[CHAR] Warhammer Fantasy - Call of Chaos

[ClocktowerEchos]

Current List:

The Empire - Andreyich "Confederation of Zvageorg"
The Ogre Kingdoms - BCTheEntity
Skaven Under-Empire - BangoSkank
The Wood Elves - wxps350 "Paganlands"
The Dwarves - POOHEAD189

Example NS (Will not actually be playing as them)

Bretonnia

Name: Grand Kingdom of Bretonnia

Ovreview:
A land of chivalry and knights and very much a reflection of Authorian legends starkly contrasted with the oppression of its common masses. Its nobility is large and extordinarly wealthy compared to the peasants. Worship of the Lady of the Lake is widespread with many noble knights going out on Grail Quests to earn the Lady’s favor to drink from the blessed Grail Chalice. But centuries of traditions are being challenged by a new king, unlike any before him. Blessed by the Lady herself, their current king is actually of peasant blood with no noble lineage to speak of, he was ordained to be King of Bretonnia and all his descendants to be counted as noble. While popular with the peasants, the nobility only begrudgingly follow their King out of honor and respect for the Lady’s choices but the realm is far from unified.

Race & Culture

Humans make up the vast majority of peoples in the Kingdom, although some other races and cultures can be seen in the few urbanized cities of the realm.

Nobles tend to live in splendor and opulence while the peasantry is treated little more than like cattle or livestock at best by most. Anyone who isn’t a noble knight or a lucky merchant likely lives in

Worship of the Lady of the Lake is compulsory for the nobles who often undertake Grail Quests to earn her favor and be able to sip from the Holy Grail. Worship of the Lady is encouraged for even the peasantry by the nobles, but for the most part little thought it given to what they worship so long as its not Chaos entity.

Government

Britannia relies on the old ways of feudalism with a King ruling all of the Dukes and their Duchies. In law, everything in Bretonnia is the King’s but in particle sense, it doesn’t work like that. Noble blood is everything and only males can inherit titles. To be considered a noble, both of your parents and grandparents must have been noble, making anyone becoming a noble nearly impossible and their line will die out quickly after that. The King must confirmed by the Fay Enchantress for his rule to be validated and technically the Fay Enchantress has greater power than the King and can overrule him, but she rarely gets involved in politics. Kings must also must have complete a Grail Quest and drunk from the Holy Grail meaning there’s always a goo chance the king is competent.

This is why the current monarch, King York Gallowgoth, is so unique and controversial. He is not born of noble blood at all, yet the Lady of the Lake herself appeared and ordained the peasant as king and allowing. When the nobles boldly protested this break of tradition saying that he wasn’t a Grail Knight, the Lady simply gave York a blessed blade and sent him on his quest. Everyone thought he would die quickly, but instead he would complete his quest three years later after the Battle of Elmburough where he managed to hold down and entire flank with but a few Men-At-Arms who held their ground and even personally bested the enemy commander in single combat where the Lady appeared before him, allowing him to drink from the Grail. While the nobles do not respect him completely, they are none the less obedient to his rule, if not because of the Lady more than the man himself.

Industry

Bretonnia is backwards and perhaps the least advanced of all human nations. They have firmly resisted industrialization and have completely shunned the advent of gunpowder. Many things are still made by hand by skilled crafted by artisans although mills and simpler machines powered by wind and water are common.

The vast amount of wealth is held by the nobility with the peasant handing over 90% of their harvest and goods which is then handed back out and distributed by the nobility. There are the lucky peasants who have some how become merchants and are significantly better off the the peasant who are in a constant state of poverty, but still pale in comparison to the nobles. While “Crowns” are the official currency, produced in copper, silver and gold (hamlets are luck if they can manage to produce a few copper crowns a day; any peanuts who posses a single silver is considered to be extremely wealthy by most of his kin

Magic
Lore of Life
Lore of Heavens
Lore of Beasts
Lore of Fire

Army

Core:

Man-At-Arms - Entering the military is one o the few reliable ways of getting ahead as a peasant is to join the ranks of the local lord’s men-at-arms who often grant those who sign up a large and desirable sign on bonus. Only to reveal that said bonus has to be spent by the individuals on buying equipment for themselves. They wear chainmail with flat-top or kettle helmets and carry swords, spears and halberds along with shields that they can form into a Roman Testudo like formation.

Auxiliary Archers - By law, all Bretonnian peasants are required to know how to use the bow as to serve as levied archers in his lord’s army. Any who survive the entire campign are rewarded with a single copper crown as payment for their service. They use various types of longbows and war bows with several types of arrows ranging from fire to pox to heavy armor piercing but only have crude hand weapons and tools and no armor.

Knights Errant - Young, brash nobles who have yet to prove themselves and try to make up any shortcoming in skill and discipline with enthusiasm. Along with Knights of the Realm, they form the bulk of the army’s cavalry contingent. Their armor is always the flashiest as they try to show off their colors, much to the chargrain of the most experience soldiers. They charge forth with lance, blade and shield.

Knights of the Realm - The backbone of the armies of the Lady, these are knights who have proven themselves and have earned the right to own land having officially being inducted into the ranks of the nobility. They too have lance and shield and ride atop barded warhorses but tend to favor maces and war hammers over plain swords as their experience has taught them the blade is not great against armor.

Elite:

Battle Pilgrims - Either feral or fanatic peasants who have a zealous devotion to the Lady and her servants and unlike traditional Men-at-arms, they are willing to die to hold the line. They are often based out of a Grail Chapel or other holy sites and will use any weapons and armor that have been discarded by the knights and often make their own equipment by hand. They weird large shields, hand weapons and their distinctive high collar shoulder guards. Battle Pilgrims are not an official army unit, but no commander would ever turn down men and women willing to die for the Lady.

Grail Relique - When a Grail Knight dies, his arms, armor and even very body still hold holy magics imbued within them. Battle Pilgrims will often carry their hero on their shoulders, acting as the horse to the skeleton of the dead knight. Its very presence inspired all around it and those carrying the Relique would sooner die than drop it. This also holds a second purpose as their zealous guard of the body means that it cannot be touched by necromancers.

Foot Squires - Young men who are not yet old enough to mount a horse and act as Knight Errants, squires are essentially apprentices to older Knights to learn the ways of chivalry and battle, accompanying them to battle with great sword in hand. Every squire wishes to be a knight and every knight wishes for a better squire.

Questing Knights - Those who hear the clarion call of the Lady are driven to seek her favor and become Questin Knights. They ride out around Bretonnia and even the world doing chivalrous deeds and preforming brave, selfless acts in the hopes of being granted the Lady’s Blessing. Although their quests may take years and many die in their noble quests, there will always be those who seek the favor of their goddess.

Mounted Yeomen - Men at arms who have survived for so long and have become so experienced that they gain the limited right to ride lame or crippled horses. Yeomen are divided between being sergeants of Men-At-Arms regiments and being mounted scout cavalry with shield and spear or being mounted bowmen. Many of these Yeomen are as experienced and capable of the noble knights they fight with but the nobles have either ignored or even surpassed these boasts.

Pegasus Knights - Wild flying herds of pegasi are not uncommon in the lands of Bretonnia but it takes a particularly skilled hand to tame them, a brave (or foolish) heart to ride them and a wealthy bank to afford them. As such, only the wealthiest of nobles can ride to battle upon such steeds but they form the best flying warriors of the Old World.

Rare:

Grail Knights - Living incarnates of the Lady’s will, these knights have been granted favor of the lady and have drank from the Holy Grail making them near demigods with extraordinary strength, vigor and vitality as well as prolonging their effective lives greatly. They almost glow with an ethereal air about them and are the paragons of Bretonnian society, riding into battle with flaming lance or blade to destroy those who threaten the realm.

Trebuchet - The go-to siege engine of Bretonnia that has been around for generations. The trebuchet is never built to be transported and in the past only the important parts where kept and transported and most of the frame was built on site given the lack of people who can actually build and aim the damn with nobles having distain for such things and peasants being too stupid otherwise. However in recent years, the few engineers have found a way to make a “collapsible” trebuchet allowing for fast quicker transport and set up.

