-Karond Kar
The Invasion of Naggaroth began during the night at the "city" of Karond Kar, or "Slavers Gate" when the unloading of the latest "Catch" from the corsairs was just beginning. Panicked slaves, cruel whip-masters and baying crowds for blood, death, and violence...then just as the slaves were beginning to unload the very sea surrounding Karond Kar froze in a instant. Tidal wave sized swells of water crashing onto the citadel froze solid, often times with much of the lower and some parts of the upper keep trapped in the ice!
Those sensitive to the arts of magic felt the winds being strung up into a fury, as hail the size of heads began to fall unto the city and pillars of lighting struck with ferocity, sending the crowds into a frenzy of both panic, violence, and confusion. The Corsairs fearing what was happening drove the slaves back into their holds, or at least those brave enough to try and save their cargo did as masses of hail began to make their way towards the ships...yet awkwardly enough the captives only suffered minor bruises before they quickly learned to huddle together despite the freezing cold. All the while the crowds of dark Elves began to try and seek shelter everywhere they could.
That was when the Dead rose breaking the ice surrounding the docks. Hordes of the undead began to tear into the streets climbing over in a tidal-wave of flesh, bone, metal, and unholy wails of the damned. Even the massive mansions of the nobility of the city found their holdings under attack by the very bones of the dead they once so held, and within the city itself those that had recently died rose again to strike back at their tormenters. Slave holds were burst open, chains ripped out, and countless slaves were slowly and carefully driven forward by some Grave-guard units that had walked on the sea-floor to this very place. Well...a small part of the way, the rest of it had been on a rather ingeniously created ice-sheet made of sawdust and ice.
The Zombies and Skeletons moved like possessed daemons, tearing through throngs of the dark elves even as the few slave-masters and their assassins' fought back. Yet the Dark elves so confident in their natural defenses only aimed their true might towards outside the city, rightfully and wrongfully fearing of a attack by their neighbors. With the combination of Pillars of lightning striking places where the Witches of the Dark elves gathered their power, hail-storms striking where groups of the dark elves gathered (and then driven away as they learned over the hours to not gather in large groups, only for the millions of undead skeletons and zombies to swarm over them and destroying all attempts to make a defense as they literally clawed and dragged them down to death). Their deaths had not been gentle, for even temples to the dark elven pantheon were struck down as Massive forms of Fire-Dragons made themselves known as they Burned the temples down to the ground in swooping fury.
This was not all, as within mere hours after the inital landings, molten holes appeared in the most defensible parts of the city as Magma dragons and Shard dragons tore themselves free of the tainted earth, their fury only growing as more and more dragons arrived and less and less dark elves were left in the city as the tide of the dead ripped their way through any and all defenses, climbing over mounds of their own fallen to strike against places where the dark elves had holed up. It was less then a entire day when the city fell, and not a word was given out.
The slaves in the holds, those still in the markets yet freed by the gathering undead, and those awaiting the torment that would have been, only looked up at the skies cleared and the massive horde of dragons could be seen swooping around seeking any escapee's...while the larger beasts tore through housing, mansion, prisons, and more looking for more slaves and their former masters. All the while the former slaves were being set freed they saw a dragon the size of a mountain arrive from the east with the hurricane force winds temporally halting as the massive beats of the wings twisted the very natural currents of the air against itself. Many watched with mouths opened as the beast arrived so fast one could blink and suddenly he was perched on the citadel...and then disappeared into its depths as he struck a massive clawed hand into it and ripped out a chunk before seemingly shrinking down.
The Screams that once held into the keep now sounded louder then ever before...and then as the ice was ripped apart and those poor souls that were dragged into the keep were carefully led out...what happened of their masters of the keeps no one knew, but only that the largest force of raiding ships for the dark elven captains had been reduced to nothing. If one could look over the sea of chill they would realize it was all but frozen solid, besides pathways that had been formed by magma dragons that were given water-breathing rings and talismans to allow them to melt their way through the ice to allow the dead to follow after.
The Power of a God was no small thing, and with the destruction of so much and with so many of the dark elves dead the Dark Elven Pantheon felt a weakness their never felt before...and turned upon one another as they strove to keep up their own strengths even as they tried to divine what had happened to the slavers port...yet even while they fought one another for more power to survive the loss of what happened all they could see was darkness...a deep darkness that surpassed their own. And a certain Savage Goddess felt a chill of fear go down her spine as if something was walking over her grave.
With the swift destruction of Slavers Gate, the Dragon army looted the entire Keep and its small city of valuables, Both knowledge, coin, and artifacts as well as weapons and everything else that could be looked over. The Slaves were given brief respite as food and water purified as Forest dragons emerged from the holes made by their brethren began to tend to the former slaves and Ice Dragons descended from their flight as they also began to heal any inflictions upon the former slaves.
