Kaalroen Empire increases warlike presence (327-346 PC)

From 327PC to 346PC the beastmen of the Kaalroen Empire became ever more belligerent after a long running dispute between the two major beastmen factions was resolved with the death of one of the rival warband's leaders. Now united, the beastmen began to plunder and pillage far and wide, leaving destruction behind them. The more civilised south of the Empire was quite happy with this state of affairs.

The beastmen raids led to some notable battles. In 331PC the Ogres of Cuitlaxaochitzin destroyed a raiding warhost in Arnar while they were campaigning as mercenaries for the High Elves. Irritated by this, Lord Traegan moved against the Ogres, defeating them decisively and prematurely ending their campaigning for that year. The beastmen had not finished suffering however as late in the same year a wood elf warhost, angry at the pillaging of nearby forests, defeated a beastmen horde and cleared much of the southern woods.

In 335PC the skaven of Typhus defeated the beastmen in the north while on one of their now regular searches for precious warspstone. The beastmen suffered further reversals in 337PC against the High Elves in the north. Despite the losses of the beastmen the Kaalroen's prospered, as the attentions of their many enemies were concentrated on the marauding beastmen. In addition this meant that internal problems caused by the Kaalroen's northern members were largely avoided during this period.

In 339PC however the beastmen hordes of the north combined under a single banner and surged south, meeting a dwarf army in the Mountains of Mourn. Here the dwarfs suffered a shameful defeat and the beastmen made of with much plunder. Seven years later the Kaalroen Empire tasted more success on the battlefield, when the army of Hovedstaden finally challenged the skaven in Canabrin, sick of their wanton plundering of Warpstone from their domain. The Skaven were crushed, and it would be many years before Typhus would send an army north to search for the precious substance.

Beastmen take a beating

Between 310 and 315 the fortunes of the beastmen in the northern domain of the Kaalroen Empire suffered greatly as several powers ventured into the Domain of Beasts and plundered its wealth.

Before their defeat to the lizardmen expedition in 314, the High Elves of Mellvellon had already waged a successful campaign against the beastmen in 310PC. Worse still for the northern dwellers of Canabrin the skaven, searching for new sources of warpstone also trespassed into the beastmen domain in 314PC and butchered all forces sent to deny them passage.

Finally in 315PC, sick of his Empire's loss of prestige, the lord of Hovedstaden set out from his tower with a large army, intent on shoring up his northern border by occupation of the beastmen ladns if necessary. He was therefore shocked and angered to find that the beastmen failed to pay him adequate fealty and even had the temerity to mount a defence against his passage into the beastmen domain.

Unfortunately for the beastmen their prowess in battle was no better against their liege lord than it had been in battles against foreign invaders. The beastmen were decisively defeated by lord Tragaen and the lord of Hovedstaden was able to take measures to defend his northern border.

Cuitlaxaochitzin Expansion (early 4th century)

During the early part of the 4th Century PC the lizardmen of Cuitlaxaochitzin increased their campaigns across Palurin and began establishing themselves as the most vital Empire of the world. By this time the Kaalroen Empire was in relative decline and the Holy Sigmarite Empire had turned inward on itself once more. A treaty with the human empire ensured the lizardmen armies had full access to the east of the continent, and they wandered far and wide throughout Canabrin and Arnar in the first and second decade of the century.

The main spur for the resurgent campaigning of Cuitlaxaochitzin was the defeat of their Ogre armies in Arnar in 305PC. Although the Ogres had trespassed onto the Wood Elf domain, the lizardmen of Cacauaxochitl were angered that the wood elves would respond so violently when their army was in Arnar to fight the forces of chaos.

The following two years saw the lizardmen send a massive expedition to the east and with the aid of Mellvellon the lizardmen defeated the Kaalroens near Gratisstad in 306PC before turning their attention to the wood elves in 307. The ensuing battle in the north Arnar woods annihilated the elf army sent out to meet the host of Cuitlaxaochitzin and restored the honour of the great western empire.

Despite an uprising in the empire in 308PC, caused by internal rivalries, the lizardmen empire remained strong, though its expeditions came to an ubrupt end. After settling their own political stability, Cuitlaxaochitzin sent another army east in 314PC, defeating the beastmen in northern Canabrin.

Apart from proving their power, the lizardmen and Ogres of Cuitlaxaochitzin also grew wealthy from plunder from their succesful campaigns and were soon rivalling the Kaalroens for the title of pre-eminent power in Palurin.