Skaal Guard - Once a tribe of northern raiders who built a settlement on the shores of Bretonnia, the Skaal Guard are a very recent formation where King Gallowgoth offered them an alternative to being put to the sword, acknowledging their press in battle. They’re a strange mishmash of both Bretonnian herald and tabards over Norscan bodies wielding norther great axes. Its said that the true reason why the King created the Skaal Guard was out of fear that having a more traditional bodyguard would open himself up to the plots of the nobles who wish to see him gone and that having a guard loyal to him first and not Bretonnian traditions would protect him. While many question their loyalty, they have served with unwavering courage and ferocity unseen in Bretonnia as they charge into the frey.

Lords:
Paladins
Grail Maidens

Heroes:
Knight Champions
Damsels
Battle Pilgrim Abbot

Named Characters:
King York Elmhart
Duke Montepier
Duke Louis
Fay Enchantress
The Green Knight
William Woods

[BCTheEntity]

The Ogre Kingdoms

NAME: The Ogre Kingdoms

OVERVIEW: The Ogre Kingdoms is based off of the faction of the same name in canon, and naturally, it is inhabited by ogres, very large humanoid creatures whose culture primarily revolves around food, and the ways in which one can acquire more food in the future. As a result, they often fight for prime sources of good eats, meaning the "kingdoms" are usually more like maniple warring clans who happen to be able to cooperate with one another at times, though even then, many of their number strike out as mercenaries for other factions and adventurers in the wider world; currently, they are experiencing a period of relative unity, meaning their numbers are far more focused than usual, with consequent goals of expanding their territory outwards, and have already started with the Ash Ridge Mountains in the Dark Lands, near the World's Edge Mountains that mark out the eastern bounds of the Old World.

RACE AND CULTURE: Ogres are humanoid creatures of significant size - their infants tend to be the size of a full-grown dwarf shortly after birth, whilst they easily stand at twice an adult human's height in their own adulthood at minimum, with plenty of bulk to back that height up. Their most notable appearance trait, however, is the massive gut each ogre cultivates like they would a personal garden, typically by eating as much food as they can get and adorning it with a thick metallic gutplate; this gut is not composed largely of fat, but of many layers of powerful muscle that can crush even rocks from the outside in, allowing ogres to eat nearly anything if they feel like it, though sustenance is another matter. Indeed, they are also able to live nearly anywhere where there is sufficient food, and the greatest concentration of ogres in the modern age is the Mountains of Mourn, peaks that are half-volcanic and half-arctic, and filled with enough giant creatures to at least attempt to sate the ogre's hunger.
Their heavy focus on food and their guts is the result of a significant event in the past - as a result of events that are now lost to them, their former homelands were obliterated by what they believe to be an angry god, along with most of their race; the resulting crater is believed to be the god's mouth, giving it the name of the Great Maw, and it is this that has cursed the ogres with an eternal hunger, unquenchable even when they are full to bursting. Thus, they were forced to travel from there to elsewhere in the world, reinforcing a prior nomadic tendency that persists to this day, though it has coalesced into more stratified levels of hierarchy within tribes.
Despite its origin as their nemesis, the Great Maw is also worshipped as the chief deity of the ogres, and indeed the Great Maw's priests are also the ogre race's chefs and butchers, gaining automatic status in ways that most ogres can't otherwise hope to acquire in their lifetimes. It helps that ogres are mostly immune to the ravages of Chaos, though some still manage to succumb to its wiles for whatever reason. Other than this, the ogres have a small coterie of mostly minor deities, largely believed to be bastard children or offshoots of the Great Maw itself; the next most important of these is the Magma Maw, supposedly the offspring of the Great Maw with the sun, and the cultists who worship this deity as their wargod are considered mildly strange in their own right.
Outside of the Ogre Kingdoms themselves, ogres are considered to be savage brutes who will gladly murder you and eat your corpse... and in fairness, this is not typically wrong, seeing as how they semi-frequently eat each other after a match in the fighting pits, their primary source of entertainment. The ogres outside of the Kingdoms proper, however, tend to at least try forging themselves into somewhat more civilised forms, at least enough so that they can participate in the society they have encountered, be it the Warriors of Chaos or the nations of the high elves. Their more intelligent members can even teach themselves to read reasonably well, and in doing this to integrate and so dine with polite society. Hopefully on polite society, if they are challenged to a duel in the meantime.

GOVERNMENT: At the bottom of the scale in the Kingdoms are the ogre's mutated Greenskin slaves and servants, the knoblars, which are summarily mistreated beyond measure, and taste so bad that even ogres are loathe to consume them, save the oversized ears and nose, which are considered a tasty delicacy. They are lorded over by all ogres, though depending on whether a high-ranking ogre remembers their name, or Maw forbid decides he likes them, they may gain some preferential status compared to their fellows. Above a regular ogre is an Irongut, an ogre strong enough to retain their own armour and weapons, who may then acquire some particular role such as the gun-toting Leadbelcher or beast-wrangling Tenderiser, as well as additional names describing their deeds the more prowess they show off.
The leadership proper of the Ogre Kingdoms is divided into the religious and political spectrums, as loose as those spectrums are amongst ogres, each a self-contained tribal hierarchy. Politically speaking, the most powerful ogres are the Bruisers, those with the size and strength to beat up any lesser ogre, and therefore doing what they like to their inferiors so long as they do not insult their social equals or superiors. Likewise, the Bruiser with the most strength is the clan's Tyrant, a mighty ruler in both strength and reputation, with the best gear, the most names, and the most children within his tribe. Yet regular challenges are made for these positions, Tyrants often falling to one of their Bruiser inferiors, and likewise Bruisers falling to a lesser ogre still, in both lethal and non-lethal fights for the positions, though an ogre can also be promoted to the position of Bruiser by a well-pleased Tyrant.
By contrast, the priests of the Great Maw suffer no such in-fighting, for they are also the mages of the Ogre Kingdoms - young ogres with even a hint of magic or blessing are taken into the shamanhood, fed copious quantities of meat throughout their childhoods, as well as poison and other inedible substances even by ogre standards, and are never allowed to bear gutplates, for the resulting Butcher is considered a direct channel between ogrekind and the Great Maw itself, with the greatest size among all other ogres and the essence of the Great Maw itself in their bellies (or so they say). Though a Butcher is technically on par with a Bruiser in their respective fields, Tyrants will rarely if ever dare to offend one, for they would quickly lose the rest of their tribe out of fear of a comet dropping on their heads. The oldest and most powerful Butchers are deemed Slaughtermasters, taking the seat of honour next to the current Tyrant and sharing in only the choicest morsels of meat among the tribe.
Ogre tribes are constantly bickering and fighting with one another, in search of the highest locations to rule from and the best sources of meat throughout their homelands. Rare is the case that a singular ogre tribe will manage to subdue every other tribe in the mountains, but when they do, the result is typically a sort of ogrish Golden Age, where every tribe unites its efforts to produce the best meat for every ogre, and even some well-favoured knoblars, and the Kingdoms United in such a manner may even consider a rampage or two in the wider world to expand the territory they rule over under the right circumstances. The Tyrant and Slaughtermaster leaders of the foremost tribe in these cases will be crowned Overtyrant and Maw Charnellist respectively, holding the Great Maw's personal favour and reigning as such for as long as they can hold the loyalty of each other tribe; ultimately, however, the Golden Age will end (usually with the death of one or the other of these leaders), and the tribes will once again devolve into infighting, returning to their endless nomadism and squabbling as is usual. The current Golden Age has been spurred on by Chardtagh and Magnohn Gutwrencher, a pair of ogres who essentially had a lucky realisation and cheated their way to domination, and now seek to use this to advance their agenda Westward, having already spread to the Ash Ridge Mountains, with the intent to begin invading the World's Edge Mountains as soon as possible.

INDUSTRY: Ogres have a strange, almost schizophrenic relationship with technology. On the one hand, their own in-roads into advancement are practically non-existent, and in particular nearly all of their herding, farming and hunting is done by hand, or at best with the weapons on their person, which is a good thing under the circumstances because all they farm are massive animals, either for slaughter or as warbeasts. On the other hand, they have no problem whatsoever with stealing and adapting the equipment and technology of other nations as their own, leading to quite the excess of battlefield loot in the form of armour, blades, and guns of various sorts. The latter in particular is well-loved for its ability to kill things from far away, so they can be approached and eaten relatively safely later on, leading to the development of way bigger guns for Leadbelchers to use on large targets, or large groups of targets.
Money, on the other hand, is very well-known amongst the ogres, both within and without the Mountains of Mourn. The range's tribes vary from dirt poor to exorbitantly rich, generally depending on how powerful the clan is, and whether or not one of them has thought to take a location of great value from the previous owners. A particular rule of thumb for whether or not one owns a location depends on whether the area's ruling tyrant can see it from where they sit upon their throne, making the peaks of tall mountains extremely sought after for their immense field of view. By contrast, even the dimmest ogre mercenaries and adventurers often make it a point to learn exactly what any given currency is worth in any given nation, as well as how much any given job they perform will pay them, though they may forget to do so until after the job has been paid for, only to return to their former employer with their minds set on eating the poor sod who decided to so blithely underpay them for their work.