After rounding up all the slaves and interorgating the surviving Druchii, Dracul smiled malevolently as he turned his now enlarged dragon form towards his next conquest...Car Karond...
_________
-Car Karond
It was only a week after the fall of slavers bay, and none had known what was happening...until the day when the ground shook as millions of undead skeletons, zombies, and gravegaurd along with black knights tore a path to the Slaving/fleet building city. in mere moments the slaves were struck free of their bondage, their overseers slain and added to the horde, and the city itself under a massive siege. The Druchii only just began to respond when the outer walls fell to hordes of zombies making ramps out of themselves both up and down the walls, allowing black knights to tear on through any defenses without any care to the spears and weapons of the dark elves. Even as the beast-masters began to open the cages in response to the hurried calls to arms entire districts fell to the skeleton hordes as the cannon-fodder undead moved with speeds akin to a rampaging Calvary charge rather then the shambling horde of the dead.
But the worst was yet to come, for this was only truly a third of the attacking force from the forests...the next wave attacked from the sea as undead clambered up on the dock-yards of the druchii who had only thought it was the ladies and lords in their high towers fighting one another again, only for the dead to drag them to eternal cold and unfeeling embrace of the grave. Hordes of the dead then clambered over the docks, smashing down houses, setting entire places alight without care or thought, slaves however were broken of their bondages and hurried towards a specific location where the earth fell and massive magma dragons and shard dragons overlooked the former slaves, and then harried them into the caverns they had made away from the slavers and their beasts.
Any attempt to reclaim any slaves was met by the ferocity of Dragons, too many and too large to take down, even with any of their own beasts as the full majesty and might of dragons began to rain destruction upon the city breaking any formation of beasts and their masters. Even temples to Anath Raema were blasted by the fury of the dragons in vengence for what had come. However this only incidet the godess to bestow more power to her hunting servants...yet the dragons were far to quick, as if the world itself bent to their wills they flew or crawled out of the ways of their hunting bows and beasts, striking as if they were a military force rather then the simple beasts to be hunted.
If any of Anath Raema's forces could think cleary after the few dozen attempts to drag down a dragon, they would have realized that their forces were being drawn into a trap of their own making...and the trap was indeed sprung as multiple fire dragons flew from the skies and roasted the entire groups of the followers to ash, and storm dragons unleashed their fury from the heavens as they guided their brethern to the correct spots all for the sake of vengence long denied.
Indeed, such was the loss of temples, artifacts, and lives of her followers that Anath Raema was forced to all but materilalize into the mortal world...and just in time for the hidden Father of Dragons to make his move as the last third of the dead swarmed the inner distrcts as emperor magma dragons opened massive holes in the earth to allow the hordes to sprawl through, making the final deathnell for the city of slaves and shipbuilding as the dead overwhelmed the living.
The Duel however between the Dragon and the Huntress that had long been denied was commenced when Dracul struck him hiding inflicting a minor wound unto the godess in both the material and immaterial realm...the curse of the blade began its slow work as the ferocity of the godess tore at the Dragon, yet Dracul did not play by the rules of the hunt, no...his genius mind turning his full fury into a cold vengeance as he calculated and tore into Anath Raema, taking calculated wounds in the process as he began to dismantle the goddess even as her followers died around her...with 1/3 of the Druchii population torn apart by the hands of the dead, she had become rapidly weaker and weaker and more and more injuries piled up and the curse of the Sword of Darkness began to overtake her.
In a act of cowardice the godess attempted to flee but was taken down by the combined might of multiple emperor dragons casting their own spells to hold her in place as the Father of Dragons Dragged her both in the mortal and spiritual realm to the abyss...and tore her power away from her totally. For her death was not slow in the mortal realm, and in the warp? The Abyss welcomed its first and truest inmate...and the true suffering of the goddess at the hands of the beasts yet to be born and the dragons of nightmares began.
It would take a week for the undead to tirelessly savage through the ruined city as they gathered all the valuables, former slaves, and whatever survivors were left...and the shell-shocked survivors beheld the avatar of Anath Raema's head on a pike behind the Father of Dragons who sat upon simple rubble seemingly ignoring them all as he drained the last of the goddesses blood from her corpse. The horror and fear of the Druchii felt on that day was only second to the loss of a goddess of the pantheon of the dark elves. Even then such death of their kind was beginning to attract the attention of another goddess...but one who was forced to still defend herself from the wrath of Khaine as he began to seek out who dared to strike against him.
