been ripped from the Great Vortex that once stabilized it, resulting in the world being saturated with greater amounts of magical energy. Though this magic is far beyond the majority of magic users to utilize, those who have mastered the lores can deploy wholly unique spells of ultimate battlefield potency.
It should be noted that End Times Magic is not synonymous with Storms of Magic; as discussed later, these magic events represent breaks in reality that saturate the world with far more Chaos energy then exists on the planet now.
Summon Arcane Fulcrum: A magical fulcrum is a arcane conduit that inherently draws magic towards it, making it very powerful for the one who controls it. Though it can only be occupied by one at a time the sheer amount of magic surrounding the building gives the one who controls it magical protection in the form of a force-field that keeps most everything but artillery, magic, and exceptionally powerful foes out. As the fulcrum usually rises way above ground its difficult to assail by ground forces, too. That said the effect of any miscast on the fulcrum is magnified to terrible proportions.
As of the End Times, level 3-4 wizards (masters essentially, most wizards 1-2) can summon a fulcrum into existence.
The Spells the Undead Legion can use as a result of End Times Magic are below:
Malediction of
Nagash(Lore of Undeath) : At the
Necromancer’s command, his enemies feel the looming shadow of undeath fall
across them, sapping their strength and endurance. Targets all enemy units in
300 meters, making them weaker in those two areas. Lasts until the caster casts
another spell.
The Army of Doom Keep
(Lore of the Vampires): Long ago, a powerful Elf mage imprisoned a large
Wight force and their keep in the Realm of Chaos. When the Winds of Magic howl
and the forces of the undeath have mastery, its servents can summon portions of
their powerful army on the field, gaining Wight Kings and Grave Guards.
The Return of the
Golden Age (Lore of Nekehara) : The Liche Priest focuses his incantations
and restores to the army strength and vigor that they might have enjoyed alive.
This powerful spell makes the entire Tomb King army on the field boosting their
physical strength, skill at arms and reaction times by various degrees (the
actual Tomb Kings get the largest boosts, while basic skeleton warriors only
get a small boost. Note this spell does not apply to constructs.
Bridge of Shadows (Lore of Shadow): At the wizard’s
command, a bridge of shadow and spite whisks a friendly unit across the
battlefield. With a range of the wizard’s line of sight, this can be used to
remove a friendly unit that is suffering in combat behind friendly lines to
safety or potentially re-position another unit in a place disadvantageous to
the enemy. Its only limits are line of sight and the fact that the unit cannot
be teleported onto impassible terrain or already existing units.
Ashes and Dust (Lore of Death): A choking dust cloud
(around 20 meters diameter) emerges from the wizard’s finger tips before being
unleashed on the enemy. Though the cloud itself can be resisted easily enough
by those with sufficient strength, it can travel many dozens of meters before
dissipating. As always if miscast this spell appears directly on top of the
casting wizard before flowing into friendly troops.
Enlightenment (Lore
of Light): The Light Wizard uses the Lore of Light to strength the
righteous and banish the unrighteous. As
the Lore of the Light separates between Order and Destruction forces, and
Nagash’s horde is almost entirely composed of destruction, they don’t get any
buffs. The destruction part targets enemies and banishes them whose will is too
low to resist.
STORM OF MAGIC
When the Winds blow at a tempest far beyond their normal
parameters they form massive storms or even hurricanes of energy. Inside these
storms reality is warped on every level; inanimate objects come alive, time
flows differently and the daemonic presence reaches a all time high. These are
the Storms of Magic or sometimes known as the Storm of Chaos, and their onset
can define epochs and spell the doom of entire civilizations. In comparison to End Times Magic, which is always there and latent, Storm of Magic is a rare and cataclysmic
It is inside these giant storms that all Winds of Magic
output, normally limited, is super-charged. Mages can unleash truly army
destroying spells, unleash fantastic monsters, or even summon hordes of minions
from Beyond. Each and every time a Storm of Magic has been unleashed it has
signified a major event from the death
of Nekehara to the rebirth of Nagash.
Storms of Chaos are normally fickle things, occurring
usually only after great magical expenditures (not always) and lasting anywhere
from days to a couple seconds. The Undead Legions generally do not have the techniques to
extend or create Storms that the Legions of Chaos have(though Nagash created one at least once) , and thus they can be
considered very rare for this profile. When they occur however, they shall be
powerful weapons (and perhaps danger!) for those who can utilize them, so long
as its remembered that daemons are naturally attracted to these warpstorms.
MAGIC IN THE STORM OF MAGIC
When the Storms of Magic get rolling, they offer a greater
quantity of magic to harness just from the outset. In addition at times one of
the various Winds of Magic, or a subset, holds dominance over the others,
making it easier to cast spells of that type and for less cost of magic. For
example if the Wind of Aqshy holds dominant then Level 3 wizards might
reasonably expect to be able to call upon those firestorms that previously only
Level 4’s could.
Before Storm of Magic specific spells can be discussed, it
is important to mention arcane fulcrums, for they are essential to
understanding what follows. These fulcrums can be either magical or otherwise
important buildings in the vicinity. Sometimes too, when none are available,
they are summoned randomly into existence, appearing with no particular pattern
throughout the battlefield. These fulcrums are key to successfully controlling
the Winds of Magic enough to permit massively powerful spells that can be
divided into three categories; presence, equilibrium, and dominance.
Presence can be cast as soon as just one arcane fulcrum is
captured and be kept so long as one is head. Equilibrium spells refer to a
situation where the Winds are evenly contested; unlocking some new spells to
attempt to shake control. Dominance spells are only unlocked when the faction
has clear control over the Winds of Magic, being capable of using it all or
most of it on an opponent. These are the most devastating spells and can truly
remove whole chunks from the enemy. Of course those who have unlocked dominance
spells can cast all the others before it. Which is beneficial, as those Dominance
is the hardest state to achieve, as all the enemy has to do is hold-but not
use- fulcrums to deny this advantage. That said, with the ability of
The price of messing up spells can be extreme. The arcane
fulcrum can explode, killing the wizard and his allies nearby, it can create a
300 meter aura of darkness that prevents the wizard and his allies (or enemies
trapped within) from seeing anything, cause spontaneous transformation or
temporal displacement. This transformation may make it so all wizards using the
Winds of Magic on the battlefield turn into frogs temporarily or that the
miscasting wizard turns into a ferocious monster, stopping him from using any
magic but giving that side a monster to use! Temporal displacement includes
randomly switching the location of fulcrums (and the wizard occupying it)
around the battlefield, even temporarily removing all of them and
redistributing them! Sometimes magic bursts free from its creator to be used
potentially by the enemy.
PRESENCE
Ribauld’s Retroactive Illusion (Lore of Shadow): A
shadow wizard of sufficient guile can stretch his illusions into the past,
deceiving the enemy long before battle. Cast anywhere within 300 meters.
Essentially this odd description means that the wizard can choose to place like
a small forest or stream suddenly in front of a portion the enemy troops to
slow them down and likely cause aiming problems. It cannot be anything
impassible however, like a mountain or lake.
The Choking Foe (Lore of Death): Purple energy oozes
from the wizard’s eyes, ears, nose and mouth to form a suffocating mass that
flows over an enemy unit. Can be cast on any funit within a kilometer and can
only be resisted through strong willpower. Failing that and the unit will
ultimately suffocate to death.
Djedra's Incantation
of the Eternal Dead(Lore of Nekehara) : The Liche Priest stirs the spirits
of the land, inciting them in violent deeds against the living . This boosts
the power of Liche Priest resurrection abilities, allowing Liche Priests to
more easily replenish losses.
Equilibrium
Time Amok (Lore of
Light) : The Wizard reach into the tapestry of fate, altering the flow of
time to suit his allies need. Essentially this creates a brief time warp around
allies but not enemies, allowing them an extra chance to hit in melee or fire
at range. So essentially if musketeers
can fire two volleys in a minute, they will get three.
DOMINANCE
Assault on Stone (Lore of Light): Connecting his will with the dormant strands of Light Magic, the wizard reshapes the battlefield to his desires, crushing those unfortunate enough to be caught in the way of progress. Essentially it drops a small hill on a unit within 300 meters . If they fail to move out of the way in time, its crushed.
The Dance of Despair (Lore of Shadow): The Shadow
Wizard’s most potent spell, it targets all enemy units on the battlefield. When
casting the wizard produces a string-less fiddle and haunting dirge that takes
all sense of hope and urgency from his enemies’ minds. This has has the effect
of making all units lackluster in melee and ranged combat, reaction time and
morale to bare minimum. Only the death of the wizard, the dispelling of the
magic, or a miscast can stop this spell once in place.
Crystal Maze (Lore of Death): The wizard reaches into
the magical realms, drawing forth a portion of that great crystal labyrinth of
legend to bind an enemy unit. Sometimes these units manage to escape
immediately, sometimes it takes them a long time, and sometimes they are stuck
forever in that maze.
Lore of Undeath
Though the Lore of Undeath has no set Storm of Magic spell, it should be noted that in Storm of Magic situations it can be used to raise thousands or even tens of thousands of minions at once! This was done first by Nagash with Nekehaa when the Tomb Kings were raised (though after many exhaustive days of ritual) and then by Vlad a couple times, including recently in the defense of Altdorf, where he used the magic of the daemon-spawned storm combined with a power boost by Nagash and his own potent sorcery to raise essentially everyone who ever lived in that city.
“The Vampire Count stood upon the highest point of the
castle, the mountain’s teeth rising into the moonlight behind him like ghostly
fangs.
‘Hear me!’ he called out into the darkness. ‘Obey me!’
And he began to recite the incantation. Even as the first
words left his mouth the heavens above split with a mighty crack and the first
fat drops of rain began to fall. The ravens exploded from their nests, cawing
frantically as they circled, a seething mass of black wings. From nothing rose
a storm so violent it ripped and tore at the roof slates of Drakenhof and sent
the loose ones spinning into the night to shatter on impact as they fell from
the sky. Posner stood implacably in the midst of the driving rain. Beside him
Isabella’s expression was one of delicious expectancy. Vlad’s obsessive chant
was caught and ripped away into the night by the rising wind, the impact of his
words carried to the farthest corners of Sylvania. Driven, he plunged on,
calling out to the vilest forces in the universe, demanding they bend to his
will.
Ganz raised his head to stare at the man he revered. The
winds howling around the battlements rose to gale force. Sheets of rain pounded
the mountainside. Amid the eye of the storm the Vampire Count threw back his
head and bellowed another command from Nagash’s damned book. The words meant
nothing to Ganz. The wind tore at von Carstein’s clothes and hair, buffeting
and battering him. He read on, caught up in the sheer power of the incantation,
his words tripping over themselves in their eagerness to be free of his mouth.
Thunder crashed. A spear of brilliant white lightning split the night.
The transformation of Vlad von Carstein was highlighted in
another jag of lightning; in the space of a few gut-wrenching syllables his
face elongated and hardened into the bestial mask of the vampire, the contours
of his brow sharpened, a feral snarl curling his lips, baring long canine
incisors. The Vampire Count threw his head back against the wind, demanding the
dead rise and do his bidding.
‘Come to me! Rise! Walk again my children! Rise! Rise!
Rise!’
And across the land the dead heard his call and stirred.
Bodies so long underground the flesh had been stripped by
maggots and worms clawed and scratched at the confines of their coffins,
chipping and splintering their skeletal fingers as they tore through first the
cloth shroud and then the coffin lid. In their mass graves, newly dead plague
victims sighed and shuddered as the agony of life returned to their revived
corpses, the sickness that had stolen their lives, eaten away at their flesh
and stilled their heart not enough to deny the call of the Vampire Count. In
secluded corners of the province, forgotten by all but the murderers who left
them there, the dirt of the unconsecrated graves hidden in forests and fields
and roadside ditches rippled and churned as their restless residents gave
themselves to a slow painful rebirth.”
"The effect was immediate. All across the city, from the burning tenements to the moss-strangled walls of the Imperial Palace, the slime-covered soils started to shift. Just as at Wurtbad, at Kemperbad, and at every other staging-post along the great rivers, Vlad’s command of the Wind of Shyish was total. Whatever lingering power of faith that had existed over Altdorf had long been shattered by the Leechlord’s spells, and so the very fabric of Chaos came to the vampire’s aid.
The first to lift themselves were those slain in the night’s fighting. Cadavers rose from the mud, shaking off the wounds that had ended them and lurching instinctively towards the unwary servants of the plague-god. Huge piles of the dead had been dragged together before the two occupied gates, all of which suddenly began to twitch and stir.
The newly-killed were soon joined by those who had been in the cold earth for far longer. Forgotten graveyards trembled and shifted, their soils broken by dozens of clawed hands. With a sigh of ghostly half-breath, a new army arose amid the terror of the plague-rain, unaffected by fear and undaunted by the driving torrents of pus. They locked blank eyes onto the daemons, and marched towards them. All but the weakest of the aethyr-born were able to dispatch them easily, but the numbers soon rose, clogging the already claustrophobic streets with gangs of silent, eerily calm fighters.
Altdorf had been settled since the time of Sigmar, and had roots going back to the very dawn of human civilisation. With every passing moment, older warriors emerged from the slurry underfoot, tunnelling up from deep catacombs beneath lost chapels and warrior-temples. Armour that had not been seen for generations was exposed again to the uncertain light, and long-lost sigils of fallen houses were illuminated by the ravening flames.