MAGIC: Lore of the Great Maw - The prime magical style of the Butchers and Slaughtermasters, though certainly not the only one; its main focuses are ensuring the caster's fellow ogres can better destroy their enemies, ranging from increasing strength or toughness to outright regeneration of wounds on both themselves and their allies. Most significant among these is The Maw, a spell opening a chasm in the ground itself that can harm the Butcher's allies just as readily as their foes if miscast.
Lore of Death - Represents the all-consuming nature of the Great Maw; spell focuses largely involve targeting individual beings for destruction, though some support spells also exist. Widely praised is the spell called the Purple Sun of Xereus by other races, for few other powers represent so effectively the hunger of the Great Maw, even when it consumes the caster's own allies in combat.
Lore of Beasts - Represents the creatures the ogres live to consume, relying largely on boosting the power of the Butcher's allies and in particular the creatures they use as mounts, as well as a few significant attack spells. Most notable is the Transformation of Kadon, literally allowing the shaman in question to transform into whatever monster he desires, be it a chimaera or a full-blown dragon, albeit for a limited time.
Lore of the Heavens - Represents the comet brought down upon the ogres so very long ago; this is a lore that is a sort of jack of all trades, though the comets that powerful Butchers can call down are certainly one of the biggest threats that any enemy can face.
Lore of Fire - Unique to the Firebellies that worship the Magma Maw's might, this lore's spells are considered to be its wrath made manifest, and focus on sheer firepower over all else. Though the Fulminating Flame Cage is a particularly nasty manifestation, trapping foes within what are believed to be the Magma Maw's own teeth, even a basic Fireball can be overcharged to destroy entire platoons or even armies, if the Firebelly can handle that much of the Magma Maw's power without themselves being consumed by it.

MILITARY: Ogres are typically quite limited in numbers when engaging foes other than themselves, and their military might often focuses on this aspect, utilising their significant bulk and that of the beasts they control to overwhelm their more numerous foes without being destroyed themselves.

Core

Ogre Bull

Ogres in general have a somewhat bullyish mentality - if they want something, they will try to take it, and if you aren't showing them enough respect, or they feel they haven't reminded people to respect them lately and see you as an easy target, they will rough you up or worse. The only way to stop them is to prove you are better than them - and simply being bigger is only likely to make them attempt to eat you so they can be the biggest, meaning they prize skill just as much as strength. That said, many ogres are incredibly dense, and those with the capacity to learn lessons tend to advance out of this category sooner rather than later. To wit, "bull" technically refers to male ogres only, but can apply generically to all combat-fit ogres, which is the vast majority.

Irongut

Ogres with permanent equipment, be it modified farmhand tools or dwarf-crafted gear handmade for a mercenary. Naturally, such an ogre tends to be quite skilled or physically fit, since lesser ogres would otherwise have successfully challenged them for their goods, and they are therefore looked up to by the average bull. That said, charismatic ogres may also be able to persuade the Bruisers or Tyrant of their clan to grant them Irongut status by default, since they are the ones who tend to divvy out the spoils of war.

Knoblar

The indentured mutant slaves of the ogre race, knoblars were once goblins, but have since been rendered down to little else than big-nosed thralls to the beings they now see as living gods and eternal masters. Naturally, they are rarely if ever seen as better than servants, if that, and their numbers are practically legion, marking them out as cannon fodder in battle to distract foes from the oversized beasts that all but control their very fates.

Yhetee

During their nomadic pasts, some ogres found themselves stuck in very cold locations, and over time and generations evolved into a form that is not only white-furred, but even less intelligent than the average ogre, their minds more instinct than intellect. Even so, the ogres do see some use out of their mutant cousins, for their speed and low cunning are often surprising to foes, and they possess a unique affinity to the cold that allows them to freeze flesh, and even harm supernatural opponents with their bare hands.

Devourer

Weak ogre children, those lacking either strength of limb or the signature paunch of their race, are maligned by all "real" ogres, and are summarily tossed into the caverns beneath the Mountains of Mourn to die. In spite of their supposed weakness, a rare few do manage to make themselves live for an extended period of time, desperately eating whatever scraps they can find, and in the process mutating and degenerating into blind, feral freaks with distendable jaws and a powerful sense of smell. These Devourers are sometimes lured out of the caverns they developed in for more sturdy ogres to use as rampaging shock troops, and are frequently mistaken for some form of ghoul by those who don't know any better.

Elite

Leadbelcher

The logical conclusion of the interest ogres have in long-ranged death: if a small gun can kill one thing really well, a bigger gun, such as a looted hand cannon, can kill lots of things really well, or one big thing really well. This tends to be hampered by the fact that ogres like to shove in whatever jagged object they can find as ammunition, as well as the use of the cannons as clubs and the tendency for Leadbelchers to become heavily scarred by their own recklessness, but only marginally so.

Maneater

When you hear tales of ogres wandering the world, adventuring in service of human nobles or acting as mercenary soldiers in exchange for food, this is usually the type of ogre being referred to: typically the very smartest of their tribes, who realised there were better eats elsewhere than the mountains and promptly ventured out to get their fill of the other nations, taking the tribe name of a famous ogre warrior for their own. They are skilled in many ways, the particular skillset and their appearance often depending on where their travels have taken them, and are somewhat uniquely the only type of ogre that is as liable to appear in the armies of other nations as in those of the Ogre Kingdoms.

Sabertusk

Sabertusks are essentially what you would get if you took a tiger, put it in the mountains, then gave it massive lower canines and the mindset of a wolf. A pack of these is therefore terrifying to behold, for they are experts when it comes to harrying their prey, and incredibly strong beasts even disregarding their bone-crushing jaws; yet like the wolves they emulate, they can be intimidated, or even bred, into the allegiance of a more intelligent or just plain stronger creature, and ogres often use pairs or individuals to kill the crew of large and otherwise-threatening war machines, or at least get the workers to waste some shots on the creatures bearing down upon them so that the ogres themselves can finish the job up close.

Firebeetle

Part of the test that allows a Firebelly cultist to advance to a full-blown adherent of the Magma Maw, these ogre-sized creatures are almost never fielded by ogre contingents that don't contain at least one Firebelly who has the training to control them, for they are otherwise nearly impossible to command around due to their skittishness. Though their thick shells are fairly tough, and their jaws can break through bone if necessary, the real danger they pose comes from their innate magic, which fuels and heats their body to extreme temperatures, and allows them to spit gouts of flame and small fireballs at anything they consider either sustenance or a threat, which is most things of notable size. Naturally, it is a fool's errand for most to so much as approach a beast of this sort, and non-magical ranged attacks have a tendency to melt or turn to ash before even reaching the beetle, though this is as much of a problem for the ogres they are made to fight for as for their enemies; even so, they see some use as walking shields, albeit very hazardous shields that will probably burn everything nearby in insectile panic if their controllers perish, and have thrived in the volcanic environments of the Dark Lands since being introduced to them, rather boosting their numbers amongst those ogre armies with access to adherents of the Magma Maw.

Fangbreaker Cavalry

The mournfang seems to represent a blend of the sabertusk and the rhinox, a large and ferocious beast whose charge can break even an ogre in half, prefers to fight in packs like the sabertusk, and in many cases will continue to bite and slash even after its brain ceases to function. Naturally, the ogres have noticed how strong they are, and at great risk of their own lives often use it as a rite of passage to Ogrehood to try and tame one to their will, the general process involving striking when they are weakened from one of their territorial disputes or battles for pack leadership, followed by repeated clubs to the head to normalise the ogre in the saddle. Failure means certain death; success means great fame amongst other ogres, as well as a combination of steed and rider powerful enough to make even Chaos Knights fear for their lives.