______
-Hagg Graef
This cities fall was all but unglamorous as it was amusing...for the Father of Dragons snuck his army of the dead under the earth even as he directed his flights to strike at the dark elven strongholds and minor outposts and temples. For while Hag Graef was built in a valley forever in shadow and webbed by monstrous spiders...it was still made of 8 large towers...towers with a weakened base, and Dracul took full advantage of that as his undead swarmed the tunnels, freeing the slaves and gathering all warp-stone from the mines. The countless slaves and bent undead to his will swelled his legions further and further as he swarmed the underearth...untill he ordered the digging of multiple zombie hordes to claw the the rock surrounding the eight keeps...untill at least with the magic might of the Magma Dragons and under lesser dragons that lived within the earth, they weakened the base of the towers until the very last pillar which would start the collapse of the entire system was revealed.
Dracul took a sick but pleasant pleasure of knocking that pillar down, the sheer weight of the rock and populace of the slaves allowing the towers to fall, thus having all within the eight towers all but killed outright as they collapsed into the ground. Then Dracul spent a week going through the rubble for anything of value and using the dead risen from the crushed forces of the fallen eight towers to his benefit...after all with another 1/6 of the total Druchii population killed Dracul's final goal was aproaching rapidly...
And he Knew that the Witch King would know soon enough, after all three cities falling within barely a month of each other? Even now the witch king was getting worried and would send forth scouts both mystical and mundane to find out what happened...yet all he would find would be ruins and ash as the slaves were taken away, the valuables plundered and to be separated at a later date, and the survivor dark elves being dragged to Ulthan for judgement of their kin (or at least the older ones...the youth may be spared but purified by the phoenix kings blaze...at least he wondered if that was possible.)
It would be later on that Dracul would lament the lack of a challenge, as the dark elves were more akin to fighting one another then a true army...at least those on the coastline did...he did not wish to contend with the witch king and his mother quite yet untill he had finally gotten his claws on the last of the Dark Elven Pantheon.
Ereth Khial would be a difficult fight...at least until he had taken most of the dark elves to their doom.
Atharti and Hekarti...both would be a difficult fight as well but not for the same reasons...with the death of so many elves their squabbling will increase until he could catch them unaware...soon they will be his next meal.
Ekdrazor, however would be spared...as with the death of the Dark Elves his more darker impluses would allow him to become possibly a new war-god after his destruction of Naggaroth.
Ellinill, reminded him of the fabled god Malal...both seeking destruction, and both seeking to bring ruin upon their foes or everyone really. However such a prize for the destruction of chaos? Well...A dragon has needs after all....
Mathlann...the foolish one...he would be a treat as he ripped him apart and gives his power to more deserving sea-gods...
Drakira...hmph...another godess of vengence...still it would be wise to let her be as now when he is finished only the elves of Athen loren will worship her alone.
Hykonm would be easy prey, even with his earthquakes and power over the earth...he was still a child and still a fledgling compared to his own might, and now the children of Ellinill were fighting their maker...how quaint.
Addaioth, however was now dueling his father once again in the warp, their clashes always creating more and more chaos and thus keeping attention away from his hordes. The last three cities will be a challenge but the fury of the other gods will allow him to strike quicker then most as they grew weaker and weaker from the constant in-fighting and the deaths among them...or well soon to be deaths.
And finally Estreuth the coward...the foolish hunger that needed bring fourth drought and famine...already his influence was spreading out killing both his and the others worshippers as he strove to avoid the final battle with his sire...yet each moment the battle drew him closer and closer to his own horror.
Draucl nodded with a malevolent grin on his face...the last three cities would fall soon enough...now that half of the Dark elves were dead, he could now begin his Hunt for their gods. Now he could begin the next part of his campaign...Turning his gaze North Eastern...he knew that this next strike will require a full on siege...and thus with the raising of the dead his army now almost totaled into the trillion of dead. The Druchii's constant infighting now leading to their now demise at the hands of the sheer weight of the dead. even now some parts of his forces were taking over any ships and black arks still available...at least those not at sea for his own useage.
With a deep breath the father of dragons changed his form as he prepared for his next battle...against a fellow war-god...yet in his heart he knew this would be easier then before, as Khaine did not have all of his legendary blades...and he had his own sword now to fight against khaine's potent weapons.
_______
-Har Ganeth
The city of executioners...this city was now under seige as the undead arrived with such a vigor that suprised the dark elves within, even as a month had passed since the lost contact with the slavers bay and the eventual word to be sent for more slaves for the death night that was to happen soon...yet their question would be answered by the SHEER mass of undead that now walked towards the city of ice. The Immense Fortress city now besieged by the sheer number of dead who did not need siege weapons or ramps or even siege towers...their sheer numbers allowed them to simply climb over each other to get at the defenders inside, or to tunnel into the city itself from numerous mining equipment taken, explosives used to destory foundations of the fortresses as the makers of the city never thought of those that would attack it from under the earth.
