Lords of Darkness (WHF CK2-Ish Quest)

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Before what would be known as the burning of Artois by future scholars, the leader cast the call of vanhel upon his tens of millions strong undead army and birona timewarp upon his dragons granting a phenoms speed that allowed them to move much faster than before, then he ordered his dragons to burn the forests of Artois. And burn them they did. Fire and Lighting dragons started large scale fires that quickly spread themselves across the forests, the result happened immediately as legions of burning beastmen came out of the forests before them and into the weapons and maws of the dark armies.

In the end, the beastmen did not last very long, all of them were either hacked apart, burned to cinders by dragons, or eaten by ravenous dark beasts, the ones lasted more than the others were the beastmen who followed the blood god Khorne screaming mad cries to a God who did not care, they killed thousands of undead but the horde was endless and in the end, they too fell to the horde, their souls were dragged towards the realm of eternal conflict and their skulls now adorn the skull throne-like thousands of them in the past.

The forest continued to burn, and more and more beastmen continued to appear before the army of death who were slaughtered to the last. The Beastmen were stuck between a rock and hard place, as the forest continued to burn the beastmen who did not meet the army of death met their death either by the flames or by the suffocating smoke.

On the side the forces of Artois were now looking at the biggest forest fire in their history, likely, the fire will not stop until it consumes a good part of the dukedom forests, but on the good part, large amounts of the beastmen horde were located there so they must have suffered greatly. The grail knights on the other hand seemed to be staring towards the flames on the horizon, something told them that the cause of the fires was not natural and that something dark was coming towards them.

Their feelings were proven right when the seemingly endless army of undead came bearing on them. Seven beings on its front, clearly they were the leader, two were mounted on great and ancient dragons, while four were mounted on horses made from the winds of magic.

But it was the last one that put all of the grail knights on the edge.

Clad in a midnight suit of heavy armor, horns adorned the side of the helmet, a great flowing cape on his back, and finally a sword that seemed to consume the light around it. All of them immediately knew that he was the leader of the mighty army of undead, they immediately acted bolting towards the head of the proverbial snake.

This would be their worst and last mistake in their lives.

Seeing the approaching grail knights Dracul simply did a hand gesture and the six leaders of the dragon orders immediately went to attack their former brothers in arms - with Dragoth and Druk descending from their dragons not wanting the mighty beasts to get hurt, minuscule as the chance of it happening was - The six engaged with half of the total force of grail knights, with only twenty-five grail knights getting passed them.

They did not live long.

Ones had their armor melted along with their flesh by either fire or magma, others had been electrocuted to their deaths, others had become ice statues, while the ones who engaged the last of the six had their very life taken from them in the most painful way possible and trees burst out of them.

The six lords of the dragon orders were simply too strong for them to defeat, not to mention that all of them were working together, and so their souls made their way to the side of their goddess.

While the one-sided battle was happening an even more one side battle was happening. The 25 knights possessed strength and resilience far above those of mortals, pure Silverite armor that protected them from even the harshest of blows and weapons.

All of this did not matter in the face of a living god.

The firsts ones were bisected, and the sword greedily devoured their souls.

The ones who came after were easily killed and their souls were devoured by the divine sword who easily cut through their armor and weapons, only one survived but both knew that he only did so because the god allowed it.

The 'fight' - even though it could be hardly considered that - had only lasted 3 seconds.

Unknown to the grail knights the armies of Artois had watched the whole exchange and were all terrified by what they saw, 50 grail knights who could be considered to be invincible were defeated just like that, unknown to them they already subconsciously agreed to surrender.

The living god started to approach the last of the grail knights who had a dozen wounds - "Tell me little knight where is your great goddess now?" - Dracul said every word seemed to be mocking the slowly dying knight, stopping at the very front of the knight he used his sword to lift his head.

He then continued to speak - "Where is the lady of the lake?"

Despite being stared by a being who could kill him faster than he could blink, the knight had no fear in his heart - "The lady is a goddess who you can not even touch much less compare to monster" - The knight growled to the being in front of him. Dracul tilted his head at the fanatical knight in front who was on his last legs, kneeling before the dying man he softly whispered in his ear - "Your innocent goddess can rot for all I care but don't worry little knight you can be saved" - Dracul said putting heavy emphasis on "innocent".

His words caused the knight to become confused, the being rose and grasped his sword - "You just have to pray" - He raised his sword - "But unfortunately for you, I won't be listening" He brought his sword down and the knight knew no more.

He nodded towards his champions who returned to his side, he then looked towards the forces of Artois, no words needed to be spoken, the sounds of weapons falling towards the ground filled the air as the total surrender of Artois was announced, he then casted healing spells upon the peasants magically healing them of their wounds and whatever diseases they had. The forest still burned until the next day when all of the beastmen were killed.

The forests were greatly reduced by the fires, and upon the lands of the eternal forest ancient beings felt the change and became enraged at the loss.

The transition of power was rapid, the nobles who plotted against the new order and/or would not accept it were killed, this included the duke of Artois and to promote loyalty upon the peasant population Dracul went healing whoever he could and let his cult deal with the following process which was easy.

Two days after the populous was not only fully loyal but very faithful as well.

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VICTORY!!!

Conquered Region - Artois

[] Raise The Dead: All dukedoms are places where many battles were fought having so hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of known and unknown places where the dead were buried. Raises unknown amount of undead

[] Garrison The New Territory: Putting a garrison on your new territory is a wise decision. (Write-In Amount)
- [] Lyonesse (Existing Garrison: 150,000 skeletons, 150,000 zombies, 100 fire dragons, 100 storm dragons, 10,000 grave guard, 10,000 black knights, and 10 necromancers)
- [] Artois

[] Next Target? (You Can Split Your Forces If You Want To)
- [] L'Anguille: The location of the most important seaport of Bretonnia, currently being raided by beastmen who managed to bypass the blockade imposed by the late King of Bretonnia.
- [] Gisoreux: The dukedom of Gisoreux is more culturally diverse than the other dukedoms, each of the four regions of it having different customs and culture than the other, it is also the duchy where a natural passage towards the empire resides.