Last of all, dredged up from the river itself, came the first inhabitants of the old Reik homesteads, the tribesmen who had marched with Sigmar himself as he forged his empire in blood. They crawled out of the stinking muds of the viscous waters, clutching onto the chains that still hung across the great wharfs. They emerged into the open, grim-faced, shaggy with stiff beards and long hair, their arms marked with bronze rings and their weapons beaten from iron. Unlike the later generations that had been raised, these looked as hale and strong as they had in life, save for the dull lack of awareness in their faces. They did not gaze in amazement at the enormous structures around them, despite their last living view of the city as a tiny fortress of wooden walls and stockades. All they had retained from their former existence was a primordial hatred of the enemies of mankind, and they raised their blades against the daemons without a moment’s hesitation. The blades that had once been borne alongside the living god retained more potency against the daemonic than any others, and soon the fighting was joined all along the riverbanks. Implacable undead took on the foul denizens of the Other Realm in bloodless, bitter combat."- Fall of Altdorf
Zombies
Mobility: 2
Training: 0
Max Range: Grabbing
Preferred Range: Teeth
"“Noxious fumes filled the tunnels, choking cloying fumes that sapped the air from around the dead. It was a pity for the rats that the dead had no need of anything as prosaic as air. The battle was joined with a clash of bone and fur on rusty blades. A sleek black-furred ratman swung the ball joint of a human leg embedded with a razor of saw-toothed bone into shambling zombie. The bone stuck in rancid flesh. Shrieking, the skaven warrior tore his makeshift weapon free of his dead foe and slammed it again and again into the dead man’s rotten face. The bone razor made an ungodly mess, slicing through nose and cheek, opening an impossibly wide smile of flapping skin. Then the dead fell on the rat man and the shrieking turned to terrified screams as the zombie’s chipped and broken finger bones clawed into its eyes and pulled at its skull, until it had opened the ratman’s head and was feasting on the mulch of brain beneath.”-Retribution,Vampire Wars
"“Noxious fumes filled the tunnels, choking cloying fumes that sapped the air from around the dead. It was a pity for the rats that the dead had no need of anything as prosaic as air. The battle was joined with a clash of bone and fur on rusty blades. A sleek black-furred ratman swung the ball joint of a human leg embedded with a razor of saw-toothed bone into shambling zombie. The bone stuck in rancid flesh. Shrieking, the skaven warrior tore his makeshift weapon free of his dead foe and slammed it again and again into the dead man’s rotten face. The bone razor made an ungodly mess, slicing through nose and cheek, opening an impossibly wide smile of flapping skin. Then the dead fell on the rat man and the shrieking turned to terrified screams as the zombie’s chipped and broken finger bones clawed into its eyes and pulled at its skull, until it had opened the ratman’s head and was feasting on the mulch of brain beneath.”-Retribution,Vampire Wars
Of classic Romero fame, Zombies are one of the most
common units raised to fight for the vampire counts. They can be described as upright, rotting
corpses, with wounds evident to all, which is now somehow animated and possessed
with an insatiable hunger for the living. To acquire that feast they will
pursue the living ( or whoever their controlling necromancers direct them to)
to the ends of the earth, continuing blindly as their limbs fall off, they are
assaulted ceaselessly by the elements, and their bodies are proliferated with
all sorts of wounds. Only decapitation or the destruction of the brain can
destroy them.
Zombies are easily created and just as importantly easily
modified by accompanying necromancers. Those that lose arms see them replaced
with spiked or rusted railings, broken backs are hammered into solidity with
nails or planks, and hacked off fingers are replaced with spikes or
arrowheads. The enemy dead will quickly
be raised, even in battle, as zombies, and indeed almost all recently dead are
created as this.
Individually there are few trained foes that would have
difficulty (re)killing such a corpse. Zombies are slow, stupid, and predictable
in their movements, with only durability proving to be a real challenge.
However Necromancers and Vampires raise
the bodies of the recently diseased en masse, and for that reason they usually
appear in great hordes on the battlefield. Where individually a skilled warrior
could destroy one with contemptuous ease against a horde s/he will be pulled
down by countless rotting hands, to be slowly and gruesomely torn apart by the
ravenous undead. Zombies are tireless while their enemies (usually) are not,
and for that reason a favorite tactic of the Vampire Counts it to assault enemy
elite units with hordes of zombies, exhausting them for whatever elite unit the
vampire count sends next.
Offensive: Hands and
teeth. A few might wave around weapons haphazardly, while others have weapons
affixed to them by necromancers. Their
greatest strength is numbers however, and hordes of them can bring down and
lowly pull even superhuman enemies apart.
Defensive: Their brain must be destroyed to put the Zombie down. Other wounds, barring much dismemberment, only
slow them down.Fire will take them down, but take a while. Plagues nd other thing noxious have no effect,
even some of the most powerful plagues in existence.
“After what seemed an eternity, the enemy
appeared to finally notice the plague monks. First a few, then several dozen of
the stink-things turned around to stare with glazed eyes at the fallow field.
It took the creatures almost a minute to react to the approaching enemy, but
when they finally did it was with chilling purposefulness. The stink-things
advanced in a shambling mass towards the creeping skaven.
As the foe began to emerge from the graveyard,
Vrask rose to his feet and snarled a command to his green-robed fanatics. The
plague monks rose from the earth, the foremost of them bearing massive poles of
brass and bronze, a metal ball suspended from the tip by a length of chain.
Chittering their heretical psalms, the ratmen tore away the thick folds of
cloth bundled about the cage-like orbs. With the covering removed, noxious
fumes billowed from inside each censer as strips of plague-ridden meat slowly
dissolved beneath a coating of acid.
Even from a distance, Skrittar could sense the
deadly properties of those pestilential fumes. He could see the exposed arms of
the plague monks shedding fur, could smell their naked skin blistering in the
caustic clouds. Corrosion dripped down the metal poles and from the spiked frames
of the censer balls. Nothing living could withstand such a lethal admixture!
Skrittar’s thrill of triumph faded as the
plague monks charged into the slowly advancing zombies. Swinging their censers
like enormous flails, the skaven fanned the fumes full into the faces of the
stink-things. Flesh peeled and blistered, the foul sores and buboes of the
Black Plague spread across enemy skin. It was a hideous, magnificent sight! But
that magnificence soon transformed into horror. The ghastly damage the censers visited
upon the stink-things, the corrosive disease that should have slaughtered an
entire city of humans, did little more than slow the creatures down. The odd
bit, an arm here, an ear there, dropped away when the flesh binding it to the
body became too corroded to restrain it, but the loss scarcely phased the
stink-things. With monotonous, steady tread, the undead closed upon Vrask’s
disciples.
The Black Plague, that much touted super-weapon
of Clan Pestilens’ had failed! For an instant, Skrittar wondered if the plague
priest had tried to trick him, to fob off some fraudulent strain of pox as the
infamous Death, but a single sniff of the abject horror in Vrask’s scent told
him otherwise. Vrask was genuinely shocked at the plague’s ineffectiveness. He
stood in the field, watching as the stink-things advanced towards his disciples
and began to drag them down one after another, rending them with rotten hands
and smashing them down with rusty spades. His shock was such that only when his
disciples began to flee past him did Vrask’s instinctual self-preservation kick
in. –Blighted Winter
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Some Texts show them to be somewhat more common than skeletons,
courtesy of bodies of the recently slain are closer to the surface and thus
easier to locate then skeletons.
Skeleton
Warriors
Mobility: 2
Training: 2-3 (can recall
faint memories from battles past)
Max Range: Spear
Preferred Range: Melee
The world in which the Vampire Counts inhabit is full of
countless battles and battlefields, many of which are older than recorded
history. Some of these great battlefields hold souls, faint and usually
undetectable, among the skeletons that lie deep in the earth, with the spirits
trapped in that location and denied an afterlife. When a necromancer comes along these bitter
spirits are ready and eager for a chance to unleash their anger at such a fate.
Skeleton Warriors have only very faint memories of the
past and what thoughts they have are instead dominated by compulsion to obey
the absolute whims of their masters, for necromancy can only return a faint
semblance of their spirt. They are (like
zombies) fearless and unbreakable, and will march into the most hellish
conditions imaginable without any problems. Any cohesion problems that might
exist within the ranks are erased, as Imperial marches side by side with Elves,
Northmen, and Dwarves without issue.
Skeletons are animated by dark magic and can be destroyed
by disrupting that flow. Though they can still manage to survive the
destruction of limbs decapitation, the destruction of the spine or an extremely
heavy blow will send the skeleton pieces flying. That said skeletons are
cognizant enough to block if able (unlike zombies) and often appear in such
great hordes that it becomes difficult to focus on any single individual.
LOADOUT
Offensive: Swords, spears
, axes ect are among the most common. Sometimes rarer weapons might exist
depending on who they were in life. Though throwing weapons aren't common, on at least one occasion they were able to use throwing spears.
Defense: Skeleton durability
in that they can take arrows and other such projectiles with greater ease then
a man, but weapons hitting bones will destroy the dark magic binding them. Some
might also be wearing rusted armor from their previous lives that provides a
modicum of protection.
===ADDITINOAL FACTORS==
Skeletons might have musicians or bannermen, the former
playing a haunting, spectral melody. Rarely the latter might carry a magical
banner.
Crypt
Ghouls
Training: 1
Mobility: 4
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
Crypt Ghouls are not ghouls at all, but rather mutated
and repulsive humans that, for some reason or another, have turned to
cannibalism not as an emergency, but for primary substance. At first it was the
tribesmen of the Far South who, in trying to be like Nagash, consumed the flesh
of their own dead to win his approval. Later it became anyone who delved into
cannibalism for whatever reason and feasted on the dark magic inherent in many
corpses of the slain, becoming addicted to it. Many of these cannibals haunt
tombs and catacombs of the Old World, preying on lone wanderers and recently
diseased alike. Hence the name.
When a Necromancer or Vampire encounters them they can
usually dominate their weak minds with the promise of Dark Magic and force them
into obedience, using them in great groups as troops for their armies. There
they are deployed as troops, sometimes front line ones, to horrify and assault
the enemy. However Crypt Ghouls are cowards who retreat many times when
possible and must often be forced back into combat by their masters. Furthermore, Crypt Ghouls are not intelligent
by any means and must be directed by their masters, being famously
ill-disciplined.
Nevertheless the Crypt Ghoul is a potent foe in battle,
as years of hard living and feasting on unholy flesh has given them a thick
hide that can shrug off minor wounds, as well as the durability to live through
blows that would kill many of the (healthy) living humans. Their long claws and
teeth contain grave filth, rotting meat, and terrible infections, so that
living foes attacked by them often die soon after.
LOADOUT
Offensive: A few have
primitive implements like bone-knives or spears. However their most known
weapon is their toxic claws and teeth.
"‘No!’ cried one of the Forsaken to Nagash’s right. He was an older man, with streaks of grey in his beard, and a barrel-like body clad in bronze and leather armour. He stepped forward, shaking his fist at Bragadh first, then at Nagash. ‘We are true men, not slaves!’ he said. He turned to face Nagash, his expression savage. ‘I would sooner choose death than to betray my god and serve the likes of you!’
Nagash regarded the old village leader for a moment. ‘As you wish,’ he said.
At once, the Yaghur were upon him. Sleek, misshapen figures burst from the passageway, racing past their master and leaping on the man. Their bodies were hunched, naked and hairless, covered in layers of dried blood and filth, and they propelled themselves across the packed earth floor using all four limbs, like mad, bloodthirsty apes.
A baying chorus of terrible, ululating howls filled the great hall as they seized the old man in their clawed hands and dragged him off his feet. Jagged, rotting teeth sank into the barbarian’s face and neck. He tried to struggle, screaming in terror and pain, but the creatures held him fast. Flesh tore like rotting cloth; hot blood sprayed through the air, and the man’s screams became a choking death-rattle. The Yaghur tore at the man’s body with their claws, ripping apart his armour to get to the warm meat beneath. Their howls transformed into slobbering, chewing sounds as the monsters began to feast."-Nagash the Sorceror
"‘No!’ cried one of the Forsaken to Nagash’s right. He was an older man, with streaks of grey in his beard, and a barrel-like body clad in bronze and leather armour. He stepped forward, shaking his fist at Bragadh first, then at Nagash. ‘We are true men, not slaves!’ he said. He turned to face Nagash, his expression savage. ‘I would sooner choose death than to betray my god and serve the likes of you!’
Nagash regarded the old village leader for a moment. ‘As you wish,’ he said.
At once, the Yaghur were upon him. Sleek, misshapen figures burst from the passageway, racing past their master and leaping on the man. Their bodies were hunched, naked and hairless, covered in layers of dried blood and filth, and they propelled themselves across the packed earth floor using all four limbs, like mad, bloodthirsty apes.
A baying chorus of terrible, ululating howls filled the great hall as they seized the old man in their clawed hands and dragged him off his feet. Jagged, rotting teeth sank into the barbarian’s face and neck. He tried to struggle, screaming in terror and pain, but the creatures held him fast. Flesh tore like rotting cloth; hot blood sprayed through the air, and the man’s screams became a choking death-rattle. The Yaghur tore at the man’s body with their claws, ripping apart his armour to get to the warm meat beneath. Their howls transformed into slobbering, chewing sounds as the monsters began to feast."-Nagash the Sorceror
Defensive: Though wearing
only a loin cloth, their hide is physically tougher than a humans. In some
pieces of ancient lore the Strigoi used to force armor onto them.
Tomb
King Legions
Mobility: 4
Training/Experience:
3-4
Max Range: 300 meters
Preferred Range: Melee or arrow range.
In the golden age of Nehekara, the Kings of that great
land had vast armies that would span the horizon. With these legions of high
disciplined warriors, they carved out an empire that spanned from the edge of
Lizardman territory in the southlands up into the regions of the old world that
would eventually become the Realm of Sigmar. When the Kings died, they had
their legions buried alongside them in full gear, ready to serve their immortal
king in the next life time.
When the Skeleton warriors awoke, they did not remember
anything from their past lives other than their utter devotion to their liege,
and the combat skills drilled into them in life from years of warfare and
training. Thus, skeleton warriors combine the best of the undead and the
living. They maintain all the fighting prowess they had in life, while also
being utterly obedient and fearless. At the slightest gesture from their King,
entire formations turn as one, slaughtering the enemy with a combination of
machine like precision and mortal skill.
Meanwhile Skeleton Archers harry the enemy from afar with
arrows in such quantity that they are said to block out the sun. Like the
Skelaton Warrior the archers are utterly methodical in the application of
warfare, and remember little except their countless years of archery practice. They
suffer from no fatigue, unlike real archers, and will fire until completely out
of ammunition, travelling hundreds of miles to pursue down the enemy if
necessary.
Together the Skelation Warrior and Archer, though archaic,
form the main composition of the Tomb King force. Even though their armory and
defense is still bronze the Tomb King Legions have carried on campaigns to
every corner of the world, even in the hellish Chaos Wastes. Between unrelenting legions of warriors who do
not break even when pressed by monstorous foes, and archers unleashing enormous
quantities of firepower, it is little wonder that even foes well beyond the
Tomb King’s technological abilities continues to lose to them.
“A shadow fell over him. Not that of a vampire. Detached, rendered numb by the nearness of death, he looked up, expecting to see the cowled and cloaked shape of Morr, the god of death, come to collect him at last. Instead, he saw a different sort of death.
“A shadow fell over him. Not that of a vampire. Detached, rendered numb by the nearness of death, he looked up, expecting to see the cowled and cloaked shape of Morr, the god of death, come to collect him at last. Instead, he saw a different sort of death.