Sparkspitter

The Magma Maw as a deity is a strange thing, supposedly taking the form of a volcano and acting as the ogre's war god. The cult it has spawned is stranger still, and its adherents are often either insane, or in search of magical ability, for the tests of the Firebelly are numerous and terrible to behold. A Sparkspitter is but an initiate, one who has passed the first and least dangerous of these tests: consuming a chilli pepper hot enough to act as a substitute for boiling oil, as well as a horribly strong laxative. Survival is but the first step, and most Sparkspitters are essentially ogres equipped with naturally-produced fire in some form or another, not yet possessing magic of their own, though still highly dangerous to those without any form of flame resistance.

Rare

Mourncrusher Cavalry

Unsurprisingly, even tougher to tame for combat than any mournfang are the beasts known as rhinoxen - though not carnivorous in their own right, they are significantly larger than their mournfang counterparts, have especially bad tempers and stubborn outlooks, and compensate for poor eyesight by possessing keen senses of smell and the instinct to charge at anything that doesn't smell like another rhinox, leading to legends that no obstacle in existence can hope to stop them once their minds are set on getting somewhere. Naturally, it is slightly easier for a normal ogre to "ride out" a rhinox's initial rampage, but far, far harder and more tedious to convince them to accept the ogre as a rider outright. Lingering success marks the ogre's eternal glory as "one who has crushed the greatest challenges of the Mountains of Mourn", or at least until the ogre's verbal history regarding the individual fails to pass between generations.

Scraplauncher

Sometimes, groups of knoblars decide they don't like being lorded over by the bullys that are ogres, and promptly strike out in search of a way to make themselves a legitimate threat. They do not usually succeed in this regard, being killed either by their foes or by the first ogre they annoy; once in a while, however, they will manage to "acquire" a pre-tamed rhinox, attach a chariot to it, place a catapult on that chariot, and then be bullied into using it to fight for the ogres anyway, forming what is typically called a scraplauncher on account of having no ammunition other than the copious quantities of scrap the ogres throw away. It is more effective than some may think, given what ogres generally consider to be "scrap".

Ironblaster

An ogre once saw a knoblar scraplauncher unit and thought "I could do better than that". He tamed a rhinox, attached an especially sturdy chariot to it, and then placed on that chariot an extremely large cannon. Thus were born the Ironblasters, both a tribe lasting to this day and a warmachine utilised by just about any ogre tribe that can loot or afford to purchase a cannon, the larger the better. Naturally, this object of war finds use as both a charging chariot and a piece of mobile artillery, and is all the more terrifying to face down as a result.

Stonehorn

Some people find it hard to believe that beings even larger and more dangerous than the rhinox exist within the Mountains of Mourn, and yet the stonehorn is a prime example of exactly such a being. They are huge, strong, violent, and rock hard - that is, their bones are literally composed of ultra-dense rock, down to their horns and skulls, the latter of which is rarely more than bone by adulthood. Naturally, ogres treat them with much more respect than most other beasts of war, as they are everything an ogre aspires to be, but they still find ways to trap, train, and eventually master these monstrosities, generally thanks to a Tenderiser taking out one of their eyes and forcing them to follow them back to the ogre's camp by yanking on the spear giving them their first taste of pain.

Thundertusk

Once, the entire world was sheathed in ice. Natural and unnatural evolution alike has led to beasts that are, in essence, throwbacks to these times - walking, mammoth embodiments of winter itself, that have adapted to the increasing temperatures of modern times by emitting a permanent field of sub-zero chill around themselves, cold enough to congeal blood and slow the very movement of any foes foolish enough to charge into its range. This chill can even be condensed into orbs of Warp energy and arctic ice that, when flung at distant opponents with the sound of a thunderclap, detonate on impact into wide sprays of deadly icicles and eldritch lightning. They make great meals for hungry ogre tribes, but are considered to be even better when it comes to both eradicating their foes and keeping their meat fresh and frozen on long journeys - the rise of the term "fridgerated" amongst ogres comes from an ancient thundertusk named Fridge.

Slave Giant

It is believed by ogrekind that they once fought beings called sky titans - far greater than any modern giant whose ancestors they are believed to be, it is said their solitary nature led to their downfall at the ogre's hands, bringing them low and leaving the survivors to devolve into the giants of today. Naturally, a tribe that manages to defeat a giant at all often celebrates the reprisal of their history with a feast of many weeks and much giant flesh, but they are considered by most ogres to be perhaps superior to their own ancestors if they instead succeed in enslaving the giant, chaining it both physically and mentally, and forcing it to fight for the glory of their tribe.

Firebelly

A full member of the Firebelly cult is rather an interesting sight, clad in items evocative of flame and lava as they are, and often bearing skin seared ashen grey or even coal black by their trials. Most notably of these is the test needed to achieve their full magical prowess: in the caverns of the volcanic peaks of the mountains is a type of insect as large as any ogre, whose association with flame is intense enough to use as self-defense, even lasting well beyond its death by heating its body to temperatures capable of melting iron and setting flesh alight. A Firebelly must have found, killed, and consumed such a beetle, and in a process of uncertain origins will consequently take in the beetle's magic as their own permanently, granting them magical flames of various sorts.

Heroes

Bruiser

Bruisers in the Ogre Kingdom are the equivalent of another nation's bourgeoisie. The difference is that Bruisers, being innately superior to their inferiors, can effectively do what they like, so long as they don't upset their Tyrant or other Bruisers, as they typically wind up fighting to resolve the matter, frequently to the death if the insult is grave enough. It is evidently rare to see a Bruiser without a multitude of scars in all sorts of locations, most notably their immense and muscular bellies.

Butcher

The priests of ogre society, trained to bear the Great Maw's essence from childhood, and so obligated to both the holy implements of their deity (which happen to double as chef's tools) and the best cuts of meat from any given kill, making them the largest members of their tribes by default. Though they are technically equivalent in rank to a Bruiser, no Tyrant dares to risk offending them, as the entire tribe may then desert them for fear of a comet dropping on their head, or worse, as the magicks of the ogre shamen are many and varied, ranging from simple worship of the Great Maw to command over the beasts themselves. Furthermore, unlike most mages, they are just as capable of holding their own in close combat as any other ogre, being that they are enormous brutes in their own right, though a fair few do lack dedicated close combat weaponry.

Tenderiser

Sometimes, the animals ogres have farmed are not enough to sustain their tribe, and one of their number must be sent out to hunt, for food or for new broodbeasts. This is the field of the Tenderiser: either trained by another of their number, or innately keen when it comes to mastering the creatures of the world, or both, a Tenderiser is hunter and beastmaster alike in the Ogre Kingdoms, just as able to kill the toughest creatures alone as they are to cow them to their will, and perhaps one of the few with the will and skill to break creatures like the Stonehorn under them. Indeed, whilst they have their pick of creatures to use as mounts, the Stonehorn is typically the mount of choice for a great variety of reasons, and they may well be accompanied by groups of lesser creatures in the process, be they mournfang, thundertusk, or firebeetle. For the same reason, they usually get enough respect from their fellows that challenges to their position are unnecessary, though along the same lines they rarely feel the need to actively challenge either Bruiser or Tyrant for the respective positions, and mostly shy away from actually leading their fellow bulls into combat even if they'll join it as readily as anything.

Magmagorger

The leaders of the Firebelly cult, these ogres are hardly recognisable as their original selves, in some cases even seeming to be made of solid black rock themselves. Such a brute is named very literally indeed: the final test of a Firebelly of this degree involves being dunked into the very volcano they worship, consuming a mouthful of magma from it, and coming out alive, a feat requiring nigh-impossible durability, incredible control over fire magic, or both. Naturally, they are quite rare to behold, but nonetheless extremely dangerous foes capable of searing the flesh from any lesser foe's bones as well as rending them apart in combat proper.

Dragon Ogre

Occasionally, a firebelly decides they want to skip all the hassle involved in making themselves immune to magma consumption, or simply craves more power even after becoming a Magmagorger, and decides that the simplest way to do this is to kidnap a young dragon (a foolhardy task in and of itself, bear in mind), decapitate it, then use a powerful magical ritual to merge their body into the stump, in theory becoming an avatar of the Magma Maw itself in the process. Alas, they tend to lose much of their magical ability and the classic ogre gut in the process, which is replaced with merely a set of shredded abs just above the join between skin and scale, but in exchange, the resulting dragon ogre is rendered incredibly strong - not only do they cease to age, merely growing bigger as they grow older, but they also become functionally immune to heat from any source, even absorbing it in sufficient quantities instead of needing to eat, though they still greatly enjoy doing so.

