"Walls? I see only piles of sand crafted by children. Bring my brothers close enough and we shall take pleasure in fulfilling our bargain and topple them for you!"
- —Drazhoath the Ashen, during the Fall of Pfeildorf after Tamurkhan's invasion of Wissenland in 2510 IC[1a]
Drazhoath the Ashen, Lord of the Black Fortress and commander of the Legion of Azgorh.
Drazhoath the Ashen is the Chaos Dwarf sorcerer-prophet who serves as the Lord of the Black Fortress in the Dark Lands and commander of the fell Legion of Azgorh.
History[]
Origins[]
Drazhoath riding atop his Bale Taurus mount, Cinderbreath.
For more than a thousand years, the dark, burning spire of the Black Fortress has stood sentinel over the crossing place of the River Ruin at the southern edge of the Mountains of Mourn and guarded the border of the Chaos Dwarfs's empire of ash and suffering. It is a nightmarish place of soot, blackened iron and jagged rock, and burning magma runs through it like lifeblood.[1b]
For centuries the master of this dark demesne and the Chaos Dwarf warriors and slaves that inhabit it has been Drazhoath the Ashen, a twisted, power-hungry creature and potent sorcerer-prophet of Hashut, the minor Chaos God of fire, greed and tyranny. Drazhoath was first sent to the Black Fortress in effective exile after losing favour in the brutal politics of Zharr-Naggrund as a minor hell smith, but has since risen to become its lord through his innate cunning and bitter, ruthless ambition.[1b]
In battle Drazhoath is both a mighty sorcerer and an able warrior who leads his war hosts from the fore mounted upon the Bale Taurus Cinderbreath, bringing fire and ruin down upon the enemy. Drazhoath's power has grown over the decades, and there are few sorcerers now in the service of Hashut who can match him in arcane might or knowledge in the creation of war machines and Daemon-binding.[1b]
He also has undisputed mastery of the Legion of Azgorh -- a potent army of Chaos Dwarfs and Hobgoblin slave-soldiers based at the Black Fortress whose duty it is to raid across the river and patrol the savage wastes of the southern Dark Lands to maintain the Chaos Dwarfs' tentative dominion over the deadly, monster-plagued expanse. But for all his power and the forces at his command, Drazhoath is all too keenly aware that he has reached an impasse and his black-hearted ambition can take him no further, for the Black Fortress is many leagues away from the centre of the Chaos Dwarf empire at Zharr-Naggrund and is ill-regarded.[1b]
Drazhoath the Ashen is as much a master of the hellforges as he is of sorcery.
The voice of this lord of exiles carries little weight with the great conclave of Hashut's priesthood, and in particular none with Astragoth Ironhand, the oldest and most powerful living sorcerer-prophet of Zharr-Naggrund, and the master who sent Drazhoath into internal exile long ago. Astragoth is ancient beyond measure though, and at last his powers have begun to wane. He is kept mobile only by sorcerous mechanisms of his own dark design, and so Drazhoath's dreams of a triumphant return to Zharr-Naggrund are slowly kindled in his spiteful breast.[1b]
Drazhoath needs above all a great victory to seal his prominence for when Astragoth finally falls, and a great flow of fresh captives and plunder into the coffers of the Chaos Dwarf empire would go far to expand his influence beyond his own blighted domain. This, however, is not proving to be such an easy ambition for Drazhoath to achieve, thanks to the enemies which continually beset the Black Fortress (which are after all its reason for existing) and he has been left wanting.[1b]
Tamurkhan's Invasion of the Old World[]
Drazhoath the Ashen as rendered for Total War: Warhammer III.
Yet the Lord of the Black Fortress was to get his chance to fulfill his ambitions in 2510 IC when Drazhoath at first defended the Black Fortress from an assault by the hordes of the Champion of Nurgle Tamurkhan, the so-called "Maggot Lord," and then proceeded to ally with that great horde of the Warriors of Chaos to invade the Old World in search of plunder and slaves. [1c][1d]
The Maggot Lord's path of ruin ultimately took him to the great city of Nuln in the Empire, which his vast horde of Northmen besieged. Tamurkhan hoped that by claiming this city of Men for the Chaos Gods he would ascend the so-called Throne of Chaos and achieve apotheosis as a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. But his ambitions were not to be, for the courageous defenders of the Empire managed to defeat Tamurkhan's ever-dwindling horde. Tamurkhan himself was slain during his own ritual of ascension through the dual efforts of the Amethyst Wizard Elspeth von Draken and Theodore Bruckner, the headsman and personal Judicial Champion of the Elector Countess Emmanuelle von Leibwitz of Nuln.[1c]
Drazhoath and the Legion of Azgorh participated in the Battle of Nuln, but melted away once Tamurkhan had been slain, loaded down with plunder and slaves seized during the horde's march across the Eastern Steppes, the Border Princes, and Wissenland.[1c][1d]
Total War: Warhammer III[]
The banner of the Legion of Azgorh commanded by Drazhoath the Ashen in Total War: Warhammer III.
In the PC game Total War: Warhammer III, the various lords of the Chaos Dwarfs' ruling Conclave, including Drazhoath the Ashen, are in search of one thing: the Blood of Hashut, an alchemical substance that ignites metal on contact, bursting it into molten flame. To acquire it by drilling deep into the earth where the veil between realities grows thin, the Chaos Dwarfs must build the Great Drill of Hashut.[2]
To build this arcane machine, the Chaos Dwarfs must collect and corrupt four Dwarfen artefacts. They intend to bind these to Daemons, forging them into components required for the construction of this hellish drill. Once complete, they intend to dig into the fabric of reality and breach Hashut's domain in the Realm of Chaos to obtain the blood of their god.[2]
But...the Chaos Dwarfs' hated western kin hold grudges. They are not happy about their precious heirlooms being tainted with the forces of Chaos. And they will seek vengeance.[2]
Wargear[]
Being equally as proficient with his axe as with sorcery, Drazhoath is a formidable presence on the battlefield, be he on foot or atop his trusty Great Taurus, Cinderbreath. He's equally as daunting outside of battle, too, being an industrial juggernaut and the best in class when it comes to generating armaments and developing settlements.
- Hellshard Amulet - The dark product of Drazhoath's own labours in diabolic craftsmanship, the icy hate of his malice is caught and amplified a thousandfold within its black crystal depths and unleashed on any who would dare spill his blood.[1b]
- Daemonspite Crucible - Forged from gromril and blighted gold, quenched in innocent blood and bound with layer upon layer of hell-bound souls, the Daemonspite Crucible is said to have been the handiwork of the ancient Chaos Dwarf sorcerer Azgorh himself.[1b]
- Graven Sceptre - A badge of rank carried by the lords of the Black Fortress, this iron staff-mace carries the runic names of the masters of the Black Fortress since its founding, bound up with the baleful prayers of Hashut.[1b]
- Cinderbreath - Cinderbreath is the Bale Taurus who serves as Drazhoath's flying mount.
Miniatures[]
Videos[]