[] You Have gained Enough Already (Ends War Turns)

Casualties: -10,000 Skeletons; -11,000 Zombies

Current Forces:
- Undead: 11,779,259 Skeletons; 11,494,049 Zombies; 2,987,800 Grave Guard; 1,915,950 Black Knights.
- Dark Beasts: 312,500 Fell Bats; 312,500 Dire Wolves; 175,000 Vargheists; 176,000 Varghulfs; 267,500 Crypt Ghouls; 252,500 Crypt Horrors; 600 Terrorgheists.
- Dragons: 24,900 Fire Dragons, 350 Doom Fire Dragons, 24,900 Storm Dragons, 350 Great Storm Dragons
- Magical Forces: 42 Necromancers; 1 Fire Wizard; 1 Metal Wizard; 1 Beast Wizard; 1 Heaven Wizard; 1 Shadow Wizard
- Special Forces: Nidhogg; Dragoth; Drakon; Galrkrond; Fafnir; Druk.
- Leader: Dracul

The underground of the world is a very dangerous place, and yet there exist many opportunities, precious metals, and hidden or long-forgotten secrets and the dwarves were the first to be not only aware of this but to capitalize on it as well, the dwarves empire once stretched towards the entirety of the old world and a few parts of the new world but after the events of the great war of vengeance waged upon the elves and the continental movement caused by the Slaan which destroyed the underground passages made by the dwarves. The great golden age of the dwarfs had ended, or as the dwarves named it Karak Angor, and with no way to safely repair or communicate by using the underground passages, the empire fell.

The effect was immediate holds which were before interconnected were now separated and communication was lost between them for a few centuries before they managed to reunite. Some hosts survived, but many were lost either by orcs, Skaven, or other types of fell creatures, but the worst that had happened was for the Holds who fell to the machinations of the minor god of chaos Hashut the chaos god of greed, industry, and darkness. Their once-proud Dwarven Holds were attacked by warbands of chaos dwarves and had all of the dwarves in it - young and old alike - either killed or enslaved and sent towards their cities.

Their holds were desecrated by the fallen dwarves, temples dedicated to the ancestor gods were torn down and replaced by temples and altars dedicated to Hashut. The entire look of the holds were changed as well with the typical architecture of chaos dwarves replacing everything.

As for the dwarves, that were enslaved by their fallen kin their fate was not merciful or kind, worked to death by their new masters or used as fuel by their possessed machinery or in the case of the females used as broodmares in all but name to spawn new chaos dwarves. Others were used as sacrifices for the Father of Darkness himself, their souls forever lost to the hungry maw of the chaos god of greed.

The centuries passed and the stain upon the history of the dwarves continued to live on until they felt it. The dreadful dragon song grew in power as it heralded the birth of a new god, a god that had a much more intimate relationship with the darkness than Hashut and the chaos god knew it. And he felt terrified by it.

He thought to confront the new god and immediately dismissed it. For you do not want to test your might against a dragon unless you are completely and mentally sure that you will win and Hashut was neither in fact he is pretty sure that if they ever fought one-on-one then The Father of Dragons would win without a doubt. But this does not mean that he could not act, he needs more power if he wants to win in a potential confrontation between them. And the dwarven holds while not as weak as the time where their empire fell and they temporarily lost communications between each other they still are nowhere near their peak.

A few holds surely won't be missed by those pesky ancestor gods of theirs, but there is much more to be done. While Hashut was not as aware of the currents of fate as his major contemporaries are, but thanks to his nature as a god he can still feel the currents of fate and the birth of the new god had destroyed the future that should have been no matter what happened.

While this annoyed him a little since he too would have reached a greater height in the future that is no more, the chance for great power was now open to him as he too was freed from being a simple puppet to his greater kin, in fact he thinks is time to pay visit to his horned brother he surely knew as well that the currents of fate that would always led to the future that should have been have be destroyed thanks to the rise of the new god.

But he needs to be careful after all his horned brother had much more worshippers than he did, and so he needs to plan many contingencies before even contacting the big rat. But before all that…

Looking at the various dark and baleful temples dedicated to him Hashut used his divine power and sent a message to each of the chaos dwarves holds, the message was very simple. Kill and conquer for me. Hashut watched as the reactions of his worshippers were exactly as he predicted, panic at first then confusion finally determination, a trait that they still possessed even after all these millennia of war and conquest, not that Hashut was complaining as it allowed them to give much more sacrificial power to him.

He still remembers the feast of souls that he had when the empire of the dwarves fell, his happiness increased even more when he heard the cries of fury and grief of the ancestor gods as their people souls were devoured by the chaos god.

Sending his attention to the mortal realm again he could see that his worshippers were now in discussion, not arguing about who stole the slave of who or who slept with the slave-wife of who, but deciding which target to strike first, before they could decide however a stranger came.

The stranger said that he was a simple messenger who came here to deliver an offer of the great Asavar Kul. So the everchosen is finally making his move - Thought Hashut as he observed the on-going negotiations between the two parties.

He could already see his armies marching alongside the everchosen, and seeing the future feast of souls he would receive Hashut but have a grin upon his face which was shaped like a daemonic bull, his 'holy' animal.

Oh he can hardly wait for it...