Arrows, hundreds of them, fell in a
graceful arc, descending with a communal whistle that split the air more
effectively than any rumble of thunder. Felix closed his eyes. The vampires
crouched over him screamed and thrashed as they were perforated by multiple
arrows. Felix’s eyes sprang open as he realised that death had, for the moment,
passed him by yet again.
He sat up, and saw that most of the
vampires were down, arrows sticking from them. Some had been struck so many
times that they resembled overlarge hedgehogs rather than blood-drinking
monsters.”- Gotrek and Felix: Tomb of the Serpent Queen
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Most Skeleton
warriors wield spears and shields, which are used mainly in phalanx formation.
Others wield maces, khopeshes, swords, axes and other weapons common throughout
Nehekara.
Skelaton Archers bear the Arrows
of Asaph: Each arrow is blessed by Asaph,
the goddess of vengeance and magic. Arrows twist in midair to better hit the
enemy, aiming for weak spots in armor or getting through light cover. They also
have a emergency hand weapon (Khopesh, dagger ect) in case they are totally
unable to avoid melee.
“The tomb king turned his crowned skeletal head towards
his skeleton archers. Raising his golden-edged sword, he signaled them to lose
their arrows skyward. Before the first cloud of arrows had descended into the
ranks of the orcs and goblins, a second volley was airborne. King Phar watched
in satisfaction as arrows that appeared to be sailing over the heads of the
enemy twisted in mid-flight, careening down into the centre of the greenskins
formations. Hundreds fell with the first volley, followed by more seconds
later.”
Defensive: Many Warriors carry a shield
of rusted bronze for protection and a
few may wear light light armor such as worn leather or reptile hide. Skelaton archers have no armor and must keep
enemies at range.
===Additional Factors===
Skelaton Warriors and Archers, if they succeed in battle,
will always ensure that the slain pieces of their fellows are brought back to
the tombs where they may be healed. They also come equipped with musicians and
standard bearers. Unlike with the Vampire Counts, who can easily replenish skeletons by simply animating them from the environment, Tomb King Legions are composed of only those that were Nehekaran in life.
Line Breakers
Crypt
Horror
Mobility: 6
Training: 4-5
Max Range: Smash!
Preferred Range: Smash
Crypt Horrors are considered an abomination even to the
Vampire Counts, for it takes a truly horrible ritual to create them. To do so a Vampire- usually a Strigoi- must
open up their vein and allow a lowly crypt ghoul to drink from it. This is
something vampires are extremely reluctant to do with all but their most
promising followers, much less a unit they view as filth. Nevertheless a few
Ghoul Kings encourage the practice for there are tangible rewards.
The Crypt Horror mutates into something several times
larger and stronger than a cowardly, weak ghoul, being now able to go toe to
toe with an Ogre in a wrestling contest and win. Magical wards that deflect the
living or undead do not work on the Crypt Horror , being sufficient only enough
to piss it off and smash them. As this is often cemetery wards the Vampire can
then resurrect the dead with impunity. Finally their regeneration factor is
increased to a near insane point, being almost akin to trollish in a sense.
Crypt Horrors are used as shock troops by their ghoul
king commanders, able to smash through enemy lines with makeshift tombstones ,
cemetery railings, or the various protrusions that emerge from their body. Like
regular ghouls, their infected claws are something to be truly feared.
Offensive: Makeshift
tombstones, cemetery railings, other large objects. Their claws are poisonous
to kill a horse.
Defensive: Increased
durability and potent regeneration means it can be very hard to put one down.
This, combined with their somewhat-undead nature, means dismemberment, fire or
decapitation are the best bets. Rarely one might be bolted into armor as shown by Master of Death.
Grave
Guard
Mobility: 3
Training: 5
Max range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
Grave Guards or Wights are the elite of the skeleton regiments,
rightly feared among the Dwarf, Elf and Human nations. These skeleton warriors
have existed for centuries, eternally read and prepared to serve their undead
masters. Many are warriors thousands of years old and are clad in ancient
alloy, some of which predates even Sigmar!
Grave Guards are Wights, which are rare skelatons that
have managed to retain their souls. In Warhammer Fantasy, this event is
because, 90% of the time, their souls were bound to their bodies via magic and
ritual as they died, for otherwise their souls travel to the warp to either be
dispersed or else consumed by daemons/gods. Its extraordinarily rare for a
necromancer to find a daemon that has the skeleton’s soul, much less wrestle
for control of it (Nagash is the only known individual who has done so. See
Krell).
Thanks to multiple layers of protection and inherent,
skeleton durable they can be considered tanks on the battlefield. Arrows,
crossbows and guns will rarely take them down, and indeed in one tale they
withstood Wood Elven expert archery quite handily, even when blows were taken
to unprotected regions like the eyeholes. Only by calling upon Tree-Kin were
the Wood Elves able to prevail then…and the necromancer in charge quickly
resurrected them a little while later.
Their weaponry is supposedly magically enchanted for
maximum damage and can hit ethereal targets. Little Wonder the Vampires have them as bodyguards of both their persons
and their property.
Offensive: Swords, axes
and the like. Might also carry halberds, great axes ect. Older texts and novels
gave them Wight Blades, which is a special weapon that counts as a magical
blade . It ignores armor and is cursed to drain life from foes. Very few survive its touch.
"Wight blades flickered through the air, slicing through armour and sinking into flesh. The blades froze the blood and silenced the hearts of those they touched; Nagash watched ratmen stagger beneath the blows, their last breaths billowing in jets of glittering vapour as they fell."- Nagash the Immortal
"Wight blades flickered through the air, slicing through armour and sinking into flesh. The blades froze the blood and silenced the hearts of those they touched; Nagash watched ratmen stagger beneath the blows, their last breaths billowing in jets of glittering vapour as they fell."- Nagash the Immortal
Defensive: Heavy armor,
shields and natural skeleton durability. The text describes them as weathering
barrages from Wood Elves with minimal losses.
===Additional Factors ===
Like Skelaton Warriors they have musicians, bannermen,
and with the possibility of carrying a magical banner.
Vargheists
Mobility: 7 (flying)
Training: 5
Max Range: Claws
Preferred Range: ^^
Varghesits were once vampires, serving as the elites of
society and carrying an arrogant disdain of human chattel, believing themselves
far above their petty concerns. Now they have devolved into bloodthirsty
monsters, a pale shadow of what they once were. These winged creatures lurk
around the battlefield in packs, waiting to pounce on enemy weak points and
tear a hole in the enemy lines if able.
This transformation, unlike the Varghul, is deliberate
and unwanted on part of the owner. What happens is a Vampire Lord- Von
Carsteins being an example- will lock up a member of their family that has
fallen out of favor in a deep catacomb, entombing them without any access to
blood. Over time these vampires grow insane, for although they do not need to
breathe they do need blood to keep their intelligence. They begin to transform,
becoming a more powerful beast that- eventually- breaks out of their catacombs,
now much stronger. The moment they drink blood the transformation is sealed.
"Von Korden called out a warning as three massive, winged figures fell out of the misted skies and screeched towards the Myrmidian riders. The fiends were huge, their leathery pinions expansive enough to cover a horse nomad’s wagon. Vargheists, the Sylvanians called them – lesser von Carsteins who had been altered to a form more pleasing to their elders’ desires.
The monsters threw their clawed legs forward as they landed, grabbing at the knights like swooping raptors seizing up vermin. Two of the armoured warriors were plucked from their saddles and borne screaming up into the air. The witch hunter fired a long-range pistol shot, blasting a chunk of hip from the largest of the beasts. The Silver Bullets followed suit, their volley of shot tearing the wing of one of the vargheists and slamming into the torso of another. The wheeling creatures screamed and released their prey, letting their captives drop into the battle below.
One of the falling knights ploughed into the ranks of the Tattersouls, bowling several of them over just as they charged into the corpses shuffling out of the town’s broken gates. The momentum of the charging zealots faltered as confusion broke out in their ranks. Some looked in rapturous awe at freshly broken bones, others looked skywards to see if Sigmar himself was throwing down reinforcements."
"Von Korden called out a warning as three massive, winged figures fell out of the misted skies and screeched towards the Myrmidian riders. The fiends were huge, their leathery pinions expansive enough to cover a horse nomad’s wagon. Vargheists, the Sylvanians called them – lesser von Carsteins who had been altered to a form more pleasing to their elders’ desires.
The monsters threw their clawed legs forward as they landed, grabbing at the knights like swooping raptors seizing up vermin. Two of the armoured warriors were plucked from their saddles and borne screaming up into the air. The witch hunter fired a long-range pistol shot, blasting a chunk of hip from the largest of the beasts. The Silver Bullets followed suit, their volley of shot tearing the wing of one of the vargheists and slamming into the torso of another. The wheeling creatures screamed and released their prey, letting their captives drop into the battle below.
One of the falling knights ploughed into the ranks of the Tattersouls, bowling several of them over just as they charged into the corpses shuffling out of the town’s broken gates. The momentum of the charging zealots faltered as confusion broke out in their ranks. Some looked in rapturous awe at freshly broken bones, others looked skywards to see if Sigmar himself was throwing down reinforcements."
Their old masters can then bind and take control of this
creature, for though the Vargheist is strong in body its weak in mind. They are then used in battle to crush
isolated sections of enemy lines and cause havoc. In combat, though lacking
them magical or duelist mastery they might have once had, Vargheists are still
extremely tough creatures.
Offensive: Claws, teeth and strength + ferocity enough to tear a man into pieces and to enjoy doing it.
Defensive: Other than some
innate durability thanks to size and vampiric nature, none.
Blood
Knight
Mobility: 7
Training: 8-9
Max Range: Lance
Preferred Range: ^^
Once, the order of the Blood Dragon was one of the
noblest in all the Empire. They guarded the mountain pass between Brettonia and
Empire, and by all accounts fought with valor and heroism. However one night a
mysterious Noble came and demanded entry. Being courteous, the Blood Dragons
agreed, only finding out once inside that he was a vampire! The Noble, Walach
Harkon, systematically challenged and killed every knight he deemed subpar and
gave vampirism to those that impressed him. For several decades after they
preyed on those they used to defend, until a passing Witch Hunter found out and
swiftly summoned an army to attack them.
The siege was terrible and lasted three years, but in the
end the castle was routed and the remaining blood knights forced to retreat.
For centuries they spread across the land, serving as mercenaries or duelists.
It was only recently that they were united by Walach.
However in the latest End Times campaign Walach and a
number of his followers turned against Nagash and his Northern representative,
Vlad. Though Walach was slain and those of the turncoats routed, this split a
already rare group of knights further. Thus while the Blood Knights may make an
impressive sight on the field, lorewise they would be extremely rare.
LOADOUT
Offensive: Lance, Sword
(or mace) and Vampyric attributes. These swords can be magically enchanted to
do greater damage.
Defense: In addition to their sometimes enchanted platemail, they
can carry Flags of the Blood Keep, which serve as magical standards that allows
them to run through arrow and gun fire. Only very powerful ranged can reliably
bypass this standard.
===ADDITINOAL FACTORS===
Blood Knights ride on Nightmares (see profile) . They are
extremely prideful and vain to the point where they will automatically accept
any challenge for duel that comes their way, and will frequently issue them.
Thanks to Walach’s most recent action they are quite rare, with some of the
remainder doubtless serving Khorne.
Spirit
Hosts
Training: 2-3
Mobility: 6
(insubstantial; can phase through things)
Max range: Touch
Preferred Range: Touch
According to Night’s Masters a skeleton or zombie is a
shell with only limited “essence” (soul). Spirits are the opposite and are essence without any
shell. In areas like Sylvannia where the dead are restless, ghosts and poltergeists
lurk and haunt peasants with their dreadful moans. These spirits are of those
souls who did not pass through the veil to the afterlife, and whose unquiet
spirits now “live” to inflict their bitterness on everyone else. When the
Vampire Counts cross the land, the inherent dark magic their great undead hosts
bring with them causes these ghosts to coalesce into great spirit hosts.
Binding spirit hosts to a necromancer, which will enable
greater control, can be tricky though.
In the case of the Empire they “spirit walk” directly into the Underworld and
“steal” these souls right out from under the Death God, Morr. Sometimes Morr
catches them and imprisons their souls forever. This is just for the Empire of
course; presumably, those who try to steal souls from the Chaos Gods risks a
far worse fate (though, given the existence of Krell, it can be done).
In battle these hosts slowly drift towards enemy lines.
Cannonballs and musket fire simply passes right through them, as only magical
attacks can harm them. However the reverse is not true. A Ghost can kill a man
with their insubstantial claws by having them pass through enemy armor and
still organs within. An example given shows these spirit hosts reaching into a
man’s chest, stilling his heart and killing him outright even as his eyes widen
in shock.
“Middenheim, City of the Dead.
Lukien Karr was the first casualty. Brave,
foolish Lukien. Bellowing the battle-cry of the White Wolves, the knight
stepped into the path of a ghastly shade and met it steel for insubstantial
talons. The wraith entered Karr, sank into his skin and chilled his heart and
turned his blood to ice, then ripped itself free of the dead man, ectoplasmic
ribbons of ichor fanning out behind the wraith as it screeched off up the
narrow street toward the plague monument. It was over in a heartbeat. Karr fell
to the cobbles, a look of abject terror frosted onto his face.
More died the same way, the spirits shrieking
and laughing as they tore through the flesh of the knights, making a mockery of
their life as the helpless warriors hurled their hammers and struggled vainly
to fight off an enemy as insubstantial as thin air.
The cry went up for priests, the desperate hope
that faith and holy water would stand firm where iron and steel had proved
useless.
Jerek Kruger stood in the centre of it all,
watching his men die and helpless to do anything about it. He burned with
impotent rage.
The ghosts of von Carstein tore through the
streets, they drifted, they flew, they emerged from solid stone walls, they
came from everywhere and there was nothing Kruger could do but swing his
warhammer and wonder why the revenant shades claimed the lives of those around
him but left him alive. They swarmed through the Pit with its warren of
decrepit shacks and tumbledown buildings. They swept through the makeshift
hovels as easily as they did Middenpalaz, the graf’s palatial home. They poured
through the squares, moonlight shining through their transparent forms, and
down the streets, an endless sea of incorporeal souls spilling out of the
shadows and the spaces between. In the Graf’s Repose succulents and hardy
perennials choked and withered as the cold flush of death lapped over them in
foetid waves. Von Carstein’s dead army threatened all life.
The priests came shuffling into the streets,
cowed by the terrifying might of the wraiths and the ghasts as they snuffed the
life out of the knights trying vainly to protect them as they stumbled over
lines of exorcism and banishment rituals. They joined together from all
denominations: Ulric, Sigmar, Shallya, Myrmidia, Verena and Morr, bringing
their bells and holy books into the streets, spraying blessed water at the
shades and shadows, though fear had them cowering and tripping over the lines
of the rituals, allowing the mellifluous wraiths to slide into their flesh and
chill their blood to ice, culling the one defence the city of Middenheim
actually had from the Vampire Count’s wrath.
