Great War Against Chaos
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The Great War Against Chaos refers to a huge invasion by the forces of Chaos (uncounted Northmen, Daemons and Beastmen) into the lands of the Old World south of the Chaos Wastes; around 200 years before present in the timeline. Under the command of Asavar Kul, these forces ravaged Kislev and The Empire, which was in dissaray. Simultaneously, the Dark Elves, with more Chaos allies, attacked the High Elves in Ulthuan. Eventually both invasions were driven back and culminated at the Battle at the Gates of Kislev and the Battle of the Finuval Plain.
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[edit] Overview
[edit] Prologue
During the summer 2301 IC, disasters struck the population of the Empire. Harvests failed, water became poisonous, cattle died and many mutations were visited upon plant, beast and man. Beastmen had multiplied and emerged from their hiding places in the forest of Ostermark and Ostland. Orcs, driven out of the mountains by the growing powers of Chaos, plundered the land. There was no centralized power to counter, for the Empire was divided and each Elector Count ruled his own state, and by autumn the Empire fell to anarchy. Farms and villages were abandoned to the bandits, Greenskins and Beastmen and people sought refuge in the crowded cities where doom-tellers awaited them to declare the end of the world was near. In Nuln, the preacher and nobleman Magnus the Pious drew a great following. Chaos and witchcraft were blamed for all the misery and zealous bands clashed in the streets with those who openly recognized the might of Chaos. Many were burned at the stake or drowned.
To the north, the four gods of Chaos united, for once, in common purpose. Foul magic spilled out of the northern gateway and spread southwards. The Chaos Wastes were swallowed up by the Realm of Chaos and Daemons advanced from it. Monsters and Chaos Warriors joined in and the large horde strode to the south. Asavar Kul emerged as the mighty warlord and led these forces. They gathered in the land north of Praag where Tzar Alexis of Kislev started to grow worried. The Tzar calls southwards for help. The Count of Ostland was the first to respond and within the week his forces joined those of the Tzar.
The Dark Elves struck a pact with the lords of Chaos and the Black Arks sailed out together with the Plague Fleet of Nurgle. The dark host set out towards Ulthuan and their hated enemy the High Elves.
[edit] Battle of Finuval Plain
The dark elves and their Chaos allies swept the seas clear of Ulthuan's navy and took the Blighted Isle and the lands of Nagarythe. In 2301, Malekith, the Witch King, set foot upon the land he had so long been sepperated from. The unprepared High Elves faced defeat after defeat and a large part of Ulthuan was looted, burned and pillaged. In one of these raids, the Everqueen, Alarielle, escaped from death, rescued by Tyrion. They fled from Avelorn which fell into the hands of the dark elves. The heart of the high elves filled with despair as they thought the Everqueen and Tyrion lost. The high elves were driven back untill only Caledor, Saphery and the city of Lothern remained in their control.
The high elves' resistance had slunken down to a guerrilla war but with the help of Teclis, then an unknown, young mage, small victories were achieved. He killed Ferik Kasterman's Coven of Ten, a Tzeentch sorcerer at the Battle of Hathar Ford.
Malakith, unsatisfied with just a rumour, sent forth four assassins to bring him the body of the Everqueen. She and Tyrion try to hide as Tyrion, sturck by a Witch Elf's blade, slowly succumbed to poison. Upon descovery, the assassins were killed but not before sending a message to their Lord who summoned N'Kari, the Keeper of Secrets, and sent him forth. It was Teclis who came just in time to banish the daemon and save his brother, Tyrion, and the Everqueen from death. The three where picked up by a white ship at the shores of the Inner Sea and the joined the high elf army assembling at the Finuval Plain.
Both forces gathered for a confrontation at the Finuval Plain. Urian Poisonblade, the Witch King's champion, uttered a challenge to single combat and slew first Arhalien of Yvresse and then Khorian Ironglaive, captain of the White Lions but was eventually defeated in his third duel against Tyrion. Then the two forces clashed. Outnumbered by the combined forces of dark elves and Chaos, the high elves, though fighting desperatly for their homeland, were slowly driven into defence. Meanwhile, Teclis fought a magical battle with the witch king. Invocing the powers of the Staff of Lileath, Teclis forced Malekith to flee into the Realm of Chaos. Freed from him, Teclis turned upon the army. Broken by the departure of their lord, the dark host turned and fled and was almost to the man cut down.
The high elf forces set off to Lothern. The besiegers, caught between that army and the Phoenix King who broke out the gates, were defeated. The high elves started a campaign to reconquer their lands. Tyrion was sent with an army to Saphery, the Phoenix King drove north. In 2303 they met again at the capital of Chrace. The main forces of Chaos and Dark Elves were driven out, but fighting was to continue for many decades.