Lords

Tyrant

The Tyrant rules their tribe through strength, skill, and reputation, acquired through constant challenges to his position by lesser bulls, always "guts out" in nature, sometimes literally. It is said that a Tyrant's territory extends as far as he can see from his seat of power, and so it is that ogre tribes are constantly spurred to combat for control over the tallest peaks, or else for locations of extreme value that they can use to extort money, food, and other tributes out of their fellow tribes, such as the Challenge Stone or the passage into the ex-homelands of the Ogres, where the Great Maw itself now resides. Logically, Tyrants have the most names, the best gear, and the most children of any other ogre in their tribe.

Slaughtermaster

A Slaughtermaster is a leader among Butchers, equivalent to their Tyrant and in many ways superior, though as far as ogre society goes they are content to allow the Tyrant to do the actual ruling, even if they are prone to cutting up lesser ogres for offending them, or simply if they need specific cuts of meat for their dishes. Evidently, one does not become Slaughtermaster for being weak: as what amounts to a high priest, they are also the most magically skilled members of their tribe, capable not only of assisting their allies with magic, but also of dispelling the magic of lesser mages almost on their own, and alongside fellow Butchers having the ability to do so almost casually.

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth

As a dragon ogre ages and grows larger, it also requires more and more energy to keep itself awake. Therefore, they take to resting in lava pits for increasingly long periods of time, absorbing the heat of the molten rock to eventually use up in extended battles against the enemies of the ogre kingdoms. Though the Shaggoths, the very largest of their sort, are worshipped by the Firebelly cult as a minor deity in their own right, these beasts rarely care overmuch for the praise, their time-warped minds merely seeking out the next good fight whilst awake, or else to be left alone when inactive; few beings exist that can provide the former, and many ogres believe they are even a match for the legendary Greater Daemons of Chaos, titanic in form and with renewed flame-wielding prowess.

Dragontaker

An ogre's status is generally determined by the size of beast they can take down alone, for a larger creature requires more strength and skill to defeat. The ultimate embodiment of this would be a dragon: rarely do the two races interact, as the dragon usually just gets a free meal of ogre as a result, but sometimes a Tenderiser, Bruiser, Tyrant, or even an entire ogre tribe is mad or overconfident enough to give it a try, and winds up actually beating the dragon into submission in the process. The ogre who takes control over a dragon typically finds themselves in charge of their tribe and others, for there are few who can challenge a dragon being directed by an ogre. Rarer still are those ogres who, inexplicably, succeed in gaining a dragon's respect and even trust, for most ogres do not particularly exude these qualities, but such a combination is far more dangerous as a result, the bond of near-friendship giving them a much greater synergy in combat which usually proves the bane of all lesser foes.

Named Characters

Overtyrant Chardtagh Gutwrencher and Maw Charnellist Magnohn Gutwrencher

One day, the Tyrant and Slaughtermaster of the Gutwrencher tribe, so named for the founder's habit of disembowelling ogres in combat and leaving them to die slowly and horrifically painfully, spied a dragon's cave, and promptly avoided it because no sane ogre fights a dragon. They did, however, happen upon the same idea at the same time as a result: why would they need to fight a dragon, when one of them could in theory become a dragon? Training for long periods of time, Magnohn gradually learned not only how to transform into various types of dragon with his mastery of the Lore of Beasts, but also to prolong the time he could stay transformed for to near-indefinite, and to ease his ability to transform until it became second nature. Once his practice was done, Chardtagh promptly began to use Magnohn as his personal mount, and with their combined strength promptly subdued the entirety of the Mountains of Mourn in a matter of months, becoming the first Overtyrant and Maw Charnellist of a brand new Golden Age of the Ogre Kingdoms United. With their newfound power, enchanted gear of incredible quality, and a question on some lips as to who really controls the tribes, the Overtyrant declared that they would not be limited to the Mountains of Mourn for long, and so initiated a sort of crusade into the wider world, all but leading the charge Westward to test their might on the nations that would soon oppose them.

Radzmus Monsterlord

It is mildly rare that any ogre possesses habits of both magic and beastlore. Radzmus Ironblaster was one such ogre, and though he was put through the full training of a Butcher, he always felt drawn to the role of a Tenderiser, respectable as they were... and it occurred to him that he could, or even should, merge the two roles into one, and that such an ogre would surely be a master over his own kind. What actually happened was that his tribe declared him a heretic, forcing him to flee into the caves before they ate him alive, and promptly found that his magic worked especially well not only on the native creatures of the mountain, but also on the feral Devourers that had long since been left to die by their tribes, and later still upon the Yhetees that were the cousins of the ogres. Mildly insane by ogre standards at this point, he came to the revelation that he could control just about any creature that wasn't especially intelligent, then promptly declared himself Monsterlord, master of a tribe whose only truly sapient member was himself. Whilst he and his ever-growing pack of both beasts and semi-sentients are often appreciated when they show up to a fight, they are rarely appreciated afterward when they insist on dining with the tribes they fought beside, since it usually also involves dining upon the tribes as well.

Grunsha Coldsteel, the Daemonblade

Most Maneaters, whilst particularly intelligent by ogre standards, are not especially notable as anything other than very skilled amongst ogres, for they rarely acquire exceptional status within a tribe. Grunsha is the exception that proves the rule, so to speak, largely because he returns to the Mountains regularly, almost completely unscarred despite minimal armour and many long years of fighting all sorts of entities throughout the world, from Brettonians to Norscans, from skaven to orcs, and from ghosts to Chaos Daemons. Some ogres believe that he is faking his many exploits. The truth, as those who have challenged him learn, is that he is simply far too agile for a creature of his size, moving with grace and speed that seems almost precognitive by ogre standards, and by the standards of most other races at that; those who watch him fight believe this may have something to do with the weird two-handed greatsword he carries, a presumed-magical weapon that inexplicably glows bright white and pitch black and every other colour of the rainbow at various times, and which is generally believed to have a tightly-bound daemon inside of it, for any other truth would surely be stranger by far.

Kroll Smashmouth, the Mawpyre

Most Magmagorgers appear to be made of volcanic rock, but bleed just like any other ogre when cut deeply enough. Kroll Smashmouth may therefore be the only member of the Firebelly cult who truly is made of volcanic rock, for his eyes and mouth glow with volcanic heat, and when he is cut, the only thing that bleeds out- spews, actually, with significant heat and force- is more molten rock, quickly hardening into a new outer layer of craggy "skin" and "muscle". Lesser Firebellies believe he has been blessed with this form by the Magma Maw itself, a purer avatar of its wrath than the dragon ogres themselves; other merely believe he has cast a unique protective spell upon himself, but nonetheless treat him with quite a bit of respect, for he is certainly one of the most accomplished Firebellies the Ogre Kingdoms have ever seen.

Krakanrok the Black

"I am he that you seek. The original dragon ogre. The very oldest and largest Shaggoth in existence, consequently. If memory serves, I created that ritual out of foolish pride and a desire to outdo my peers in serving the Magma Maw, and I watch it now in common demand with ever-dawning horror... I think the Mawpyre has done a better job of becoming our god's avatar than I, all things considered. Kroll's view of the world is less bleak than mine. Less clouded by the fog of ages, too, for his relative youth. I don't think Krakanrok was even my original tribe's name, let alone whatever other names I accumulated. But it hardly matters, for my awakening means that I am bound to once again seek my doom in the name of my race and the Maws. I think I'm unlikely to find it this time around, either."

[KremeSupreme]

The Paganlands

NAME: Elven Paganlands

OVERVIEW:
West of the Elven Forests are the Paganlands, a stark contrast to the beautiful groves and meadows, instead filled with infested wealds and misty taiga's. The Paganlands were once the grand and majestic land of Lomillar before being corrupted by The Pagans, otherworldly malevolent forest spirits. The Wood Elves currently living in Lomillar were thus bound to their service, for promise of great power. Now, that the Paganlands have bolstered, a great crusade against the outside world is bound to occur.

RACE AND CULTURE:
The main races of the Paganlands are the Pagan Elves and Furbolgs, though outcasted and criminalized members of all races may walk amongst the various Circles.

The Paganlands worship Pagans, alien spirits of Chaos that have overwhelmed and devoured the Spirits of Lomillar, taking their places as the Forest's guardians. While the old spirits were kind and benevolent, the Pagans were harsh and selective, electing only their most devout worshippers power. Each Pagan varies in power, with a Circle, an entire tribe of Pagan Elves or Furbolgs, that worship and serve them.