The high priest of Sigmar suffered the worst.
As the old man raised his eyes to the Middenheim Spire he saw the implacable
figure of Vlad von Carstein squatting amid the buttresses and the gargoyles. It
was impossible for him to make out the sardonic mockery in the pale count’s
expression but still the old priest was overwhelmed by the sudden repulsive
touch of the vampire’s base evil. The priest knew that von Carstein only
resembled a human, that his nature was in fact something far older, and far
more malignant in origin. His tainted blood was ancient and far crueller than
any living being’s.
He revelled in savagery, in death, in sadistic
slaughter and sacrifice. He excelled at it. He was the Lord of Death and he
hungered for mortal flesh, mortal blood. The priest felt the taint of his
hunger, felt himself succumbing to it, being overwhelmed by the bloodlust of
the beast perched up amongst the gargoyles, mocking their heroics.
The cobblestones around the Sigmarite’s feet
frosted with rime, touched by the unholy cold of the hungry dead, ribbons of
frost crystallising and crusting over the stone walls of his temple,
solidifying into ice. The priest’s breath fogged in the air in front of his
face as he struggled to give voice to the words of banishment, merging with the
spectral forms, his own breath giving shape and definition to the dead. And
then they were inside him, not one wraith, but a whole ungodly host, devouring
his eternal soul even as they congested his lungs and blocked his throat with
ice so that he could not breath or talk, choking him slowly and painfully to
death even as the Vampire Count’s mocking laughter rang through the streets. As
the cold wormed its way into the silver hammer around his neck, the holy relic
cracked and split in two. The shards fell to the cobbles and shattered like
glass. The priest clutched at his throat, clawing at his own tongue, trying to
pull it out so that he might swallow one last desperate mouthful of air before
he died.: -Inheritance
Offensive: Incorporeal Hands capable of bypassing
armor.
Defensive: Incorporeal.
Only magic or magically enchanted (or blessed) weapons can hurt them.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
These seem to have become far more common in the Nagash
era.
HexWraith
Mobility: 6.5
Training: 5-6
Max Range: Lance
Preferred Range: ^^
The origin of the Hexwraith is shrouded in mystery, but
it is alleged that when the Chaos moon is bright this creature walks the mortal
world once more. Their single-minded purpose seems to be the pursuit of those
evil men who have cheated their rightful fate, for a Hexwraith's shade-like
existence leaves it with a hunger that only the succour of a damned soul can
sate. It will pursue this victim obsessively, crossing all sorts of terrain to
get him. A fortress is no defense, for this creature is ethereal, and will ride
through castle walls if need be.
A hexwraith is able to travel between the real world and
the realm of souls at will, a fact not last upon the vampires. Many have been
bound to these masters of the night, becoming the ultimate form of shock
cavalry. Given the ominous nickname of “Reaper Knights” these creatures have
weapons that can ignore armor, and literally suck the soul from those that they
kill before absorbing said souls. Whole packs of them are said to come to the
battlefield at the vampire’s beck and call.
Hexwraiths are ethereal, meaning they are unslowed by bad
terrain and are unaffected by most weaponry. For this reason they are
terrifying to behold, as few have the weaponry to wound them. Hexwraiths are
also able to move through friendly lines to get to the enemy, or move through
enemy lines to get to a more tantalizing unit. They will restrain themselves
moving through friendly units but of course will take swipes at the enemy.
"The Stirlanders had reached spitting distance of the glowing Luminark when the air was split by a hideous screech. A group of hooded, flaming wraiths rode out from the wall of the ancient manse, their skeletal steeds passing straight through the rear carriage of the arcane war machine and heading down the scree towards the militiamen. The wraiths held their burning scythes high as they drove through the Stirlanders’ ranks, sweeping their blades low to cut into the men that flailed ineffectually at the flanks of the undead horses. The strange hooked scythes of the apparitions did not cut the flesh of their targets, instead passing straight through them. The wraiths galloped on, and five militiamen fell lifeless to the ground as if every tendon in their bodies had been severed at once. The rider-gheists wheeled around for another pass, screeching wildly as the unnatural green flames around them burned bright with stolen energy."- Sigmar's Blood
"The Stirlanders had reached spitting distance of the glowing Luminark when the air was split by a hideous screech. A group of hooded, flaming wraiths rode out from the wall of the ancient manse, their skeletal steeds passing straight through the rear carriage of the arcane war machine and heading down the scree towards the militiamen. The wraiths held their burning scythes high as they drove through the Stirlanders’ ranks, sweeping their blades low to cut into the men that flailed ineffectually at the flanks of the undead horses. The strange hooked scythes of the apparitions did not cut the flesh of their targets, instead passing straight through them. The wraiths galloped on, and five militiamen fell lifeless to the ground as if every tendon in their bodies had been severed at once. The rider-gheists wheeled around for another pass, screeching wildly as the unnatural green flames around them burned bright with stolen energy."- Sigmar's Blood
Offensive: The scythe-like
weapons they use to slay their prey would be lethal enough in the material
realm, but because the Hexwraiths shimmer between worlds, their spirit cythes
are able to pass through gromril armor or scaled Dragon-hide without hindrance.
A single blow from a spirit qthe can snatch away a mortal's essence whilst
leaving his physical form completely unharmed. For that reason all attacks
committed by a Hexwraith can be considered magical and ignore armor.
Defensive: They are
ethereal creatures, and thus only magic o enchanted weapons can hurt them.
Cairn
Wraith
Mobility: 5
Training: 4-5
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: ^^
In the years prior to the founding of the mage colleges,
those with magical ability of that time dabbled in sorcery with far greater
peril. Some fell to Daemonic possession, others torn apart by the energies they
wielded. However some managed to master this sorcery, using it to extend their
life span by decades or even centuries.
Most of these seekers of immortality managed only to
preserve their spirits, not their bodies. Decay took their mortal forms,
rotting it away even as they sought desperately to sustain it. With no
corporeal form to speak of, these sorcerers became wandering spirits, clad only
in their death shrouds. As their grip on the world of mortals weakened, these
vagrant souls were drawn to places of grief, where they lingered, feeding on
the sorrow of mourners. Not truly alive but unable to die, they became chilling
shadows caught between this world and the next as miserable spirits who hunger
for the warmth and flesh of mortals. Bound in the mortal realm to tombs and
barrows, swathed in robes of inky darkness, these spirits became Cairn Wraiths.
So rare and difficult to control are these that only the
most ancient and skilled Necromancers or Vampires Lords know the ritual to do
so. They utilize these devastating creatures as rare and terrifying shock
troops, for enemies lacking magical means are completely unable to hurt it.
Armor is no defense, for the Wraith can just reach into his mortal foes chest
and chill the vital organs found within. It is well that such creatures are so
rare, for these silent assassins are quite capable of slaughtering their way through
an entire garrison over the course of a single moonless night.
Offensive: Usually a
ghost, incorporal scythe as shown by popular artwork. They resemble the Grim
Reaper in a way. All attacks are ethereal and thus ignore armor.
Defensive: It’s an ethereal creature meaning only magic or enchanted
weaponry can hurt it.
"“He looked up, at the
ethereal shapes coiling and twitching above him. They looked like nothing so
much as rag-clad bones wreathed in smoke. He flung out a hand. ‘Kill them!’ he
bellowed. He had no idea what sort of spirits he had conjured. Now was as good
a time as any to see what they were capable of.
The two rag-clad
phantoms shot forward, spiralling through the air towards the Lahmians. Iona,
quicker on the uptake this time, leapt to one side. The two following her were
not. One was jerked into the air by bony hands like a toy. She screamed as her
alabaster flesh puckered and blistered at the touch of the thing. A gout of
frigid air burst from her open mouth and a hellish frost formed on her limbs
and face, even as her struggles weakened. The other suffered a similar fate,
her flesh blackening with an impossible cold, and her hair cracking and falling
from her scalp in brittle lumps as she was dragged into the air and wrapped in
fluttering rags and rattling bones.”- Master of Death
Morghasts
Mobility: 6 (Hovering)
Training/Experience: 7-8
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
“Thousands of years ago, after Nekhara was plagued by
Nagash, the god Ptra heard the cries of
the faithful and dispatched his winged heralds to smite the Necromancer. These
were the hammurai and according to legend they fought Nagash atop the spires of
Nagashizzar for 40 days before the Great Necromancer triumphed. Nagash looked
upon these slain warriors and saw in them great potential. Drawing on his dark
power, they were reborn, no longer the gleaming and pure emissaries of the God
of Light, but accursed creatures suffused with the power of dark magic.
He sent them around the globe to fight, and fight they
did. Even after Nagash was assassinated by the Skaven they continued to fight,
heedless of their master’s fate. One by one the magic they used to empower
themselves faded, for as godly demi-god creatures the Winds of Magic must blow extremely
strong to sustain themselves. As it faded the Morghasts went dormant and were
rendered inactive. Even so, the magic of their creation was too powerful
to be undone, so their enemies sealed them in tombs, laying curses on them that
they might not awaken. For centuries, Necromancers, wizards and other dabblers
in darkness sought to bring them to life, but without success. Even when
Nagash resurrected the first time he was unable to bring them back, for the
Winds of Magic were not yet powerful enough.
Only now, in Nagash’s third and final resurrection, have
these creatures re-arisen at last. Only Nagash and his highest lieutenants can
command them, for these are demigods in ability and power. Therea re two
variants of the creatures. The Morghast Archai are Nagash’s chosen guard and
wear suits of ebon-wrought armour upon their bodies of sculpted bone. Their
weapons are immense, corrupted parodies of the solar-forged blades of the
hammurai; within their hafts writhe faces of the slain, their agony drawing
others to share their torment.
The rarer Morghast
Harbingers are Nagash’s warriors of vengeance. Marching at the head of his
armies they are executioners and heralds alike, meting out their judgements
with the inexorable rise and fall of their blades, bringing inevitable death to
all in their path. The Morghast Harbingers eschew the thick armour plates of
their peers. Instead, their monstrous skull faces and rib cages are bared
fearlessly, a lone warpstone gem set into their sternums. They each clutch a pair
of cleaver-like swords, matched weapons designed to separate souls from bodies
with bone-shattering blows.
Offensive: The Archai uses spears and great axes while the Harbinger
has has halberds. Both are strong enough
to tear a man in half.
Defensive: In addition to being durable creatures, the Archai uses
plate armor equivalent while the Harbinger . Undead in their immediate 50 meter
vicinity are somewhat harder to kill.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Can only be commanded by the elite of the undead, Nagash's highest heroes.
Tomb
Guard
Mobility: 4
Training/Experience:
4-5
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
In life, they were the finest troops of the tomb kings,
bedecked in armor and given the finest weapons. They were not of noble blood,
but their status as elite warriors allowed them to set foot in the royal
palaces. Each lived a life of luxury, with a dozen slaves to attend to any
needs that did not pertain to the battlefield. The prospect of fighting
alongside their king, and serving him into the next life, inspired great acts
of bravery and heroism among these knights, and many would rather die where
they stand than retreat. When their tomb king passed, the tomb guard would be
arrayed standing upright, ready to march into battle at the awakening of their
liege.
As undead, the partially mummified elites are exceptional
warriors that lesser troops break upon. They maintain most of their personality
from their previous life, and still have the same fighting prowess they showed
as living warriors. While their bodies aren’t preserved as well as the tomb
kings, the magics binding them to their bones are much stronger than those of
the common skeleton warriors, and thus their bodies are of much harder
composition and much greater strength than their flesh and blood forms ever
were.
In battle the Tomb Guard serves two purposes. The first
and most obvious is the protection of the Tomb King, for he is the one they
have dedicated their lives too. The second is acting as a potent shock troop,
for they are both physically tougher than normal troops and have enchanted
weaponry.
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Tomb guards
have the benefit of wielding enchanted weapons, blades which kill all but the most
powerful humanoid foes in one blow. These weaponry can include Khopeshes,
swords, axes and halberds.
Defensive: Tomb guard wear
fine suits of leather and jeweled bronze scale armor and wield ornately decorated shields of
bronze.
====ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
This unit can come equipped with musicians and bannermen,
with rarely a magical banner attached.
“A gateway had opened up in the ground of
the square, and a host of dead warriors were marching up the steps from below.
They moved in perfect unison, the tramp of rotten sandals on sandstone steps
mixed with the rattle of their scale armour. They carried long shields on their
left arms and curved blades similar to the scimitars of the Arabians. Their
armoured skirts hung to their knees, covering bone and withered flesh, and the
same green light shone from empty sockets beneath their helmets. At their head,
one of them carried a standard wrought from gold, inscribed with pictograms and
faded symbols.
They
advanced ten wide and six deep, moving with precision and coordination that
made the most disciplined mortal soldiers look like clumsy children. The crunch
of sand beneath their tread echoed from the giant pyramids.”- The Blades of
Chaos
Skeleton
Chariots
Mobility: 7
Training/Experience:
5-6
Max Range: Arrow range
Preferred Range: Depends on load
out.
The Gilded chariot legions of the desert are the pride of
the tomb king armies. The sound of thundering, skeletal hooves and a cloud of
dust thrown high into the air heralds their arrival, before they impact the
enemy lines with bone shattering force. Bodies are crushed under heavy wheels,
men are trampled by skeletal horses, and the chariot riders deal death from
atop the platform with swords, staves, spears, bows and all sorts of other
nehekaran weapons.
Nehekara was the first great civilization of man, and the
first to use chariots in their armies. This was done right after horses had
recently been bred as beasts of war since it was considered undignified for
nobility to sit astride such a lowly creature. Thus, the chariot gave the
ruling classes a way to take to the battlefield with all the speed and power of
a stallion. As it is only nobility who gets the honor of riding in chariots,
each is a priceless piece of art coated in gold and covered with images of
skulls, bones and other symbols of the Mortuary cult. The riders themselves
wear fine armor, precious metals shinning jewels.
To ride upon such a platform while regally bedecked in
the finest of riches was considered the height of civilized warfare. When the
Tomb kings enter the battle, they do so atop one of their chariots as it gives
him both the protection of an armored carriage and an elevated standpoint to
better survey the battlefield. Tomb kings took great pride in their chariot
legions, and each had hundreds if not thousands of chariots buried with him.
When they awake from their ancient slumbers, the desert trembles as they ride
out at the head of their Chariot legions.
