Wolves at the Gates

Envy, avarice and thirst for power have driven many to enmity with the flourishing and bountiful Holy Sigmarite Empire. Dark powers long asleep now seize the chance to usurp what they can from an empire that finds itself exposed and vulnerable during bloody civil war.

RHAN'K'ADANRA

Though generally a peaceful province, Rhan’k’adanra has in the past found itself on the sharp end of Imperial ambitions, her borders squeezed by the ever-expanding Holy Sigmarite Empire. Now close neighbours, the differences between the two realms has become more focused. Of greatest contention, the people of Rhan’k’adanra are pagan worshippers who put the protection of the country and indeed their very lives in the hands of their many manifest “gods”. Under the beneficence of this profilic pantheon the folk of Rhan’k’adanra enjoy simple lives of agriculture and craftsmanship. These pagan deities are appalling to the oft-times dogmatically religious Sigmarites and the resulting culture clash has caused friction between the two nations on more than one occasion.

The war within the Holy Sigmarite Empire poses a unique prospect to Rhan’k’adanra. With the mighty Alptraum armies redeployed to the north the people of Rhan’k’adanra have an opportunity to claim dominion over the rich lands of Hoffenland and the Nimarn valley that have long been denied to them by the dominant Empire. The druid-lords of Rhan’k’adanra have reached an understanding with the Drazkharovs: in return for harrying the southern marches and diverting Imperial attentions, the Drazkharovs have agreed to cede lands to Rhan’k’adanra should they win the imperial throne.

DOMOVOI

The complex culture of the Domovoi means little to the ruling classes of the Holy Sigmarite Empire, who regard them as primitive barbarians. A nomadic tribal people of the Kaalroen Empire, the Domovoi roam the Canabrin plains, often making forays south into the fertile Canaur valley. These frequent incursions have earned them the enmity of not only the Emperor but also the Drazkharovs, whose lands lie closest to the plains.

The Domovoi draw no distinction between the Imperialists and the Rebels. They simply see the rich pickings to be had from raiding into a weakened Empire. The Tsar of Novgorod rouses the Pantheon and the Domovoi war-hosts to plunder their way across the Holy Sigmarite Empire.

DARK ELF DOMINION

The Lords of Lamentation have been in seclusion for so long few remember their last public appearance. Without firm leadership, their city had devolved into infighting and anarchy as dreadlords and nobles vied for mastery over their neighbours. The coastal raids of the Black Arks continued under their individual captains, but without a strong will to unite the corsairs and reavers of the island city, they have posed little coherent threat to the outside world. Some had begun to speculate that the lords had feuded within their midnight towers so long as to have slain one another, leaving none to command and none fit for rule.

But with the ignition of civil war in the Holy Sigmarite Empire, the Druchii are as sharks drawn to the blood-scent of wounded prey. The Master of the Tower, a forbidding figure clad in the dull red of dried blood, silver armour chased in gold, has approached each corsair captain and reaver king in turn. He has presented them a writ of authority forged in iron and stamped with the seal of the highest Lord of Lamentation. It presents a single command: the Empire of Men will burn.

The fleets cross the Straits of Angfang to land a corsair host onto the shores of Flackland. Now the reaving will begin in earnest.

SCORCIO
The Drazkharov influence has reached far and wide, even to the relatively new settlements of the imperial colony of Adler an Zee. The fortified town of Scorcio was founded upon the banks of the Tiban in the shadow of the ruins of fallen Aquila. The Drazkharovs were eager to link themselves to their ancestral homeland, their forebears having left behind myriad treasures and artefacts as they were forced to abandon the burning city.

As with so many of the Drazkharov’s schemes, they first aligned themselves to the ruling elite of Scorcio through a carefully arranged marriage. Over a century later, the citadel is now firmly under the control of House Drazkharov through their now-cousin, the Baron Giovanni d’Cadavero.

The crisis in the Holy Sigmarite Empire has yet to spill over into the overseas territories. But as Ogre mercenaries prepare to depart from the colonies to answer the Emperor’s summons, Giovanni Cadavero sets his sights upon the city Ulrichshafen. With the Ogres absent little will stand in his way of the Count realising his vision of appointing himself as Grand Duke of Aranur, undisputed master of the colonies.

THE TYPHONIAN ENCLAVE

His Most Tyrannical Majesty, Master of Boiling Peak, Future Overlord of All Palurin – some of the many self-aggrandising titles Grey Seer Typhus has bestowed upon himself. His machinations are not merely for glory, plunder, or political rivalry. Rather, Typhus envisions himself as ruler of the entire world, his Skaven legions spread across the globe enforcing his iron will, with the subjugated nations revering him as a living god.

Typhus hopes to see the civil war of the man-things collapse their empire in upon itself and he's more than willing to lend a helping claw. The fall of the empire will leave a power vacuum that only he alone, of course, has the might and will to dominate. The coastal towns of the Holy Sigmarite Empire have begun sighting putrid warp-steam clouds billowing out at sea, heralding the coming of weird and wonderful vessels and a fleet of outlandish airships that can only be of the incomprehensible designs typical of Skaven mad-cap technology. Crammed within the holds of the fleet, innumerable rat-men prepare to descend to gnaw upon the weakened Holy Sigmarite Empire and hasten its downfall.