Empire in Peril:
The narrative now moves to the Empire, and boy do things go bad fast.
First off, a throughline across the Empire section is the Twin Tailed Comet. I don't think I need to explain what the Comet is, but to the Empire it is a religious symbol, but also a portent of times to come. And not a good one.
The first thing that happens as the Comet blazes through the sky is that the Drakwald explodes with rumors about Malagor the Dark Omen, winged beastmen and harbinger of doom. For centuries he was seen as superstition, until he was spotted personally by Gregor Martak, Patriarch of the Amber College. Keep your eyes on this guy, he'll come back later.
The second thing that happens as the Comet passes Morrisleb, is that mutation spreads across the Empire, and sicknesses and diseases that accompany the baleful influence of Chaos are immune to the prayers of Shallyans or to the prostelysing of Sigmarites.
The third thing that happens, in response to the sickness and disease, is when unscrupulous merchants the Empire over start selling "cures" to these diseases that are in fact colored water or distilled poison. These merchants grew rich and prosperous over the desperation of the populace, and only in Middenheim did that popularity take a fall when Boris Todbringers' nephew fell prey to such a tincture, so he decided to make an example stringing the merchant who sold said tincture on the city walls.
The fourth thing that happens, as the Comet sails past Mannisleb, is that the Empire becomes full of zealots, fanatics and doomsayers who rile up the citizenry and cause chaos within the city, ransacking noble mansions and stealing their property or setting things ablaze. The state armies were mobilised to shut down those groups, but at some points, such as Nuln, it got so severe that the army couldn't handle it properly. In this section is a part that left a very sour taste in my mouth, because it is a continuing trend of treating Emmanuelle von Liebwitz in a manner that I struggle to refer to in any way that is not simply misogyny:
"The Countess von Liebwitz would have been sent to the bonfires as a witch and adulteress, were it not for the actions of a retired dockwatch captain. Gathering a desperate band of watchmen and militia, this captain rescued the countess from the flames, reclaimed the city's old quarter and held it long enough for the Knights Griffon and reinforcements from Reikland to finally quell the riots." Page 27
The fifth thing to occur, as the Comet sails past the constellation of Kerr the Slayer of Fiends, is that Mannfred von Carstein secedes Sylvania from the Empire and covers the county in impenetrable darkness. Volkmar the Grim, Grand Theogonist of Sigmar, is outraged at the audacity and ventured into the darkness. He did not leave. Bone towers rose around the darkness, and those Witch Hunters who escaped say that holy light did not work within the land. Balthasar Gelt rises to the challenge and proposes a wall of faith consisting of enchanted/blessed material that would seal the undead within Sylvania. The proposal goes through and the wall prevents anyone from leaving.
The sixth thing to happen, as Karl Franz was preparing an army to purge Sylvania once and for all:
"Then came the riders from Kislev.
Syrgei Tannarov, Boyar of Chebokov, and his escort of ungol horsemen came to Altdorf at dawn, two days before the Emperor was due to depart for the Sylvania campaign. The comet was now so bright in the skies that it was visible by day, a second sun peering down from the heavens. The Kislevites had ridden their steeds half to death, and carried dire news – the northlanders were on the march once again. Kislev was already half-fallen, Tannarov warned, with all the lands north and west of Bolgasgrad awash in a sea of barbarians and daemons. Given the severity of the news, Karl Franz had expected the Ice Queen to invoke the terms of their old alliance, and call upon the Empire to march north to Kislev's salvation. Tannarov made no such demand. Kislev was already gone, he said, and went on to tell of a series of battles along the River Lynsk, battles the Tsarina fought not out of hope for her own people's survival, but so that the Empire might have time to avoid a similar fate." Page 28
Kislev is gone.
With that somber news, Karl Franz mobilises his troops and reinforces the border of his Empire, granting troops to the ingenious military strategist the Elector Count of Hochland Aldebrand Ludenhof. Only 7 in 10 of the reinforcing troops could make the trip thanks to the Beastmen and terrors within the forests, and Aldebrand was forced to fight off the forces of Vilitch the Curseling's hordes around Castle Von Rauken in Ostland and other areas of the border with the forces of Ostermark and Talabecland.
In the meantime, Karl Franz was asking for aid, but all he could see was that all the Empire's allies were in just as much trouble as they were. Even the hardy and always reliable Dwarves were uncharacteristically reluctant to provide aid. Then the Comet reached its height soon after Aldebrand Ludenhof's victory against Vilitch, attained from sniping one of the Curseling's two heads with a Hochland Long Rifle:
"Then, as the twin-tailed comet reached its perigee, outriders and ungol horsemen brought word of other hordes of northmen drawing south across the steppes, hordes that far eclipsed those thus far encountered. Ludenhof's army, the largest Empire formation yet that fought in the north, barely outnumbered even the smallest of the newcomers' forces. In Altdorf, Karl Franz heard tell of the worsening situation and redoubled his diplomatic efforts. If the Empire were to endure this war, it would need allies. If there were no allies to be had, it would need a miracle." Page 30
The next page shifts into narrative again, this time from the perspective of Balthasar Gelt. I can't post the entire conversation, and it's hard to explain this without a lot of explanation and context, so let me abbreviate things in a way that hopefully doesn't confuse:
- Balthasar Gelt received some sort of message with a particular signet that his father told him he could always trust. He meets the individual who called him in and finds a Bretonnian with a Montfort accent. The implications are super heavy that she's Genevieve Dieudone, infamous Lahmian Vampire. Gelt's dad knows her for some reason.
- It's revealed that the wall of faith idea was not actually Gelts, it was the idea of an acolyte who showed little to no promise named Dieter. His throat was ripped out by what appeared to be a wild animal two days after the suggestion, but Gelt took it and ran with it anyway. He didn't seem all that worried about the signs happening here.
- Genevieve heavily implies that a "she" had sent her to give Gelt advice. Implication is that it's Neferata.
- Genevieve suggests that Gelt expands the wall of faith to cover the northern border. Gelt exclaims that it's never been done, Genevieve laughs and said of course, there are far more realms than this tiny space, and gives him a scroll with magical instructions for something. She says that while magic is rising, much is now possible that could not be done before.
- The meeting place is a brothel. Gelt reveals that he "disapproves of the trade". I disapprove of Gelt's lack of support for sex workers. Shame on Gelt.
The scene has the following exchange, which I felt provided an idea of how it went:
"Gelt unfurled the scroll and pored over its contents with growing surprise. The ritual it described would be a great undertaking, but it might very well work. He would not have considered such a strategy before the triumph over Sylvania, but he had found his horizons broadening of late.
Yet still he had his doubts. 'But what manner of genius would I be if I succumbed to such transparent manipulation?'
'What manner of genius would you be if you did not?' the girl countered, levity once more in her voice" Page 31
As you can see, a lot's happened in a very short period of time. I feel a bit overwhelmed. I think I'll take a break for today and resume later. It seems the next faction is Athel Loren- ah wait. The next look is Beastmen, but they only get two pages, so I'll lump them in with Athel Loren.
I also figured out the structure of the book. Apparently the parts I'm reading are not even Chapter 1 yet. It's all introduction. They're doing an overview of what's happening with every faction, and then transitioning into a narrative. I skipped ahead and saw that Chapter 1 is from Mannfred's perspective around 2523 IC, so there is some hope to be had. Just 20 more pages of overview before we get to the actual story part of the book.