Charioteers were ruthlessly drilled into elite warriors
by veterans known as the Masters of the Chariot. In battle these chariots-
riding in truly great numbers- serve as line-breaker. They charge across the
field until they grain great speed and then smash and disrupt enemy ranks. As
the chariots ride past their riders continue to reach out and slay with
halberds, swords and enchanted arrows.
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: The chariot
itself is a battering ram, a force that can sweep aside the front lines of most
infantry. Blades are often added to the sides, in the wheels, and even between
the horses to maximize slaughter and kill those who escaped the initial charge.
The Tomb king often has an enchanted blade of some sort,
while the crew and lesser chariots fight with staves, swords, axes and bows
that fire the arrows of asaph.
Defensive: Chariots
themselves are armored, while the crew are bedecked in fine armor of superior
quality to that worn by the footslogging infantry
===Additional Factors===
Unlike most armies where chariots are a rare shock troop,
they very common in Nehekaran armies. One battle fought by a lesser tomb king
is known to have involved seven thousand chariots. Chariots, while considered a
vehicle only for nobility, have been used as way to get infantry out of a
sticky situation far faster than they could march. It is unknown how often this
strategy was used. Also they may be
equipped with musicians and banners attached to the back of the chariot,
sometimes a magical banner.
Necropolis
knights
Mobility: 7
Training/Experience:
5
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
Necropolis knights are elite warriors who ride atop the
giant snake-like necroperpents. They are tethered to their mounts by a sharp
hook held in one hand, while the other hand holds a heavy spear that carves
through living flesh. Their huge mounts shatter bones with every swipe of their
massive stone tails, and sink their sword-like fangs deep into soft flesh. Most
necroserpents are huge statues that stand twice the height of a man when fully
coiled. Most are built in the likeness of a hooded khemrian cobra, for Qu’aph,
the god of cobras, manifested as this in the time when gods and dragons they
preyed on still stalked the lands which eventually became nehekara.
The skeletal knights who ride upon the necroserpents were
those warriors who, while loyal to their king, became blood lusted after years
of warfare. Such savagery made them fearsome warriors, but made them prone to
rash decisions such as breaking ranks that could jeopardize the life of a king
and the outcome of battle. Faced with the dishonor of exile for failing to
uphold their duty, many committed ritual suicide. Others chose an agonizing
death that would redeem them in the eyes of their king and allow them to serve
their liege for eternity. The warriors would slit their palms and spread blood
on the belly of a necroserpent before holding their wounds under the dripping
venom. After death, they would be interred within tombs directly below the
necroserpents. Qu’aph would judge their souls, and those deemed worthy would be
reborn as the famed necropolis knights.
Both skeleton knight and necroserpent are animated by the
same warrior spirit, and move as one in a relationship unlike any other mount
and rider. This terrible cavalry travels
beneath the sand at great speeds, bursting out of the ground only when they are
right upon the enemy. Serpentine bodies weave through the battlefield, blades,
tails and fangs lashing out in all directions and leaving a trail of mangled
bodies. In order to defeat a necropolis knight, one must destroy both rider and
mount, for they are one being.
Offensive: The knight
himself wields a massive heavy spear with a supernatural strength impossible
for mortal men.
The massive necroserpent uses its massive stone body and
tail to lash out at enemies, while its sword like teeth drip with a highly
lethal venom. A single drop of this can kill scores of men, and a full bite can
slay all but the mightiest of monsters. The venom causes muscles to contract so
hard that bones snap and teeth shatter, and the bitten die with a rictus grin
of agony on their faces.
Defensive: Like all
animated constructs, the necropolis knights are made of stone and are massive,
thus they are extremely durable.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Ushabti
Mobility: 5
Training/Experience:
5-6
Max Range: 400 meters
Preferred Range: Depends on
loadout.
Ushabti are imposing war statues carved in the likenesses
of the gods and tasked with the duty of guarding the great burial pyramids of
the tomb kings. Like all animated constucts, there is no standard form. As
there were a myriad of gods, there is great diversity among Ushabti. Many
resemble Djaf, the jackal headed gods of war and death, and Phakth, the hawk
headed sky god whose piercing gaze could see the sins of the dead. Most stand
at anywhere from slightly taller than a chaos champion to about twice the height of a mortal man, though some
Ushabti reach sizes that blur the lines between them and Necrolith colossi. All
are decorated in filigreed gold and dazzling polished jewels.
The magic rituals needed to animate the statues are much
more complicated than those required to animate skeletons, but this also
ensures that they are far more resilient. As Ushabti translates into “chosen of
the gods” only the powerful souls or champions and heroes are worthy enough to
be allowed to inhabit these guilded constructs. The combination of the warrior
spirit and the physically intimidating stone body makes for an impressive
warrior, and Ushabt fight with the power and fury of their likenesses. With one
hand an Ushabti can wield a massive sword, or crush an enemy’s steel helmet
like an overripe fruit. Few can stand before the onslaught of the very forms of
the gods themselves.
Ushabti are classified as golems, which are magical constructs
given life and sentience. Like all such constructs (to be shown later on) they
have limited intelligence and independent thought, unlike skelatons and
zombies, and will not disperse if their master is killed.
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Ushabti wield
huge ritualistic weapons standard among nehekarans, only much bigger. In melee,
many wield massive blades that require 3 men to lift, or huge spears or glaives
proportionate to their size.
Others wield massive bows that fire arrows of asaph the
size of spears. These are nearly as powerful as the bolt throwers used by other
races, and are capable of punching through a heavily armored knight with ease.
The fact that arrows of asaph can change directions midflight to better target
their enemies makes them all the more dangerous.
Defensive: Animated
constructs of stone and powerful binding magics, its takes a powerful enemy
indeed to bring these down.
===Additional Factors===
Ushabti are by far the most common of animated
constructs, but also the smallest.
Rapid Relief:
===Shock and Awe===
Rapid Relief:
Sub-Section: Vampire
Count Steeds
Below are the profiles of the mounts the Vampire Counts
use for their cavalry and lords. So if you see the appropriate terms you may
refer back to here for more knowledge.
Nightmares
“It was an awesome beast, blacker even than
true black and easily five hands higher than the biggest horse Fischer had ever
seen. Everything about the mount and its rider radiated pure unmitigated evil.
The creature reeked of it. Von Carstein’s mane of black hair was matted with
the rain. He twisted in the saddle, standing on black iron stirrups and
learning forward. His sword wailed its hideous threnody as it sheared through
the neck of a terrified Imperial soldier. The man’s head fell beneath the
nightmare’s hooves and was sucked into the mud.”Inheritance
These mounts are the steeds of the Vampire aristocracy,
and can either be carcasses of prominent warhorses brought back to life,
Frankenstein like contructs fused together by Dark magicor even a unholy
combination raised on blood and gore until fully grown. Their eyes shine
hellfire, their noses snort a brimstone and decay smell, and their hooves
usually burn with magical flame. These
beasts are often clad in heavy barding or wear caparisons of rusting chainmail,
and spiked barding on their bodies to tear at the flesh of their foes.
Furthermore they are aggressive creatures and are perfectly willing to bite and
kick a man to death.
Hellsteeds
Some types of Nightmare are known as Hellsteeds. These are a mix of a reptile, bat and horse,
having thick, scaly skin or bare muscles, batlike wings and manes/tails of
fire. They are extremely bloodthirsty, and in battle wield talons, claws,
teeth, and sharp hooves to deadly effect. They are often ridden by vampire
lords into battle.
Skeletal
Steeds
“In the time before the coming of Sigmar, evil kings and
leaders of men would bargain with sorcerers to enchant their steeds, protecting
them from the blows of the enemy. So potent were these sorceries that the
horses were protected even after death. Long after their masters were laid to
rest, these creatures endured, until their bodies rotted away and only bones
remained of their mortal forms. Their spirits, remained, knitting together the
skeleton of these beasts and giving them the power to ride through the densest
terrain without slowing. It is even said that these creatures can bear their
riders between the realms of the living and the dead . . .”
Abyssal
Terror:
“The most warlike Vampires ride to battle on the backs of
monstrous, winged, dread-inspiring mounts. Some are creatures of Chaos from the
mountains, the resurrected hybrids of rapacious beasts. Others are nightmarish
creations of Dark Magic, bound with shadows and given bodies of writhing blood
and flayed skin. The most common of these winged fiends are known as Abyssal Terrors.
Abyssal Terrors are inevitably borne to war on ragged
wings, allowing their Undead masters to strike at the heart of the enemy army.
The latter-day von Carsteins, for their part, were known for their use of huge
wolf-headed monsters with slavering j aws and leathery wings. The exposed
spinal columns and bony tails of their mounts oozed with a numbing poison that
drew all warmth from those it infected, and
jagged blades were fused to each Terror's claws .
The creation of these disturbing constructs has more to
dowith the unholy science of those who follow the dark arts than with any
natural process. The most talented of the Vampires that create them, such as
the hidden brotherhood of the Necrarchs, draw a twisted amusement from such
blasphemous births - they use parts harvested from a wide variety of monsters,
fusing bone with ragged muscles and sinew. Their vile creation is finally given
animus when Morrslieb is at its fullest and a portion of that cyclopean moon's
power is invested in the beast as it lurches and twitches upright.”
Black
Knights
Training: 5
Mobility: 7
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
Originally Black Knights were horsemen drawn from the
ancient tribes before Sigmar, some of the first to tame horses. As they died
they were given great honors and interred with their horses in great burial
sites throughout the land. The Vampire Counts, ever lovers of ancient history,
have found these great ancient warriors and bound them to service. As their
horses were bound to them in life, so too are they bound in death.
Thanks to the nature of their steeds Black Kights have
been known to ride through rubble or across the surface of lakes, as their
horses, while corporal enough to hold them, can sift through objects. The
riders themselves, and their weapons, are however very much corporal. Their
lances and swords were both forged in a time older then the Empire (which has
stood for 2.5k years) and are wreathed in unholy flame. Those wounded by these
weapons rarely recover.
“Hundreds of skeletal horsemen, heavily
armoured in shirts of black mail, black breastplates and heavy caparisons of
iron. The horses were fleshless, skeletal and quite dead. Green light burned in
their eyes and their chamfrons were fitted with long, barbed spikes. Each of
the riders leaned low across the necks of their horses, a long black lance
aimed for the hearts of the Red Scythes. Too late, Leodan saw he’d been lured
into this easy attack.
Their shields were long and kite-shaped,
emblazoned with skulls and images of ancient kings, their banner a ragged, torn
scrap of leathery flesh with a leering jaw spread wide. They came on in a
thunder, lances lowering with hideous precision.
‘’Ware cavalry!’ shouted Leodan, though he knew
it was too late.
The black knights smashed into the Red Scythes,
lances tearing through their armour and into their flesh. Men were hoisted from
their saddles, screaming as the frozen iron of the enemy lances impaled them.
Though seemingly fragile, the black steeds were as powerful as any mortal horse
and punched into the centre of the Taleuten horsemen.”-Heldenhammer
LOADOUT
Offensive: Heavy swords,
lances, axes ect. Lorewise there seems to be a cursed quality to these weapons,
and those injured by them rarely recover. These are Wight Blades and their
description can be find under the Wight King.
Defensive: Clad in
antiquated heavy plate armor. Sometimes their horses are too, despite being
spectral.
===ADDITIONAL FAOCTRS===
Can take standard bearers and musicians, with rarely a
magical standard to be carried.
Dire
Wolves
Training: 1-2
Mobility: 7
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
In the Old World wolves are a common and fighting
predator among the forests and plains, and indeed are larger than those of our
world. Yet in Sylvannia and other lands touched by the Vampires they are worse,
for there these wolves do not stay dead. Unless Wolf bodies are properly
destroyed and dismembered they will invariably rise up once more to continue
the hunt. Maggots writhe in what rotted flesh remains, loosely hanging from
their bodies, making them terrible to behold.
The Empire and Brettonia spend a great deal of their time
trying to drive back these terrible creatures of the undeath, launching vicious
campaigns to purge the hills of them. However they only ever succeed for a
time, and tales of villages raided by these undead cannines are common. At
certain times it is inadvisable to travel along the roads in anything smaller
than an armed convoy.
Vampires use these wolves as hunting companions and
trained hounds, feeding the biggest of them on unfortunate peasants and dark magic to transform them into much
larger Doom Wolves, which lead pack of their lesser couins. To them Vampries
are considered the pack leader, and during campaign they lope alongside the
vast undead ranks. In battle they prey upon enemy artillery crews, sneaking
around the enemy army to hit this vulnerable unit. Other times they help drive
away Calvary or prey upon weaker regiments of infantry.
LOADOUT
Offensive: Teeth, claws. Some
of them are large enough to snap a person in two, or else break spines with
their claws.
Defensive: Nothing really
other than undead nature, which makes them somewhat harder to kill. When they
die their bodies dissolve completely.
====ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Oddly enough these wolves still possess a degree of intelligence they had in life, capable of basic ambushes and packhunting.
Oddly enough these wolves still possess a degree of intelligence they had in life, capable of basic ambushes and packhunting.
Bats
Training: 0-2
Mobility: 8 (Flying)
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
It should come to no surprise that, given the Vampire’s
association with Bats, they are employed copiously here. The first unit refers
to the deployment of whole entire swarms of mutated bats (with wingspan as large as a man’s arm),
often in their hundreds or thousands (described as large enough to at times
block out view of the sun or moon), against the enemy. They serve as potent demoralizer and
distraction, as wary enemies must be forced to defend their heads even while
being engaged from the front. Yet defend they must for these bat swarms are
equivalent to flying piranha and without defense they can tear skin from a man
and rip flesh from his bones in mere moments. In the books they and the carrion
birds are often shown to be used against enemy ranged units, to neutralize a area the Vampire Counts have traditionally
lacked in.
Sometimes also ravens, crows and other carrion birds are
used. These birds, thanks to feeding on the dead for so long, have formed bonds
with the vampires and their servents. They can be used as messengers or
heralds, but sometimes they are amassed in such great numbers to serve as
potent battlefield weaponry.
.
.
“There were many of them and their flock was
strong. Maria had been building it as the caravan had travelled, gathering
ravens on the way. She had woven them into a single great flock skilfully, and
it had taken skill, for she had only taken the strongest birds.
Over the past weeks, her life had been devoted
to selflessly caring for them, at least, that part of her life which she cared
to remember. She had often provided the ravens with so much meat that they’d
been barely able to fly up to their roosts at night. Yesterday, she had even
killed a lamb for them.
Today, Maria had decided, it was time for them
to repay her efforts.