Pagan Elves were once Wood and High Elves, until the Touch of the Pagans permanently scarred them, warping their mind and contaminating their soul. Nearly all Pagan Elves are insane by the standards of most mortals. While most of them are naturally born, hundreds are made each year as entire pilgrimages of outcasted Elves journey to the Paganlands. Pagan Elves need not be naturally born. So long as an Elf submits to the power of the Pagan, they will be born once the Paganistic power corrupts their soul and mind.

Furbolgs are bearlike Beastmen, once peaceful, until the day the Pagans came and devoured the forest spirits. Since then, the jovial Furbolgs have become grief-filled and angry, grinding away at their axes. Yet despite their hatred for The Pagans, they can do naught but heed their will, as they pledged their lives to the Forest Guardians, which, technically, the Pagans have become.

GOVERNMENT:
The Paganlands are divided into individual Circles, all bound by a treaty. The Head Shaman of each Circle has leadership of each circle, though as long as a member of the circle can overpower the current Head Shaman, it is declared that their Pagan was in their favor, and they are given new rulership. Should one Circle go to war with another, the first Pagans themselves battle in The Warp. Should a Shaman of either circle be killed, the Pagan they respect will suffer a backlash, as they devote much of their power into their followers. Yet if one Pagan defeats another, the power of their Shamans will weaken significantly. Usually when a circle is defeated, all members are slaughtered without mercy. If absolutely no followers of a Pagan are alive, they will fade into nothingness.

The sovereign body of the Paganlands goes to the Circle of the strongest of the Pagans, known as the Apex. The current Apex is Ysolnir, the devourer, a massive beast that continuously feasts on bloodshed and sacrifice. His Shaman, Irrich, has been pressured by him to carry out a crusade to continue his blissful feasting.

INDUSTRY:
In the days of Lomillar, nonindustrialization was acceptable, as the forest spirits generously contributed to the well-groomed forests. Yet with the dark and nearly impartial Pagans, the entirety of the Paganlands is in a severe depression. Most structures more formidable than a ramshackle hut are abandoned fortresses. Farming is practically impossible, as the Pagans constantly devour life from the earth. Most food sources are from hunting the aggressive wildlife, or picking small berries. Some Furbolg tribes also practice cannibalism of defeated duelists for delicacies.

The only real way to attain resources beyond the scarcity of the Paganlands, Pagans occasionally provide resources in return for sacrifices, be it of their own followers or prisoners of war.

MAGIC:
Lore of Shadow
Lore of Death
Lore of Beasts(Furbolgs only)
Daemonology -- Pagans

MILITARY:
The Pagan army's lower and more plentiful ranks are more adaptive in surviving landscapes, making it easier for them to hold down positions in natural environments over fortifying cities and fortresses. Many of the Core soldiers are weaker than most other armies, and less plentiful. The reason for such is that Pagan Daemonology requires sacrifice, be it of their men or others, to make contracts with Pagans that grant them the ability to manifest in the physical world.

Without Pagans, however, Pagan armies are still plenty capable. Their mortal soldiers often break conventions of others of their type, such as Dark Rangers, with more melee power for less infantry, or the Werebear Barbarian, which gives up its clarity and thought for raw power. A weakness of the Pagan army is it's reluctance to retreat and be controlled, as several soldiers live for the chaos of battle, making what would be small defeats for other armies into catastrophic failure on the Pagan armies.

Core:
-Dark Ranger
Plentiful ranged units, which give up some of the power other armies' ranged units possess, in exchange for melee strength and stealth.
-Crazy
In their normal state, Crazy's are weaker than the average soldier, due to their poor armaments. Yet they can enter a battle fury, surrendering mental control for speed and strength.
-Mara Cavalry
In the Paganlands, Mara's were once proud and majestic horses, until the Pagans warped them into bloodthirsty predators that eat flesh. They are difficult to control, and hard to mobilize after the intial charge as the Mara gorges on fresh corpses, while the rider attempts to stab enemies with a spear.
-Mara Archer
Riders of Mara's trained not to devour flesh. They shoot arrows at a distance. However, once the rider dies, the Mara gives in to it's instinct, charging across the field to consume flesh.
-Black Hound
Wolves that have been warped by the Pagans dark power. Each Black Hound provides a morale bonus to all Black Hounds near it. If a large enough pack forms, then they'll create a fast-moving swarm.
-Heretic
The Heretic specializes in demoralizing the foe through shouting obsceneties towards the gods. They are exceptionally vulnerable, as many devout soldiers are more than willing to slit their tongues.

Elite:
-Cultist of War
The first Caster of the Pagan Armies. The victims of this soldier are sent directly to his master, earning him more favor as a battle continues. However, they start off weak early on, meaning they either end up trampled as the first blood, or a god on the battlefield.
-Child of Black Soil
Those who are buried in the Paganlands blighted soil do not stay dead. They return from the other side, having visited the Pagans, acting in thrall to send them a feast. They are slow and extremely durable, and should they die, they will spawn a Shambler, a root of Paganic flesh that grapples any who come near.
-Blight
A Treant, once proud and mighty, stripped of it's soul, rudely replaced by a Pagan. Mushrooms and dead bark cover them, making them slow but durable. The more damage they take, the faster yet softer they become as iron and fire tears towards their exposed bark.
-Furbolg Barbarian
A holy warrior sent from the Furbolg Tribes. They can tap into their inner rage, charging into the enemy column with no control.
-Furbolg Shaman
A Druid of the Furbolg who reveres the Pagans. Whether exiled or willingly left their tribes to fight for a Pagan, they are able to induce other soldiers into mindless battle rage, as well as summoning their corrupted ancestors.

Rare:
-Champion of the Pagans
A knight who swears loyalty to the Pagans. He can cast an assortment of abilities, and possesses high defense and power. He has abysmal speed, however.
-Pagan Brute
A lesser Pagan summoned to the battlefield in the form of a bearlike monstrosity. After slaughtering a fixed number of units, he will return to the Warp.
-Elder Blight
One of the Treant Kings, possessed by a Pagan. Like the lesser Blight, it has high defense, yet also has spikes protruding from it's skin, damaging any who harm it.
-Black Golem
A golem summoned from the black soil of the Paganlands, If killed, it has a chance of dropping anywhere between 1 and 3 Children of Black Soil.
-Black Hound Alpha
A Black Hound that has asserted itself as an alpha. In battle, it provides an even greater ferocity to other Black Hounds. Yet should it come across another Black Hound Alpha, the two and their packs will instantly fight each other.

Lords:
-Pagan Knight
A Pagan summoned to the physical world in the form of a menacing knight atop a Giant Mare. While it has devastating attack and defense, should it not be in the front lines for too long it will attempt to devour soldiers of it's own side.
-Psychopath
A Crazy who has survived far too many battles to be considered mortal. When it enters it's battle frenzy, all nearby Crazy's also enter, creating a massive, unstoppable horde.
-Shadow Assassin
An assassin born in shadows. They are capable of turning into mist and reappearing in an area where convenient. While they are powerful and quick, they are incapable of surviving one on one combat.
-Paganmaster
A Shaman who has tricked two lesser Pagans to his will, turning them into two Pagan Brutes. However he dies, the Pagans will take revenge upon their own armies. When no "friendly" soldiers are within short range of them, they will return to the warp.
-Furbolg Warlord
One of the Furbolgs chieftans, wielding two spears. Capable of activating a "Last Stand" stance, where they do not move, but gain a significant damage and defense boost. When they enter Last Stand, they die regardless in 30 seconds.

Heroes:
-Master Shaman
The leader of a Shamanic Circle, who takes to the battlefield for the Pagans. They can cast practically any spell within the Pagan Daemonology school.
-Speaker of the New Gods
A man who permits his voice to be used by the Pagans. While he has abysmal combat stats, he occasionally casts a Pagan Spell. He has absolutely no control over this ability, and many spells harm as much as they help.
-Pagan Avatar
A follower of a Greater Pagan who allows his body to be a vessel to his master. They take the form of a tall, lean monstrosity, wielding a massive sword capable of slicing a hole through enemy ranks.