Skaven internal rivalries

The defeat at the Battle of the Poisoned Vale had plunged Typhus into a fit of manic depression that saw him pacing back a forth in his luxuriously appointed quarters muttering indignantly to himself. The one blessing to come out of the disaster was that the treacherous Vermin Lord had finally been banished back to the immaterium. But although Typhus had become self absorbed and withdrawn, his agent's vigilance was undimmed.

Clan Eshin agents presented Typhus with indisputable evidence that Warlord Snitchclaw, Kaigun Taishō of the Boiling Peak defence fleet, had pledged allegiance to the Vermin Lord during his failed coup attempt. That act of base treachery was years past now but it could not go unpunished if Typhus was not to appear weak. He ordered the Warlord's immediate arrest but Snitchclaw had already been tipped off, commandeering some of the fleet and fleeing out to sea.

Typhus scrambled the raiding fleet to hunt down the traitor. The much faster and nimbler sailing ships of the raiders soon caught up with Snitchclaw's slower ironclads and a vicious and one sided battle ensued. Snitchclaw's crews were bewildered at being fired on by their own side and were slow to fight back, unaware of their leader's perfidious rebellion. It was not long before the ironclads were all sinking beneath the waves with virtually no losses to the victorious raiders. Rather than help the stricken crew of the sinking ships they continued to fire at the desperate survivors until the water ran red with blood and the circling sharks went into a feeding frenzy.

Only when every traitor was dead did Kaigun Shōsō Pipsqueak, commander of the raiders, order his fleet to head for home in the sure and smug knowledge that he had performed his task well and there was now a vacancy in the chain of command.

Skaven-Mellvellon border 305PC

The Battle of the Poisoned Vale

The protracted war between Mellvellon and the Typhonian Enclave was going ill for the Elves. The Skaven had overthrown the defences of the Tears of Isha and the fortress fell into ruin as it became a verminous nest, infested with foul rat-spawn. The diabolical Typhus had his fiendish alchemists and pox-masters pour gallons of poisonous chemicals into the River Endwe, its waters carrying the toxic sludge down to the colony of Sein Craban and its surrounding farmlands. During the year 304PC the Endwe Vale became stricken with disease, and famine soon followed as crops withered under the blight and the populous fell sick. By the winter of that year the land was a decayed shadow of its former beauty, the verdant pastoral landscape now rotten and reeking.

The Lady Wenotah, fifth High Lord of Mellvellon, summoned the war council of the Dragon Court. It was clear that unless Mellvellon committed its full might to the war then the colonists of Sein Craban would be doomed to pestilence and her people would surely perish. So it was that in the spring of 305PC the Lady Wenotah returned to the shores of Melthu with the hosts of the Dragon Lords at her command.

Grey Seer Typhus had agents secreted in all manner of key positions and word of the muster of the Elves soon reached him. He tasked the daemon Naspepsorael'Enaspahue'e'Ahael with leading the Skaven hordes garrisoned at the Tears of Isha against the might of the Elves. The Warpclaw guild promised their support and hurriedly mobilised their latest new weapons.

The great hosts met across the Endwe River in the heart of the Poisoned Vale late in the spring of 305PC. The Elves seemed all the more resplendent against the backdrop of the blighted landscape, serried ranks of citizen-soldiers glittering against the morning sun. Amongst their regiments were also the elite of Mellvellon’s military arm; contingents of proud White Lions, dour Sword Masters with blades as tall as a man, and the Lady Wenotah’s silent and stoic Maiden Guard. Leading the Elves, the Dragon Prince Y’Raen had summoned the ancient fire wyrm Arcauthor to war, a scaly colossus whose wings cast a shadow that could cause the heart of even the mightiest warrior to quail. Arrayed against them was the verminous army that had poured forth from the once-proud fortress of the Tears in numbers seemingly unending, dragging behind them bizarre and gargantuan engines of war, bent on the final destruction of the Elves.

The Elves, with grim determination, marched to meet the foe. They weathered the storm of Warpclaw Guild’s fiendish weapons as they advanced, many fine warriors blasted by fire or choked on foul poisons. Soon the valley was clouded by the sickly vile green mist of Skaven poison gas weapons but the Elves marched on implacable. They countered with their own fire-power, and as the world’s finest archers loosed their shot the skies darkened under the swarming arrow shafts. The Skaven squeaked and chittered and died in droves but still they came on, an endless furry tide.