In her current form, it was difficult to
explain even this to the birds as they flocked overhead. Still, explain she
did, or, if not explain, at least command. Maria’s will held the flock in a
grip stronger than that of any fist, and when she turned their collective gaze
down to the battle below, even the stupidest knew what to do.
It was the hunger that did it: the hunger that
she filled them with, the hunger for the living eyeballs that glistened within
the orbits of their victims’ faces, and the entrails that nestled in their
stomachs.
One moment, the ravens were unnoticed overhead,
as irrelevant to the battling men as the wind in the trees or the blue of the
sky. The next, they were falling like a flight of black-feathered arrows.
The birds’ sense of self-preservation melted
away beneath their need to sate the inflamed desire that she had filled them
with, and they struck with a fearlessness that was as terrifying to their
victims as were their beaks and claws. The men shouted in surprise, and then
fear. Then, seconds later, in agony.
As the first of the ravens plucked its prize
from its victim’s skull, Maria’s body, lying still and lifeless in her wagon,
began to smile.”-Ancient Blood
“Before the bowmen could loose their deadly
arrows, a cacophony of shrill shrieks descended upon the keep. The archers
retreated as a flood of fluttering wings and verminous fangs filled each
window, as a seemingly endless wave of chittering bodies dove upon them. The
bowmen were forced to cast aside their weapons, to shield their faces from the
slapping wings and slicing teeth of a living storm. Bats, summoned down from
the sky in their multitudes by the dark magic of the Red Duke, converged upon
the keep by the thousands.”- The Red Duke
Fell Bats are giant, man-sized bats that have been
mutated into the Vampire Count’s version of a hunting falcon. Though rarer than
their lesser brethren Fell bats are deployed strategically to rip knights off
horseback or carry off lone warriors into the night. They are silent flyers and
thus at night few see them coming . Sometimes they may be deployed en masse
against the enemy, assaulting enemy lines with bloodthirsty intent.
Offensive: Teeth and
claws. Bat Swarms are akin to flying piranha while fellbats are man-sized foes.
Defensive: Flying, so hard to hit.
“Something black and swift swooped out of the
sky and slammed into him before he could finish, smashing him into Father
Ulfram and knocking him off his feet.
"General! Father!" cried von
Geldrecht, ducking and running to them as the black thing swept into the air
again on leather wings.
"Kill it!" shouted a handgunner,
pointing.
"Shoot it!" shouted a spearman.
Then the rest came.
Felix could not count the number of black
shadows that streaked down out of the dim green sky and slammed into the
defenders. It seemed as if the night had shattered and fallen in upon them. All
along the walls, people were knocked to the courtyard, armour crushed and flesh
torn, while others twisted and flailed as the things rode their backs, looking for
all the world like lunatics dancing in flapping black cloaks.
More were attacking the refugee farmers who had
set up their meagre tents around the harbour. The peasants ran screaming as the
ragged shades shredded their shelters and snatched up men, women and children
to drop them to the flagstones or into the dark water of the harbour.
Felix ducked a swooping silhouette and drew his
sword as Kat fired an arrow after it.
"Sigmar! What are they?"
Gotrek sheared the wing off one and it crashed
at their feet in a spray of maggots and clotted bile. Felix recoiled at its
rotting, snoutless face.
"Bats," said the Slayer.
"Giant bats!" said Snorri, delighted.
"Giant dead bats," said Rodi, wrinkling his bulbous nose.
"Grungni, what a reek."- Gotrek and Felix: Zombieslayer
Carrion
Mobility: 8 (flying)
Training/Experience: 0-1
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
Carrion were great scavenger birds that flew the skies of
Nehekara, taller than a man and with a wingspan to match. They often roosted in
human made settlements, and followed the nehekarans into battle knowing there
would be easy pickings after the fighting was over. They were considered sacred
creatures by the people, and many thousands were mummified alongside buried
tomb kings. When the Kings awaken, their will stirs these scavenger birds back
to unlife, and never return back to the tombs. Instead they glide above the
desert eternally, always searching for new prey.
As the Tomb King forces are all undead (as are the
Vampire Counts) carrion has no interest in them. Instead they follow the TK
armies in the hopes of finding live prey, for they know when Tomb King armies
march they often fight the living. Carrions
are cowardly creatures, and typically only attack weak and dying enemies.
Disciplined ranks will repel a carrion attack, but those isolated and outnumbered
will find the bloodthirsty birds upon them, hooked beaks and sharp claws
tearing into warm flesh.
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Carrion are man-sized birds of prey with
large sharp beaks and massive talons.
Defensive: None
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Always appears in massive swarms.
Tomb
Swarms
Mobility: varies. all
burrow beneath the sands, but some can fly
Training/Experience:
0
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range::Melee
"“A crack suddenly formed in the closest
wall. The crack spread upwards and outwards in a radiating spider-web of
crumbling sand and soft rock. The surface of the wall bulged at the edges of
the crack. The wall exploded outwards. Felix staggered back as chunks of
hardened sand and old mud struck him. As dust filled the tunnel, he heard the
click of bones. The dust cleared and Felix saw a wave of tiny bodies flood into
the tunnel. The dried husks of thousands of scorpions, scarabs and countless
other insects and small creatures swept against the opposite wall, and splashed
back towards Felix and the others in a dusty, clattering wave.” – Gotrek and
Felix, Serpent Queen
When Nagash cursed Nehekara with a plague of death, it
wasn’t only the men who were killed. All life in nehekara, down to the smallest
insects, perished under this powerful spell. Today, the desiccated remains of
countless desert insects lurk through nehekara, waiting to be bound to the
service of a tomb king or liche priest. As they lack souls of their own, they
are easily placed under control and can be summoned through magical means to
the battlefield.
At the command of their superiors, they burst from the
sands in a great tide of chitinous bodies, dragging down any foolish to stand
before this onslaught. When not bound to the will of a tomb king, they revert
to a lurking nature which makes them ideal guards. Many a tomb raider has
thought themselves safe only to find swarms of seemingly dead insects spring to
life and consume them in a matter of seconds.
Black scorpions, scarab beetles and desert locusts make
up the most recognizable bulk of the swarms, though there are many tiny
creatures contained in their ranks. Enemies beset by desert swarms are either
torn apart by biting mandibles or stung and bit by poisonous insects. Their
small size makes them perfect at climbing into the smallest gaps between armor
and fortifications. Unlike many foes who can be banished by sword and bow
alone, even the most heavily armored knight will have much difficulty facing
the seething masses of the desert swarms.
"“These were the Blood Knights, the pinnacle of heavy cavalry. Their plate armor impervious to enemy weapons, and with their own tall lances lowered, the Blood Knights crashed through rank after rank of enemy regiments.
With the ease of a blade drawing a line in the sand, Krakvuld and the Blood Knights clove a path straight through King Behedesh’s army. As the vampire wheeled his army about to begin his slaughter anew, they saw a lone figure awaiting them in the dunes. It was Hapusneb, most ancient of the King’s Liche Priests, Hierophant of Zandri. From a dusty scroll he chanted, and soon his curse was answered. The sand beneath the Blood Knight’s came alive with the crawling creatures of the desert; gnawing khepra beetles and stinging Numak scorpions scuttled upwards in a Black Wave. Tiny enough to force their carapaces between the joints or chinks in armor, the swarms covered the Blood Knights. It was a ignoramous end for some of the greatest warriors of the North. “
"“These were the Blood Knights, the pinnacle of heavy cavalry. Their plate armor impervious to enemy weapons, and with their own tall lances lowered, the Blood Knights crashed through rank after rank of enemy regiments.
With the ease of a blade drawing a line in the sand, Krakvuld and the Blood Knights clove a path straight through King Behedesh’s army. As the vampire wheeled his army about to begin his slaughter anew, they saw a lone figure awaiting them in the dunes. It was Hapusneb, most ancient of the King’s Liche Priests, Hierophant of Zandri. From a dusty scroll he chanted, and soon his curse was answered. The sand beneath the Blood Knight’s came alive with the crawling creatures of the desert; gnawing khepra beetles and stinging Numak scorpions scuttled upwards in a Black Wave. Tiny enough to force their carapaces between the joints or chinks in armor, the swarms covered the Blood Knights. It was a ignoramous end for some of the greatest warriors of the North. “
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Biting
mandibles, claws, stingers and poisonous bites. Its literally death by a thousand
bites inside and out, as these creatures crawl down throats, up orfices and
into wounds to eat someone from the inside out.
Defensive: Sheer numbers .
One can easily stomp and kill a dozen bugs underneath foot but it matters
little when there are hundreds in each swarm.
===Additional Factors===
Tomb swarms can be summoned through magical means,
easily. Tomb kings can summon swarms with ease, and nagash once vomited out a
huge cloud of locust that reduced an entire formation to dust in seconds.
Skeleton
Cavalry
Mobility: 7
Training/Experience: 4
Max Range: 300 meters
Preferred Range: Depends
on load out.
In Ancient Nekhara, cavalry was for many years considered
a rare appearance in main Nekharan armies, given the water costs of horses on
campaign.To them horses were only givin to elite champions who proved
themselves on the field and had managed to achieve at least a dozen kills. They could then be
inducted into elite regiments led by grizzled veterans of several dozen
campaigns known as Masters of the Horse.
However a few desert tribes did excel in locating and
utilizing great oases in the desert for many years, and thus could maintain
large bands of horsemen that could even challenge the main cities.For a while
they maintained independence thanks to their hit and run tactics involving
horse archers. Eventually after conquest,
knowledge regarding these watering holes were shared and thus later Nekharan kingdoms did bring impressive
amounts of horses to the field. The nomadic horse archers themselves then
became a permanent fixture in Tomb King armies.
In battle both types of cavalry have differing roles. Skeletal
Horse archers constantly barrage the enemy at skirmishing range with arrows,
pursuing retreating enemies and pinning enemies at the flank. Skeletal Horsemen
meanwhile assault the flanks and rear regularly, attack weak points and try to
trick the enemy into overextending itself.
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Skeletal
horsemen use spears and hand weapons like swords and axes from horseback. . The
horses are as strong as they were in life and are more than capable of kicking
and biting. Skeletal Horse Archers have bows with magically enchanted Arrows of
Asaph, as well as small hand weapon for emergencies.
Defensive: Skeletal
horsemen carry large shields and some might come with light armor, while
archers go without any protection other than speed.
===Additional Factors===
Can take standard bearers and musicians, with rarely a
magical standard to be carried.
===Shock and Awe===
Varghulf
Mobility: 7
Training: 6-8
Max Range: Claws
Preferred Range: ^^
Within every vampire lurks a savage beast desperate to
field and consume the blood of the living. Most vampires hide this beast behind
the trappings of aristocracy or martial honor. Some don’t care or indeed
embrace it. These are the Varghuls and they are reviled even by their fellow
Vampires.
When a vampire revels in the act of murder and killing,
they slowly change form into a ghastly being known as the varghul. Its body becomes monstorous, and they now
have the strength to tear apart a chariot with their bare hands, or bowl over
those who try and corner it. Their teeth and claws can rip through even plate
armor with almost contemptuous ease and drain even the bone marrow away from
the unfortunate victim. Often leading packs of crypt ghouls or serving as elite
warriors of the Strigoi, these are used as monsters among the vampires.
Though ferocious and bloodthirsty in the most literal
fashion, they are not mindless. These creatures do not rush recklessly into
situations where death is inevitable, but instead place themselves surgically.
They are aided in this by the ability to reknit their wounds via magical means,
giving them regeneration.
LOADOUT
Offensive: Teeth and
Claws, both capable of ignoring all but the toughest armor. They are described
as strong enough to crush a chariot.
Defensive: Durability
thanks to size and undead condition, as well as the ability to regenerate from
all but the most immediately fatal wounds. In the End Times a battle shows they must be stabbed dozens of times to seriously wound or hurt.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
As most vampires don’t descend to these depths of
depravity (at least not on the outside) they can be considered a rare but
potent part of their armies. Some
Varghulfs trace their origins back to the kingdom of Strigos, several thousand
years prior.
Terrorgheists
Mobility: 8 (flying)
Training: 5-6
Max Range: 30-35m
Preferred Range: ^^
The Terrorgheist is a truly massive bat the size of a
dragon that haunts certain reaches of Sylvannia. It hunts sort of like regular
bats do, rendering them motionless by
emitting a piercing shriek so loud and unexpected it can stun even a Bretonnian
warhorse into paralysis. At that precise moment, the Terrorgheist will dive
down, gather up rider and mount in its talons, and return to its lair to glut
itself on warm blood, draining it dry.
Terrorgheists are not bound in life, but rather in death.
Powerful Ghoul Kings will seek out these creatures and, using blood rituals,
will bind it to its service. They are then raised from the undeath, far more
powerful and even potent then it was in life.
In battle the monster is directed to swoop down on whole
hordes of enemy prey. Its death shriek can be so powerful that, depending on
morale, it may very well cause men to die of fright. As the magics of undeath are worked upon the
beast, its cry is transformed from a simple but shockingly loud noise into a
barrage of eldritch power. Some say the Terrorgheist's shriek is nothing less
than the screams of the damned, channelled directly from the Realm of Chaos. As
the enemy regiment reels from the screech the creature then crashes down on it,
rending with tooth and claw.
Offensive: Death Shriek,
Tooth and claw. Some Terrorghests explode when they die, unleashing a horde of
bats that feasts on those nearby. Others
have rancid decay sticking to their teeth, making attacks poisonous.
Defensive: It’s a large flying beast with regeneration that allows
it to heal from all but the toughest wounds.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
It is fortunate to enemies that the codex considers them
rare.
Zombie
Dragon
Mobility: 8 (flying)
Training: 8
Max Range: 20-30m
Preferred Range: ^^
Long ago, for thousands of years, dragons used to fly to
the Plane of Bones, located near the Chaos Wastes, to die. It is unknown the
reason for this or what drove them to do so only that they would fly over the
sight, land and then keel over. This all changed when Chaos arrived at the
world. The malignant power sweeped into the dead Dragon corpses and reanimated
them, turning them into Zombie Dragons that have prowled the graveyards ever
since. It remains one of the most
dangerous places on the planet, filled with all sorts of malevolent creatures,
daemons, and with no food or drink in sight.
These perils mean little to the Undead, however, so it is
to the Plain of Bones that a Vampire travels to claim a Zombie Dragon as its
mount. Animated by Dark Magic, a Zombie Dragon is borne aloft by great tattered
wings, its body covered with thick, withered hide. Though in life it once
breathed fire capable of melting steel, a Zombie Dragon can only belch forth a
cloud of pestilent gas which strips flesh from bones and corrodes armor. A
Zombie Dragon's claws and sword-like teeth remain as deadly as they ever were,
and it is capable of ripping an armored knight in half and swallowing his
warhorse in one motion. When such a monster is used as a steed by a powerful
Vampire Lord, even the greatest heroes quail before the raw might of undeath,
for they are a terrible combination to behold.