Named Characters:
-Irrich the Clare: General of the Pagan armies, who possesses an unnatural clarity amongst Pagan Elves. While several of his equals talk behind his back, he is respected as the best military genius to carry out the inevitable conquest.
-Tanglebane: Once king of the Treants, Tanglebane is a pessimistic Blight, who passes by his boredom through killing those who enter his domain.
-Eireth of Sprawl: Queen of Sprawl, an overgrown city that is continuously being reclaimed by nature, despite the best efforts of the Pagan Elves to survive. Yet despite her city's state, she has claimed dominance over a single Blight, which begrudgingly carries her upon its head.
-Duth Rageheart: The prophet of the Furbolgs, believing that "rage shall set us free".
-Samia The Shifter: The master assassin of the Paganlands. Myths state that she can quite literally turn into shadow.

[POOHEAD189]

The High Kingdrom of Thundrim Kadrin

The High Kingdom of Thundrim Kadrin

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Overview

The High Kingdom is a nation comprised of the hardy, skilled, and venerable Dwarven race. Comprised of various Thanes beholden to a High King within the mountains of their sea-locked nation. They're master artisans, soldiers, miners, engineers, and brewmasters.

Geography

Map Claim

Thundrim Kadrin is a land of Jagged and tall mountains, with forested foothills and farmlands. That is, above ground. Below, the Kingdom is far vaster, filled with towering cities of bronze, iron, and stone. The Low ways are vigilantly guarded, and finely wrought into the earth.

History

One of the oldest races in the world, the Dwarf histories stretch back over 10,000 years. It would take too long for it all to be spake in such a small amount of space as 150,000 characters! Needless to say, they were once a great and prosperous empire, spanning across the continent with Thundrims in almost every mountains, as well as Farms and lands all across the foothills.
It was when a chain of earthquakes wracked the continent 5,000 years ago that their decline began, for their enemies began to grow in number as well, the foul Orcs and pathetic Vermin. The Elves and Men claimed land as well, and for the last 2,000 years they have declined even further until now the once prosperous race is in one mountain chain. The 12 Kings of Dwarfs had to retreat or were slain, and now reside as the 12 Thanes along the mountain, beholden to the High King.

Government

All Dwarves are governed by High King Bagrick Grimbeard, who has 12 lesser Thanes that rule great Dwarf holds, and Stewards that rule lesser regions and outposts. While Thundrim Kadrin has a strong central government, there is a checks and balances system provided with the High Council, comprised of the nations Thanes, War heroes, Honored Longbeards, and the High Priest. Every Thane has a small number of retainers, included but not limited to an Honored Scribe (who records grudges in the Book of Reckoning), a Rune Priest, and a Master of Economics.

Race Description

A Dwarf stands 4 to 4 1/2 feet tall. Males are typically 180-200 pounds, while females weigh between 140 and 160. The males have well groomed and long facial hair. Contrary to popular belief, females do not have beards. Though they pride themselves on their long braids of hair as the males do with facial hair. A Dwarf has a life expectancy close to 400 years. While some Elves might use magic to increase their lifespan, some Dwarves do so out of sheer willpower. They are organized, brilliant tacticians, ingenuitive, strong willed, strong of arm, enduring, and resistant to magic and poison (though not immune). They can smell freshly cut stone, can spot imperfections of metal and stone as 2nd nature, and have a 6th sense of knowing where they are at all times underground, within a mountain, or great structure of stone.

Culture

Dwarf culture revolves around honor, wealth, wisdom, skill, and determination. If you have all of these, congratulations, you're a fine addition to the kingdom. Dwarfs enjoy past times like the brewing and drinking of ale, hunting, crafting, forging, axe throwing, wrestling, and counting gold. The culture is also big on vengeance, so woe to any who pisses them off.

Economy/Industry

The Dwarf economy revolves around metal (both precious and utility), stone, skilled craftsmen, explorers, and the brewing of potent ale.

Magic

Dwarfs use Runic Magic. They do not ignite the fuel of the Winds of Magic. Instead, they trap it inside a rune to bind it and hold it. When so confined, the magic can be used safely. Runesmiths treat magic like any other Dwarf craft. Mastery takes patience, hard work, and dedication. While this gives them less versatility in battle with spells, it also means that the spells that are wrought are effective and reliable. This also means their runic weapons will stay magically enhanced until the world's ending.

Spell Format

Name: What is the spell called?
Lore: What Lore (type) of magic is it? Fire, Storm, Beast, etc. Feel free to make up your own lore if you feel inclined.
Type: (Offensive, Support, AOE, Single Target, Debuff, Buff, etc)
Short Description: Tell us a little about your spell, enough to wrap our heads around it.

Dwarf/Military Overview (Pros and Cons)

A Dwarf is a natural fighter. Though shorter than men, they are far bulkier and considerably stronger and tougher than the average manling. Even if there were a man that was the size of a Dwarf in width and height, a Dwarf would innately be stronger due to their natural physiology of an extremely physical, mountainish race. Their strength pales in comparison to their endurance however. You would be hard pressed to find any creature on this vast world more enduring physically, mentally, and even magically, than a Dwarf. These traits, coupled with them being psychologically unable to not strive for perfection in what they set their mind to, have made them one of the most effective militaries in the land. They have powerful and disciplined infantry, terrifying ranged weaponry, the highest caliber weapons/armor (most likely powerfully enchanted with runes), with the most advanced technology and artillery to date. Their weaknesses lie in their lack of any light units or. They only have one unit that can effectively commit anything close to guerrilla warfare. This, in addition to no light cavalry, means they have very little options when it comes to fighting an enemy outside of a true engagement (other than traps, rangers, and Thunder Wasps). Their rune magic, while undoubtedly powerful, is also less versatile than Elvish and Mannish spells, for instance. The last failing of this hearty race is numbers. The Dwarfs, while not endangered as of yet, are a race that is on the decline. The destruction of their vast empire has left them with a fraction of the numbers they used to have. An example: The Great Hold/City of Barak-Kazul, that once boasted nearly half a million Dwarfs in its heyday, and another half a million in the surrounding area, now holds a skeleton population of 50,000.

Melee Units

Name: Dwarf Warrior/Soldier
Type: Tier 2/Medium Melee Unit (short distance range unit)
Short Description: The average Dwarf warrior, well supplied with Axes, Hammers, Pikes, and even broad swords every now and then. All Dwarfs are trained as soldiers, and have a single minded determination to defend their lands and honor. This might be the most common unit, but never underestimate their prowess. Dwarf warriors can form effective shield walls and are legendary for their enduring morale and stamina. Many soften up their targets with throwing axes.


Name: Greatbeard
Type: Tier 3-4/Medium Melee Unit
Short Description: Veteran Dwarf Warriors that have fought and bled upon the battlefield for centuries. They have seen it all. Demons, Orcs, Elvish arrows coming their way, you name it. They're bigger and tougher than other Dwarfs, with skin as thick as leather, and finely wrought armor and weapons. Their huge beards and scars show how wise, dangerous, and tough they are to have survived until their twilight years. Many of them wield runic weaponry.


Name: Anvil Guard
Type: Tier 4/Heavy Melee Unit
Short Description: The Anvils are living walls of defense, that hit back. They are expert tunnel fighters, but serve just as well above ground as a near un-breachable wall of Baldr and Iron metal encasing Dwarf slabs of muscle. They are armed with full plate armor, helms, and shields, and wield well forged Axes and Hammers with well disciplined efficiency. They are the greatest line of defense the Dwarfs have, and for such a well defended army, that is saying something.



Name: Dwarf Sapper
Type: Tier 2/ Armor Piercing, Anti-Fortification
Short Description: The Miner's guild contributes to the war effort as any honorable guild would. These Dwarfs use large, double headed Picks that can punch through enemy armor. They also have spades as secondary weapons, and for use of digging under (or towards) enemy fortifications to plant explosives or pave the way for other warriors. They carry explosive charges than can also be thrown, if need be.


Name: Berserkers
Type: Tier 3-4 Melee
Short Description: Armed with any weapons they can find (generally a large hammer or axe, and many throwing axes) these Dwarfs have channeled their hatred for the enemies of the Dwarfs to insane levels, giving in to their bloodthrist and reveling in combat.


Name: Iron Guard
Type: Tier 3 Melee/Anti-Large, Armor, Cavalry.
Short Description: These Dwarfs are nearly as heavily armored as the Anvil guard, but trade shields for the two handed PoleAxe. They're known for their stalwart determination and wicked efficiency in their attacks and Polearm wall.