Battle was met as the White Lions in the Elven van crashed into the Skaven lines, hewing the rat-men down before they could even flinch, such was their fury. But the Skaven war engines smashed the proud warriors aside and soon the charge was reduced to a bitterly fought toe-to-claw melee.

It was then that the Warpclaw Guild revealed their formidable power; the Warp Crucible whirred into its frenzied revolutions. The magical energies it generated lashed against the Elven battle line, flaying warriors and sundering weapons and war machines to kindling. As the engine reached the pulsing zenith of its power, spinning wheels a-blur, a warp shockwave blasted the Maiden Guard that atomised every one of them in an instant... leaving the Elven left flank wide open to a Skaven counter-attack.

It was at this moment, when the Skaven appeared to be nearing their triumph, that Prince Y’Rael committed the reserve forces and spurred the ferocious Arcauthor into the battle. The mighty dragon smashed into the Skaven lines and the Elves fought on with renewed vigour at the sight of the Skaven ranks collapsing in terror as they burned in the dancing dragonfire. On eastern banks of the Endwe the Sword Masters of Sein Craban took their vengeance on the Skaven, bringing down the rabid cohorts of the Unscurried Stormvermin and routing the Skaven right flank that had just moments before threatened to close in and envelope the Elven army.

The battle had turned and the surviving Skaven succumbed to their most basic instinct and fled the field. The Elven pursuit was dogged but many of the desperate rat-men managed to safely withdraw to the forts of the Naur Isthmus.

The Elves had won the day, but at great cost. The Poisoned Vale had been delivered from the iron grip of Typhus’ tyranny and the daemon Naspepsorael'Enaspahue'e'Ahael had vanished in the tide of battle. The Warpclaw Guild, when summoned before Typhus himself to account for their failure, were quick to blame the daemon for the defeat. Typhus, always mistrustful of the vermin lord, could well believe that the daemon’s
absence confirmed his guilt. All the same, the Chief Warlock was executed for failing to carry the day.

The front had been pushed back to the Naur Isthmus. The Elven colony had been given breathing space to re-build and clear the valley of the Skaven pestilence. But Typhus swore revenge, and where the hundreds of Elven dead were a costly loss to Mellvellon, the thousands of slain Skaven could easily be replaced. The war was not won yet.

Lists!

Population

1 Kaalroen Empire 2,355,000

2 Holy Sigmarite Empire 1,915,000

3 Dark Elf Dominion 1,670,000

4 Mellvellon 1,465,000

5 Cuitlaxaochitzin 1,650,000

6 Dwarf Kingdom 1,525,000

7 Skaven 1,355,000

8 Wood Elf Realm 1,160,000

9 Cloudy Mountain Orcs 420,000

Biggest Cities

1 Boiling Peak 435,000

2 Karak-a-varr 335,000

3 Lamentation 290,000

4 Apotheosis 220,000

5 Sigmarheim 200,000

6 Sudhafen 175,000

7 Dragonspire 175,000

8 Galamory 160,000

9 Phallucia 155,000

10 New Har Ganeth 120,000

Wonders of the World

1 Mount Cxa-Cxa 20

2 Great temple of Cuitlaxaochitzin 19

3 Dragonspire - Ivory Tower 18

4 Boiling peak Complex 17

5 Tower of Phallucia 8

6 Cathedral to Sigmar 6

= Ruins of Chimalman 6

8 Spire of Lamentation 4

= Temple of Mannan 4

10 Tower of Skraeland 3

Biggest Armies

1 Kaalroen Empire 29

2 Mellvellon 23

3 Cuitlaxaochitzin 19

4 Dwarf Kingdom 19

5 Typhonian Enclave 10

6 Holy Sigmarite Empire 9

7 Cloudy Mountain Orcs 4

8 Dark Elf Dominion 2

Biggest Navies

1 Dark Elf Dominion 44

2 Typhonian Enclave 27

3 Dwarf Kingdom 20

4 Mellvellon 20

5 Holy Sigmarite Empire 18

6 Kaalroen Empire 5

7 Cuitlaxaochitzin 5

Biggest Empires

1 Kaalroen Empire 385,000 sq mi

2 Cuitlaxaochitzin 222,500 sq mi

3 Holy Sigmarite Empire 167,500 sq mi

4 Dark Elf Dominion 150,000 sq mi

5 Dwarf Kingdom 142,500 sq mi

6 Typhonian Enclave 122,500 sq mi

7 Mellvellon 117,500 sq mi

8 Wood Elf Realm 90,000 sq mi

9 Cloudy Mountain Orcs 65,000 sq mi