Offensive: Dragons breathe
poisonous fumes which are capable of rusting armor and stripping flesh and bone. They also have claws and
teeth.
“The mighty dragon swooped down over the
citadel walls, and a billowing cloud of noxious breath streamed from its jaws
to engulf the ramparts. The stench was overpowering, even from so far away, and
Marius coughed at the grave reek. He could hear men dying, choking and coughing
as their internal organs liquefied and the flesh melted from their bones.
…..
Screams and groans of pain surrounded her. The
dragon’s breath had swept the ramparts and its pestilential exhalation choked
the life and vitality from all those who breathed its foulness. Young men in
the full fire of youth had fallen to the ground, transformed into ancients with
withered skin, brittle bones and sunken flesh. Some coughed up bloody froth as
their lungs dissolved, while others had the flesh scoured from their bones by
the noxious corruption.
(….)
A heaving breath of toxic vapours gusted from
the dragon’s mouth and enveloped the barbican. Men staggered from the ramparts,
choking and vomiting as the hellish miasma did its evil work. The road to the
lower town sloped down to the gates, and from his position behind the walls,
Marius saw them wither as the timbers shoring up the already weakened structure
rotted away to brittle deadwood. The mass of dead warriors on the other side
buckled the decayed woodwork and the gates split apart in a flurry of rotten
timbers.
” Legend of Sigmar: Heldenhammer
“As he watched, the deathly dragon swooped down
upon one of the Mordkin formations. From the jagged stump of neck a boiling
torrent of rotten meat and writhing maggots showered down upon the massed
grave-rats, searing them in their bony armour. Then the dragon’s claws were
scything into them, tearing skaven apart like some gigantic hell-cat!”-
Blighted Winter
Defensive: Scaly Skin and
a swarm of giant flies that can make them difficult to target if in immediate
vicinity.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
These are rare beings, but those that exist are going to
be ridden by great lords of the undeath.
Necrofex
Collosus
Mobility: 5
Training: 4-5
Max Range: Spell
Preferred Range: Melee
Many are the dread creations of the Vampire Counts, but
of the most feared is the Necrofex Collosus.
Only the greatest necromancers have the power, the resources and the
will to create this powerful machine. While they vary in size and form they all
have the same shape- a gigantic humanoid fashioned upon frame of iron, bone or
bronze, and then bound with corpses and flesh. Then via a great ritual in which
much sacrifice is required, the death machine is brought to life and given
terrible sentience of its own.
The Necrofex is a monster on the field, able to pose a
threat to entire armies. One notable Necrofex actually roamed the countryside
of Estalia for a hundred years, rampaging and destroying all in its path. They
are incredibly potent for an undead army, and in fact they act as focus points
for death magic, allowing wizards in the immediate, 50 meter vicinity to cast
spells with less difficulty then before. Its powerful enough to actually
disrupt and make it harder for wizards of light and life to cast their spells
near it, and its screams are so powerful that they can kill through sheer
terror alone.
Offensive: It’s a
gigantic, around 24 meters (78 feet) in
height, this is Collosal creature capable of stomping and smashing enemies.
Against particularly large or important foes it may end up trying to impale
them on its multi-story leg. As mentioned its screams can kill a foe with pure
terror if their morale/leadership doesn’t hold up. Some variants have scythes built into these
limbs, or they have the hands of still living corpses grow out to grab people.
A very, very select few are so powerful that they are binded to the soul of a
Necromancer or Vampire directly, and thus can cast spells.
Defensive: Powerful
regeneration that applies against anything but flaming and magical attacks,
with holy spells doing additional damage. A few are transfused with ghoul or
vampire blood, making this regeneration more potent.
===Additional Factors===
The creature is incredibly rare thanks to the cost of
making it and difficult to properly control.
Black
Coach
Mobility: 6.5
Training: 5
Max Range: Immediate area
around vehicle
Preferred Range: ^^
The Black Coach is a vehicle used by Vampires as both an
escape mechanism and line devastator. Driven by a ghastly wraith, this vehicle
draws dark magic rapidly as it travels, allowing it to increasingly manifest
greater magical power that can include such effects as flight, intangibility or
magic resistance. Though magic can only be manifested as one effect they are
all useful. Pulled by a Nightmare creatures and driven by a Wraith of some
king, this vehicle s feared on the battlefield.
In combat the Black Coach will be driven directly through
enemy lines, crushing or sometimes scything through ranks of troops in their
path. In this sense it serves as a line breaker, line many chariots of the
setting. However if a Vampire is ‘slain’ the vampire’s followers will
commandeer one of these vessels and
place the Vampire’s remains in it. The followers then further enchant the
vessel and let it go. As the killing of
vampires is rarely permanent for the more powerful specimens, the vampire’s
corpse will then feed upon the death magic that the Black Coach collects,
emerging rejuvenated after a period of time from it.
Offensive: The Cain Wraith
driving it has a scythe. As magical effects accumulate the vessel might acquire
scythes sticking out of the wheels, increased strength in the horses, resulting
in more powerful charges or have the coach, horses, wraith all glow green with
balefire, resulting in all attacks counted as flammable and killing much
easier.
Defense: It’s a coach however in addition to this it may manifest
magic and dangerous terrain resistance, allow it to become ethereal or to fly.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Because the Black Coach frequently absorb death and dark
magic from the surrounding area, it is possible for a Coach to become so
supercharged that they acquire all effects described above at once. However
they are a rare vehicle and count as such.
Casket
of Souls
Mobility: 0 (summoned into place)
Training: Variable
Max Range: 1 kilometer
Preferred Range: ^^
The Casket of Souls is a special sarcophagus said to hold the
tormented souls of those who incurred the Tomb King’s wraith. Powerful bindings
are in place to ensure they do not prematurely leave until it’s time to utilize
them. On the battlefield it’s summoned into existence by a Keeper of the
Casket, a priest whose sole job is to maintain the casket. At the proper chants the souls within burst
out, empowering nearby Liche Priests and unleashing the wrath of the tormented
on the enemy.
In battle these souls attack with vicious and hateful
desperation, seeking freedom from their suffering. They lunge towards the enemy
ranks, draining life energy and leaving them in unbearable agony.Worse those
killed are themselves trapped within the Casket of Souls, a fate far worse than
death. Only those with the extreme
willpower to resist can escape such a
fate.
Offensive: When the Casket of Souls is opened, tortured spirits leap out
from foe to foe and continue to do so until strong minded foes can successfully
ward them off. The three guards of the device and the handler use halbers,
spears and hand weapons.
Defense: None other than guards. When the Casket of Souls is destroyed
the spirits within take revenge on everything within a 50 meter radius,
including its fellow handlers.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
According to the codex it is an exceptionally rare device.
Screaming
Skull Catapult
Mobility: 1
Training/Experience: 3
Max Range: Artillery
range (over 1 kilometer)
Preferred Range: Artillery
range
The Screaming skull catapults form the main artillery of
the tomb kings armies The Screaming skull catapult gets its name for the unique
ammunition it fire: the skulls of vanquished enemies, burning with eldritch
green flame and letting out their haunting death cries one last time. They are
taken from unfortunate prisoners right at the moment of the death and enchanted
with curses that make them scream as they howl through the air, and then
violently explode on impact.
In the past they
have been used to demolish cities, demoralize enemies and crush the great
monsters the enemy brings to bear. Each catapult is a construction of bone made
to resemble the skeleton of some great desert beast. The original Catapults
were fine war machines, carved by artisans and decorated like all tomb king
inventions. Now, however, in a much less noble fashion, Screaming skull
catapults can be created by necromancers as long as they have a supply of bone
to work with. Under the command of the necromancer, bone melts, hair and sinew
twist into ropes, and skulls are cursed to be used as ammunition. The sight of
their comrades screaming skulls being fired back on them demoralize most
troops.
“Flaming skulls shrieked intermittently over
the high walls, smashing and burning where they landed, spilling vitriolic fire
throughout the timber-framed houses, and terror through the citizens. The
skulls brought the horrors of the war home to them. Those skulls belonged to
people who had stood against the Vampire Count. Tomorrow or the next day it
might be their skulls
shattering against the walls of the Imperial palace, their brains scooped out
to feed von Carstein’s ghouls. Felix found it all quite barbaric.”-Inheritance
==LOADOUT==
Offensive: Screaming
skull ammunition is both artillery and magical in nature, capable of causing
enemies to flee via magical means if their willpower/morale is insufficient. Any
troops caught directly at impact will be proliferated by skull fragments and
magical balefire. Other times, the
skulls impact buildings, exploding with great force and showering those around
with flame and splintered bone. Catapults can fire a couple dozen screaming
skulls at once. The three skeletal
loaders of the catapult come equipped with swords. In the event of a siege catapults can be made
to fire plagued bodies and corpses over the walls for both terror value and to
spread disease.
“Suddenly, the priest king heard a strange,
piping chorus of unearthly cries coming from the direction of the ridge.
Akhmen-hotep looked back the way they’d come, and saw a flickering rain of
fiery green orbs arcing down onto the struggling companies.
The hail of screaming skulls scattered
widely over the clashing armies, falling among friend and foe alike, but where
the warriors of Khemri were inured to their horror, the Bronze Host was not.
The grisly missiles exploded among their ranks, showering them with blazing
fragments and filling their ears with shrieks of agony and despair. Beset on
all sides by warriors living and dead, including the bloodied corpses of their
kinsmen, the Bronze Host had been pushed far beyond the limits of its courage.
Cries of horror went up from the men, and the embattled companies began to
disintegrate as the warriors turned their backs upon the foe and ran for their
lives.” – Nagash the Sorcerer
Defensive: None, but
should catapults be destroyed, they can be quickly reformed if there is a magic
user nearby, much to the horror of the enemy artillery crew who just spent so
much effort into destroying the catapults. The Skeletal crew has light armor.
===Additional Factors===
These catapults can be made anywhere, anytime, by any
necromancer who has some sort of skill. As long as there is a supply of bones,
more of these infernal machines can be crafted.
Necrolith
colossus
Mobility: 6
Training/Experience: 7
Max Range: 1 kilometer
Preferred Range: Dependent
on Loadout
"But before the rest could reach Gotrek, the sands about the carnosaur’s carcass ruptured as two heavy shapes rose from concealing trenches, amidst the zombie horde. Their sudden appearance sent sand and corpses flying in all directions. Their gigantic forms were covered in bones and mortuary ornamentation, and their heads had been carved to resemble large skulls. They were hewn from emerald and stone, and wore great crested helmets, breastplates, vambraces and ornamental greaves, all lavishly decorated and engraved with intricate scenes and scrawling blocks of Nehekharan script. Each bore a mighty two-handed sword, fully the height of a man, and as thick across as Gotrek himself.
Those swords took a dreadful toll on the ranks of zombies, including those scrambling towards Gotrek. The Slayer gave vent to a howl of frustration as his opponents were scythed away, like chaff on the wind. ‘Behold,’ Zabbai said, ‘the Emerald Sentinels of Lybaras, greatest of the war statuary of Nehekhara, and mightiest of the necrolith colossi!’
Felix could only watch in awe as the two gigantic constructs launched an unstoppable assault into the heart of the enemy army. Dozens of zombies were crushed, chopped or hurled into the air by every sweep of the massive blades. Undead saurians hurled themselves at this new foe, seeking to grapple with them. Gotrek dropped from the carnosaur’s carcass and trotted towards Felix, kicking severed heads and limbs out of his way petulantly. ‘They’re killing all my zombies,’ he snarled, gesturing at the stone warriors."- Gotrek and Felix: Seprhent Queen
BASIC DESCRIPTION
Towering above the skeleton legions of the tomb kings,
mighty statues of ancient heroes and gods arch into battle. These stone titans
(though sometimes made of bone) are the necrolith colossi, and none can stand
before their onslaught. It is said that the oldest and most powerful colossi
were created directly by the hands of the gods to protect the lands of
invaders. Sine then, countless more stautes have been carved by the nehekarans
from pillars of stone and into cliff faces. So common are they that every
necopolis has at least one of these giants, and many have entire formations of
them. Necrolith Colossi stand noble and
proud, and are bedecked in magnificent armor and decorations. Many resemble
ancient heroes, while many others resemble the gods of old.
Such is the
mortuary cults obsession with death that some colossi were carved to resemble
giant skeletons. These constructs are animated by the spirits of nehekaras
greatest warriors, their souls bound to the stone after long and arduous
rituals by dozens of liche priests. So powerful were the magics binding the
warrior spirits to the stautes that they no longer need the incantations of the
liche priests to prompt them into wakefulness. They automatically respond to
the presence of invaders, shaking the dust of ages from their great forms as
they stride into battle.
Few can stand
before the might of the necrolith colossus, let alone a whole formation of
them. Their heaving footfalls sound a mighty drumbeat that heralds impending
doom as they carve their way through regiments, sweeping aside warriors with
their great weapons and crushing them underfoot. When the war statues of
Nehekara march to battle, few can withstand their onslaught.
== LOADOUT ==
Offense: These colossi
wield the weapons typical of nehekaran soldiers, only much larger. Some wield
swords 4 times the height of a man that can easily carve a knight and his
barded steed in one strike, or sever the head of a dragon. Others wield huge
maces, clubs, axes and spears of epic proportions. Some Necrolith colossi wield
great bows that fire bolts larger than those typically found in artillery. In
one famous instance, a gigantic dragon invaded khemri and was toppling pyramids
under its massive bulk. A necrolith colossi strode forward and fired a single
shot, piercing the flying beasts heart and ending its rampage. Against
infantry, these arrows will carve through entire lines of soldiers.
“Then screaming and shouting began to echo
out across the water. Looking over his shoulder, Kurt saw something that made
him stop dead in the water.
On
the opposite clifftop stood a giant warrior, built from the bones of long-dead
monsters, bound with bronze banding and clasped together with struts of deep
red wood. It stood fifty feet tall to the top of its crested helmet, its spine
made from melded animal skulls, its face oddly reminiscent of some colossal
hunting cat. It wore a bronze breastplate studded with circles of turquoise and
lapis lazuli, and long greaves upon its legs.