[edit] Fall of Praag
The allied forces of the Tzar and Ostland met the forces of Chaos north of Praag, somewhere between the towns Murmagrad and Chazask and were almost completely annihilated. Few survived to tell the tale. The Chaos hordes laid waste to northern Kislev and the port of Erengrad fell before they moved further south, along the Worlds Edge Mountains. The last defenders at River Lynsk were slaughtered in the spring of 2301 and the route to the heartland of Kislev and Praag lay open. The people of Kislev fled behind its walls as the Chaos forces set up camp in front of its battlements.
Meanwhile, Magnus the Pious travelled from city to city and his group of followers swelled everywhere he passed. The Elector Counts one for one realized that supporting this preacher would improve their popularity with the common folk and soon regular state troops were sent to join in behind Magnus. At Middenheim, the army had grown so big that it was split in two forces, the first was sent to Praag in the hope of relieving the siege. The second, led by Magnus himself, followed slower and would first go to the city of Kislev.
Pieter Lazlo, personal ambassador of Magnus, was sent to Ulthuan to ask the High Elves for help. He entered Lothern just after it was relieved from the siege. The elves, preparing to reconquer their lands, could not spare any forces. However Teclis volunteered and Yrtle and Finreir agreed to join him.
In Praag, the Chaos army bided its time, foraying occasionally but nothing serious. The siege lasted throughout the spring and summer, the stalward defenders beating back every attack. But as winter set in and the people grew weak and tired, for the overpopulated city was met with diseases sent by the minions of Nurgle, starvation and general misery, Praag fell after a bitter battle in the streets, the foreguard of Magnus’ forces but a day away. The powers of Chaos swept into the city and changed men and buildings forever.
[edit] Battle at the Gates of Kislev
When the first part of Magnus’ forces arrived at Praag, Chaos had left, marching further south and passing them without being aware they did so. Seeing the horrors that had befallen the citizens, they turned in pursuit of the Chaos armies. They soon encountered and destroyed the rearguard, but did not give away their presence to the main body of the Chaos horde.
Magnus himself, together with the second part of his army, was just in time to see the city of Kislev - capital of that nation - being surrounded by the Chaos horde. Teclis and his companions had joined him during the march north and assisted him with his advice and magic and trained a few of the humans in how to use magic to defend their brethren. after they had heard of the fall of Praag, Dwarfs from Karaz-a-Karak, though themselves under siege by Chaos forces, joined the Tzar within the city of Kislev.
The first assault, mainly beastmen, drove the defenders from their outer defences and behind the city walls. It was the stolid determination of the dwarfs that prevented the hordes to break through the city gates. As the hordes prepared for a second attack, it was attacked in the back by the combined forces of Magnus and Teclis. Asvar Kul divided his forces and sent one to attack the city and one to counter Magnus. The latter were met with a devastating defeat, but the forces of Chaos were too large and the eventually redeployed and pushed the Empire army in defence. Yrtle was slain by a Keeper of Secrets. On the city walls, the battle was watched. Three hundred dwarfs broke out to try and help Magnus, but they were beaten back. Only half returned.
When hope was lost to the defenders, the advance force which had been sent to Praag but had turned back, appeared on the northern horizon, on the “Hill of Heroes”, and launched a liberating attack on the Chaos forces. Magnus spurred his men to a last effort and the gates of Kislev were opened and out came the Kislevites and Dwarfs. Caught from three sides, the Chaos horde slowly disintegrated and by the days end they were broken and scattered. Magnus the Pious met Asavar in a mighty battle and prevailed.
[edit] Aftermath
After the defeat, the powers of Chaos ebbed away, but an echo would always remain within Praag, though it was levelled and rebuilt. The Chaos gods returned to their internal bickering. Be’lakor, a Daemon Prince had watched, raged in fury for the dead of Asavar and he fell to insanity, certain as he was that he would have done better.
Magnus, who attained his name "the Pious", returned to the Empire as the great saviour and was installed as the new emperor by the Elector Counts. He purged the lands from the taint of Chaos and the anarchy of bandits, Greenskin and Beastmen. Order was reinstalled. Though Finubar resisted the idea, Teclis taught the humans magic and founded the Colleges of Magic.
Depite Tyrion's attempts to reclaim the Blighted Isle, the dark elves succeed in occupying the Altar of Khaine.
[edit] Sources
- Warhammer Armies: Realm of Chaos, Games Workshop, 1997
- Warhammer Armies: The Empire, Games Workshop, 2000 and 2006
- Warhammer Armies: High Elves, Games Workshop, 2001
- Warhammer Armies: Hordes of Chaos, Games Workshop, 2002
- Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves, Games Workshop, 2001
- Warhammer Armies: Dwarfs, Games Workshop, 1996