Hider

Hider

Name: Dwarfen Honorguard (Great Weapons)
Type: Tier 3-4/ Great Weapon Melee unit
Short Description: Known for their loyalty and skill, the Honorguard are well equipped in the finest of armor to protect them as they wield their huge Axes and Hammers with practiced ease, knocking aside enemy shields and formations and cleaving their way through enemy lines. They are deadly and proficient at what they do, and what they do is hit very very hard.

Ranged Units

While the Dwarfs do not have the natural affinity for bows like the Elves, the Dwarfen hunting tradition, as well as their perfectionist and determined tendencies, have made their ranged units efficiently disciplined and terrifyingly accurate. The fact that they also carry axes, well wrought mail, and shield on the backs also makes them effective in melee as a last resort.


Name: Bolters
Type: Tier 2-3/Armored Ranged Unit
Short Description: Despite the discovery and manipulation of Gunpowder, the use and making of Crossbows is a time honored tradition, and the Dwarfs prove it's still a deadly weapon on the battlefield. With moderate stopping power that can pierce all but the finest armor, quick reload time, and unerring reliability, the Crossbow is just as effective as ever. It also has the added ability to use 'special' quarrels that can contain alchemical effects.


Name: Caplock Infantry/RifleDwarfs
Type: Tier 2-3/Armored Ranged Unit
Short Description: In recent centuries, the Dwarf armies have upgraded from the Flintlock firing mechanism to the Caplock/Percussion firing system, making their Dwarf rifles of Iron, bronze, and wood more reliable to be used even in rain, and quicker to reload. While the rifle has slightly less range than a crossbow, it is still long firing, with even larger stopping power, and a demoralizing crack that can unnerve the enemy. If the Dwarf is efficient (and any Dwarf worth his beard is!) then they can fire 5 times a minute unless they are interrupted. The Dwarfs are armored in mail and half plate armor, with shields on their backs, and Axes at their hips. They have stout bayonets mounted on their rifles as well to repel charges.


Name: Hammergun Infantry
Type: Tier 3/ Anti-Large (or Infantry with Grenades)/Fortification ranged unit
Short Description: A cross between the Rifle and the Cannon, these miniature launchers fire heavy shells (or even grenades to attack infantry) at the enemy to kill bigger monsters or to bash through fortified walls/enemy lines. The faceless, helmeted Dwarfs wielding these weapons don't carry any other weapon, but are armored in mail and can swing these iron weapons like makeshift bludgeons.


Name: Dragonfire/Dragonbreath Infantry
Type: Tier 3/Flamer Ranged Unit
Short Description: Dragonfire/Dragonbreath Dwarfs are armored similarly to their Hammergun brethren, only instead they wield great guns that shoot deadly alchemical fire. Their guns have two settings. A spray of flame that can incinerate enemy lines, or firebreath buckshot that are more accurate but less wide ranging for more personal shots so as not to harm their own lines.


Name: Dwarf Rangers/Pathfinders
Type: Tier 3/Moderately tough/quick Ranged Unit
Short Description: Over 1,500 years ago, the great Hunter and Pathfinder Nargim Orcslayer had acclaimed over 1,000 Grobi kills before his first century of life with crossbow and axe, using his previous knowledge of hunting Elk, Boars, and Mountain cats. The Elders of the Hold decided that he should teach students to fight within the foothills of the forest as he would, and so the Ranger tradition was born. These Dwarfs are armored in iron chain mail and leather, wearing green cloaks and wielding crossbows and hand axes. While they are still well armored, they are the lightest and quickest Dwarf troops, able to set traps, cause ambushes, and flee into forests. Their legs are as short as any Dwarfs however, and use their woodland knowledge and green cloaks to escape more than their (relatively) fast speed.

Artillery Units

Name: Dwarf Stone Launcher/Catapult
Type: Tier 2 Artillery/ Anti-Fortification & Anti-Infantry
Short Description: Despite the Cannon becoming popular the last thousand years or so, the Catapult is still a reliable and effective way to reduce structures to rubble and disrupt enemy formations. Their ammo is generally unlimited as well.


Name: Dwarf Cannon
Type: Tier 3 Artillery/ Anti Fortification & Anti Large
Short Description:Dwarfs are the finest engineers in the world, honing their Cannon making craft to near perfection. While there is the occasional malfunction, their Cannons are superb in range, firepower, and reliability.


Name: Multi Shot Cannon
Type: Tier 3 Artillery/ Anti-Fortification & Anti-Infantry/Morale
Short Description: A smaller caliber cannon used to kill infantry and disrupt infantry, and to soften walls for Dwarf attackers.

Cavalry Units

Dwarfs are not a race of Cavalry. They prefer reliability and solid footing rather than speed, and they have no light cavalry units. What they do have, is one unit of heavy Cavalry that strikes like an avalanche.

Name: Ram/Boar Riders
Type: Tier 3/Heavy Cavalry Unit
Short Description: The Dwarfs have made use of the great Boars and Rams of the mountains, the beasts growing large enough for a Dwarf to ride upon them for battle. They are not used as scouting units, and in fact most of the time they are not used at all unless the strategies of their Generals demand it. This unit is essentially an avalanche of heavily armored Dwarf and Beast, very good for mowing down infantry and slamming into other Cavalry. While not as fast as horses generally, the Rams and Boars are able to carry their riders into the mountains and out of reach from horseman.

Special Units

Hider

Name: Dwarf Steam Tank
Type: Tier 4/Large Armored Unit
Short Description:A steam powered Tank set on tracks, with a main cannon. It's just as effective ramming into troops and monsters as it is firing its cannon. The Enginners inside that pilot it also wield pistols they can fire out of the side slots.

My Hider

Name: Dwarf Gyrocopters
Type: Tier 3/Anti Infantry/Scout Unit
Short Description: A recent invention, made 400 years ago, the Gyrocopter is a reliable and safe flying unit used for transportation and scouting. The Dwarf inside has two Rifles, a dozen grenades he could drop on troops, and a makeshift parachute. They are very limited in number.


Name: Runepriest
Type: Tier 3 Magic User
Short Description: Dwarf magic users than wield rune staves in battle to cast spells and beat enemies, they're armored with light chainmail, sturdy leather, and cloth robes with runes of protection.

Lord/Hero

Name: Bagrik Grimbeard the Reclaimer, King of Thundrim Kadrin
Position: What spot do they occupy in your faction?
Powers: The King carries the Twin Hammers of Fate, runes blazing along it powerful enough to bypass any armor and slay any Demon. It is said these hammers will deal the blow that decides the world.
Short Bio/Personality: When the last King was killed 60 years ago by a greater Demon who mocked the line of Kings, proclaiming the Dwarfs would never regain their lost glory, Bagrik was sworn in as High King of Thundrim Kadrin. His first act was to swear that he would regain the lost Thundrims one after the other, though not at the expense of his people. The Elders agreed that they were with him, and the past 60 years he has been fortifying his Kingdom for war. He is well loved by the Dwarfs.


Name: Ragni FelAxe, brother to the King.
Position: High General and (considered to be) Greatest Warrior
Powers: Axe of Felling (can cut through any armor) and Hammer of Godrikk (can banish foul sorcery and return to Ragni's grasp when thrown).
Short Bio/Personality: The King's younger brother and protector of the realm, Ragni has the most kills in single combat than any Dwarf in the Kingdom. He seeks only to protect the King and their Kingdom from all foreign invaders, and sissy Elves.


Name: Grimbold Ironhammer
Position: High Thane of the Ironhammer Hold
Powers: Wields an unbreakable runic Axe, and Valdium shield.
Short Bio/Personality: Last descendant of an ancient line of lesser Kings, now called Thanes, Grimbold wishes to regain his lost Thundrim in the east. He has a particular distaste for Skaven, having fought them many times in the past (Greenskins have been his foe many a time too).


Name: Sketti Hammerhand
Position: Engineer
Powers: Fair Melee combatant, also has various bombs, pistols, and has turned his missing left forearm into a multipurpose weapon/tool.
Short Bio/Personality: Initially one of the best Engineers in the guild, he quit to become freelance and experiment on what he deemed worthy. He lost his forearm from a great Wolf ridden by a Goblin. He killed both, but had to sacrifice the limb. He's known as an eccentric and insane, but damned good Engineer.


Name: Geradin Farforger
Position: High Rune Priest
Powers: Do they have anything of note about them or use any spells or carry any unique weapons?
Short Bio/Personality: Known for his wisdom and skill in runes, Geradin of the Farforger clan has been a Rune priest for over 250 years and is well respected as one of the greatest Priests in this age.