In
its hands, it held a bow some twenty feet long, its string the sinew taken from
some huge creature of the southern deserts. From a quiver across its back, the
immense skeletal giant pulled forth an arrow as large as a ship's bow sprint,
fletched with black feathers. Pulling back the arrow on the string, it turned
towards Jarlen's ship, which was still only a few hundred yards from the shore.
It
loosed the arrow across the sea, the gigantic spear speeding through the air to
crash into the side of the longship, hurling men into the sea, splintering the
row of oars. Another arrow swiftly followed, tearing through the sail and
ripping down the upper mast, which fell onto the deck, crushing even more
Norse. The ship foundered as a third immense bolt tore through the planking
just above the water line. The ship came to a stop and began to settle heavily
in the water, weighed down by the gold and gems the Norse had taken aboard.
Slinging
its bow over its shoulder, the bone giant began to climb down the cliff. It
lowered itself into the water and turned and began to wade out, drawing a
massive scimitar from a sheath hung at its waist. Some of Jarlen's surviving
crew threw themselves from the sinking ship as the creature approached, hoping
to swim to safety.
Kurt
could see Jarlen at the prow of his vessel, sword raised above his head in
challenge to the giant construct. The creature swept its blade down and carved
the front off the ship in a single blow, scything Jarlen in two and toppling
the remnants into the sea. Another blow rent the longship down the starboard
side, flinging men high into the air.
As
the longship sunk beneath the waves, the giant turned and pointed its massive
sword back towards the beach. Kurt turned his gaze back to the land, and there,
just above the waves, he saw the figure of King Nephythys, his golden spear
held above his head, in a pose perfectly captured by the statue of him in the
city. Bjordrin spluttered into wakefulness beside him, but Kurt's attention was
fixed on the shore.
'Do
not disturb the eternal rest of King Nephythys, Hawk of the Skies, Sorrow of
the Foe, Wielder of the Golden Blade,' Kurt muttered to himself.
'What's
that?' asked Bjordrin, following Kurt's gaze to look at the triumphant king.
Kurt
didn't answer for a moment, and his reply was more for himself than Bjordrin.
'Not
a threat,' he whispered. 'Not an order. A warning.'” –Blades of Chaos
Defenses: The natural
durability of the stone that these giants are made of protects them from most
mundane weaponry. Arrows and sword strikes impotently bounce of their hardend
hide, leaving tiny cracks at best. Only artillery, powerful magics, huge
monsters and enchanted weaponry have any chance of bringing them down.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Described in codex as a rare creation. One prominent city only had 12 of them.
Necrosphinx
Mobility: 6, can glide
Training/Experience: 4
Max Range: Melee
Preferred Range: Melee
BASIC DESCRIPTION
The necrosphinx is a horrifying beast, and avatar of
death and destruction that glides through the air before falling among their
terrified prey, cutting down the living as a farmer reaps wheat of the field.
Only when all of the enemies have been slain do they finally stop. The
necrosphinx is an unusual mix of the mythical beasts that inhabit the nehekaran
underworld. It has the face and torso of a man, the stinging tail of a
scorpion, the lower body of a lion, and the wings of a falcon. The Ancient Nehekarans believed that
combining all of these forms would create the ultimate warrior, but many of the
liche priests believed that they were abominations whose mere presence would
curse the land. It is believed that they are not animated by the spirit of a
noble warrior, but instead given life by ancient malevolent gods who use them
to vent their fury on the physical world. It is only the incantations of
servitude that keep them from turning on their masters.
Nonetheless, their
pure effectiveness cannot be denied. With a single stoke of their massive claws
they can behead dragons and wyvrens, thick scaly skin doing nothing to stop
them. Upon lesser troops, these claws reap a bloody toll on entire regiments. Just
twelve of them could rout a greenskin army of thousands.
== LOADOUT ==
Offense: Necrosphinx
arms terminate in massive blades that can easily slice through the flesh of
great monsters. Against lesser troops, only the most powerful of enchanted
armor has any chance of stopping them.
Some necrosphinx also have scorpion tails that drip with
unnatural venom. This venom is so powerful that it can even break apart the
magical bonds that hold the undead and daemons in the material world.
Defenses: Animated
construct. Its massive stone form and armor protect against all kinds of
mundane weaponry. Only the most powerful of weapons, giants or magical attacks
can hope to stop them.
===Additional factors===
Despite their massive bulk, they are able to glide in
great leaping bounds, crossing battlefields far faster than a creature of its
size ought to be traveling . Along with the other extremely large Tomb King
contructions, its described in codex as a very rare construction.
Khemrian
Warsphinx
Mobility: 6
Training/Experience: 4-5
Max Range: Couple
Dozen meters
Preferred Range: Melee
“The ratmen crashed against the towering
statues like a black sea against indomitable cliffs and they died in droves. A
doomwheel careened around and charged the first of the gigantic constructs, but
the stone edifice smashed the infernal contraption into matchwood beneath its
heavy claws. hundreds of skaven were burned alive as the leonine statues
roared, belching forth cones of flame; rat-blood stained the salt plains as the
undead crew brought their weapons down in sweeping arcs. caught between the two
armies, the skaven were methodically butchered.”
The warsphinx of Khemri were originally constructed to
guard the entrances to the kings inner sanctum. Other rkings saw this and
demanded their own sphinx, and soon nearly every burial pyramid had at least
one of these leonin statues, if not more. Some kings even had a sphinx stand
guard over their own sarcophagi, and these warphinx would be extremely lavish.
When the king awakens, he would lead his armies into the sunlight atop his
guilded war statue.
In battle, the Khemrian Warsphinxes wade through the
ranks for their foes as is they were naught more than bothersome insects.
Scores of enemy soldiers are ripped apart by teeth and great stone claws, or
incinerated by a powerful breath of baleful fire. Nothing short of a direct hit
from artillery or a powerful spell will do more than bounce off of their stone
hides. Atop each Warsphinx is an ornate howdah crewed by several tomb guard.
They direct the mounts actions as if it were an extension of their own bodies,
and butcher foes beneath with long bladed spears.
Offensive: Khemrian
warsphinxes have a variety of weapons with which to slaughter their foes. Most
are torn apart by teeth and claws, while others are incinerated at range by fiery
breath. Each Warsphinx is different, as necrotecs are proud and constantly
trying to outdo each other in the splendor of their works. Some Necrotecs equip
their Spinxes with the tails of stinging scorpions that drip with eldritch
venom.
Teeth, claws, stinging tails and even breath of fire are
not the most horrifying weapons in its arsenal. when the warspinx rears up, any
caught beneath its shadow are doomed. The warsphinx front legs crash down into
the ground with supernatural force, instantly pulping those hit with direct
impact into a red mist. . The resulting shockwave knocks foes off their feet,
rupturing organs and cracking bones.
The Tomb guard in the howdah atop the warsphinx wield
long bladed spears that can easily carve through enemies who are brave- or
foolish- enough not to flee the charge of the animated beast.
“The dust was starting to thin out, and
large, dark shapes could be seen stirring within its depths. More bits and
pieces were flung from the cloud, like fragments scattered by the sweep of
heavy blows.
The giants had nearly reached the curtain
of dust. They raised their clubs and swung them in broad, ponderous sweeps,
cutting roiling wakes through the shroud and revealing massive, leonine shapes
whose flanks were the colour of the desert sands. One of them rounded on the
giants and leapt forwards, paws outstretched.
It struck the giant in the chest, talons
shattering the fused ribcage and digging furrows in the construct’s pelvis. The
monster was easily as large as the giant, with a lion-like body and a powerful,
lashing tail, but the head of the beast was not a lion. It had a russet mane
and slitted yellow eyes, but the face was that of a man.
The sphinx bared massive fangs and lunged
at the giant’s neck, snapping the knobbly vertebrae in a single, powerful bite.
The construct toppled beneath the monster’s weight and the sphinx tore it apart
with sweeps of its sabre-like claws.
More sphinxes leapt from the settling dust
cloud, their pelts covered in crushed pieces of bone and pale shreds of tissue.
They dashed among the remaining giants, too fast for their clumsy weapons to
touch, and tore at their legs with tooth and claw. One by one, the constructs
crashed to the ground and were ripped to pieces.
Clouds of arrows arced across the plain and
landed among the sphinxes as the surviving archers drew into range. The
monsters raised their heads and snapped at the arrows as though they were no
more than stinging flies, and then returned to their grisly work.
(….)
One of the sphinxes seemed to leap lazily
forwards among a knot of terrified slaves, crushing several beneath the weight
of its paws and catching another in its fangs. The monster bit the slave in
two, spat out the pieces, and then started to lunge for another victim, when
suddenly the ground heaved around the struggling slaves and the sphinx jumped
skywards like a startled cat.
Massive, low-slung figures erupted from the
earth on either side of the sphinx. Jagged pincers the size of a grown man
snapped at the monster’s legs, and segmented tails made of gleaming bone
stabbed at the creature’s flanks with stingers as long as swords. Three bone
constructs, wrought in the shape of huge tomb scorpions, surrounded the desert
spirit and stabbed its flanks again and again, eliciting terrible, human-like
roars of rage and pain.
The wounded sphinx retreated, dragging a
paralysed hind leg and snapping defiantly at the scuttling constructs. The
scorpions pressed forwards relentlessly, spreading out to attack the creature
from three different directions at once. A sudden gust of wind across the plain
kicked up a cloud of sand around the struggling figures and the sphinx’s pack
mates attacked. The leonine monsters coalesced out of the swirling sands and
leapt onto the scorpions, snapping at the constructs’ tails with their powerful
jaws. Bone splintered and fragments were hurled into the air as the spirits
savaged the constructs.
Within seconds, the ill-fated ambush was
over. The six monsters paced around the shattered constructs for a few moments
more, and then they turned their backs on the fleeing slaves and withdrew into
the churning clouds of sand. Their dusky hides merged with the swirling dust,
and then disappeared from view.
Arkhan studied the broken bodies of the
scorpions and shook his head irritably. Six months of incantations and labour,
all gone in moments. The vizier grimaced.
‘Well, we managed to hurt one of the beasts
this time,’ he muttered bitterly. ‘That’s progress, I suppose.’ Amn-nasir
grunted scornfully, which in turn triggered a fit of painful coughing.”- Nagash
the Sorceror
Defensive: Warsphinx
are made of stone and metal, and are extremely large. As such, they are
extremely hard to injure, let alone destroy. Some versions have posioned stings or the ability to breathe fire, while others have howdahs on them full of archers.
===Additional Factors===
When damaged, warsphinx can be healed even in battle if a
Necrotect is nearby. If the Warsphinx is somehow destroyed in battle, its
shattered remains can be collected by the necrotectand restored for future
battles. This is not applicable in battle.
Heirotitan
 |
| Hierotitan seen in background |
Mobility: 6
Training/Experience: 3
Max Range: 300 meters- 1 kilometer
Preferred Range: Melee
BASIC DESCRIPTION
Heirotitans were once guardians of the entombed Kings of Nehekhara that were meant to guide the royal spirit between the mortal realm and the underworld. They were massive statues whose faces were carved in the image of Usirian, and no expense was spared in their construction as they were lavished in gold and gems. The soul of a high liche priest whose mummified body is interred within the chest animates the construct and allows it to walk between worlds. In one hand, the heirotitan carries the Icon of ptra, the sun god. With this light they were to illuminate the path to the underworld and banish daemons and foul spirits that might try to claim the tomb kings soul. In the other hand, the titan holds the scales of Usirian that mortal souls are said to have been judged on. Both of these items are wrought with powerful incantations to protect the king, and they can both be used as weapons.
In battle, The Icon of Ptra unleashes devastating light magic attacks that sear and burn enemies as if caught in the rays of the sun. these are especially effective against daemons and undead. The scales of Usirian release ethereal claws that and tear out the souls of victims. Both of these attacks can devastate entire regiments of soldiers, yet this is not what heirotitans are most famous for. Instead, it is their status as a conduit between the realm of the gods and the realm of the mortals that makes them so important. When a Heirotian stirdes the battlefield, there was a direct link to the underworld and the magis of teh mortuary cult are leant great power. With a single spoken word they can summon skeletal hands to drag down entire regiments or enemy soldiers, or call upon a massive horde of undead insects to consume their foes alive.
When Nagash killed Usirian and became the new god of death, the Heirotitans became his to command. While the presence of nagash trumps their status as conduits to the land of death, necromancers and liche priests are still leant more power when fighting in the presence of a heirotitan. They are best used as shock troops that relentlessly plow through enemy lines, sword strikes bouncing harmlessley off their stone bodies as they unleash their devastating magics.
== LOADOUT ==
Offense: The Icon of Ptra is a weapon that releases a powerful blast of searing light, easily capable of incinerating entire regiments. Since it draws upon light magic, it is especially harmful to undead, daemons and other creatures of darkness.
The scales of Usirian release ethereal claws that and tear out the souls of victims. This particularly devastating attack cannot be blocked with normal armor or durability, and only magical defenses will help.
Defenses: Heirotitans are typically made of stone, though brass and jade versions are also found. Combined with their massive size, they are extremely hard to destroy without artillery or powerful magics.
===ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Described in codex as an rare creation.Hierotitans act as loci for death magic and any Liche Priest in their immediate vicinity (50m) gets a boost to their magical potency.
Khemric
Titan
Mobility: 6
Training/Experience: 8
Max Range: 300 meters
Preferred Range: Melee
The Khemric titan is a legend even among the Tomb Kings,
a giant, metallic scarab described as the size of a tower. They were created to
stand guard against the most evil and terrible creatures of the Chaos Gods in
the remote areas of the world. Powered by the death magic of entire dynasties
entombed inside there are few foes that can handle the Khemric titan in combat.
Furthermore they act as lodestones for death magic, and have stored a
formidable amount in their systems.
In battle the Khemric Titan is a powerful engine of mass
destruction. It can release centuries worth of magical accumulation on a whim,
or deploy a myriad of offensive systems. Its massive, with armor superior to
plate and the ability to magically heal itself. Enemies should be fortunate
there are only a handful of them left….
LOADOUT
Offensive: At range it
may periodically manifest a concentrated bolt of dust that can penetrate ranks
like a ballista and turn those it touches into dust, or enshroud the enemy in
dust to hurt ranged unit’s effectiveness. . In addition it can use its massive
scythe-blades to slash through enemies, unleash a swarm of flesh-eating locusts
through its jaws, try to eat them with its jaws, or unleash a soul-searing gaze
on the nearest enemy unit, with their souls being sucked into the void if they
are unable to resist.
Defensive: Is a
massive, armored creature with armor better than plate and the ability to
magically repair itself.
====ADDITIONAL FACTORS===
Exceptionally rare creature, much like the Necrofex
Colossus.