Yet attack they did, even as pillars of lighting fell, even as fireballs struck the city, even as hail the size of heads struck against the druchii warriors and khaines bloodthirster fighting maidens, the best of the best of the city only watched with calm arrogance of the seige, seeing that they had only taken the outer walls and yet were being bogged down inside the outer perimiter...untill with careful bloodthirsty eyes they watch sinkholes appear and hordes of undead attacked from the rear. that was when the maidens of khaine were unleashed, to strike down and kill as many as possible...
however despite this, and all the bloodthirst and combat poweress of the Dark elves...they could not stop a army single handedly without being slowed by the sheer weight of the dead, mistakes were made slowly, a slip here, a misjudged jump there, and soon more and more of the numbers were dragged down by zombies, cut/stabbed/ripped apart by skeletons, or trampled by the Black knights.
That was when the final elite of the city made their appearance, and unleashed hell upon the cannon fodder forces of the dead, yet even as they struck them down they knew the city was lost, for now all that was left was to kill as much as possible...yet the blood being spilt was only that of the dark elves, and not the invaders. Only when half the fortress city had been taken, the cells were found empty as Druchii went to get sacrifices for khaine to turn his gaze to his city...yet when they looked for a way out they found molten tunnels filled with hordes of the dead and only shackles remained...
the Gaurds did not die easy that night as the vengeful dead struck against the living...and then at the moment when all hope was lost for the druchii...Khaine's avatar stepped forth, and unleashed a arura of sheer murder as he began to slaughter his way through the undead. The Dark Elves rallied beheind him even as they killed one another in acts of brutal murder and twisted bloodlust...
Only then did the dragons attack, only then did Dracul reveal himself as he stuck a blow on Khaine that began a battle that would wage for a week and level the entire fortress city even as dragons dueled the wytch elves...and came out easily on top as they tore them to shreds. And then at least the portal to Khaines realm was closed by the might of multiple Dragon emperors...and khaine made a misstep from the loss of power and Dracul took his head.
The death of the avatar of khaine would be felt across all of Naggaroth, as even then in the warp Khaine finally fell to the Father of Dragons, spelling the doom for the Dark Elves as Slannesh began its own assault onto the lands of Naggaroth, feeling the deaths of so many and seeking as many souls as possible, thus weakening its own gaze against the plots behind it. Ereth Khial stood against slannesh as the godess tried in vain to keep as many souls to it as possible...never realizing that by sending forth its own servants as much as possible that it allowed for a single ghost to slip through, a nightmare dragon crept through the watch of her son and contacted his father.
Then the next greatest heist in history began in the ruins of Har Ganeth over the avatar of Khaine's body...and the ruined form of khaine in the warp was turned to raw power to be given to a more worthy god. Then as Dracul prepared...he ripped the souls of the high elves, wood elves, and many of the Dark elves souls away from the underworld and bound them to himself in a army of spirits. With this he knew he had made himself a target of Ereth Khial, and that was his part of the plan.
Then with a deep smirk, the dragon god prepared for the next encounter with a goddess...yet with 2/3's of the Dark elves populace down, he knew this would be a far easier fight then before as the screaming goddess attacked him in the warp...and began a shorter battle then before.
Slannnesh's forces would be attacking both Ghrond and Naggarond soon enough...after he slaughtered this little goddess he would begin his final confrontation soon enough at Naggarond...for Morathi would not stay to face the army of it-who-thirsts-too-much.
Thus allowing him for one final fight...one battle to end as many of the dark elven pantheon as possible before slannesh got to them all to power itself up in the war in the warp.
____
-Naggarond
Malekith was furious...in only a month four cities had been lost to The Druchii, the other one that was his "Mothers" city was under unending assault by the four powers in the warp beyond the northern borders. The sheer weight of the Daemon armies and armies of Slave Barbarians was almost revolting in the numbers and battle cries that could almost be heard from his very damned council chamber within his tower! He rumbled to himself as he paced across the chamber in engraged worry, long dead courtiers staring at the table either fresh or long dead-skeletons he cared not. His raving fury had demanded multiple other still living courtiers to get answers, and yet worse still was that the gods of HIS people were not listening to him anymore, if not they were gone for good!
He had Alwasy worried about the powers of the north, though it had been a second thing compared to his hate of Ulthaun and jealousy. But now? he worried that some would be war-lord had now taken everything from him, and in his wrath he had sent forth numerous armies to reinforce the northern city as well as make a place at seeking the other four along he coastline. The immense amount of slaves and his own blackgaurd (under geas of course) along with the dregs of whatever he could scrounge from the black city were on the march...and yet he had not even HEARD so much as a messenger of their fates...
With a grim dark snarl Malekith turned from the council chamber dismissing the fools and weaklings within as he strode to his own personal chambers where he could see with his own eyes what was coming, and who was going to decorate his personal room as his flayed slave for all time. Yet when he had entered the room he had noticed one thing....a fire a was burning within the room, and on HIS throne that had somehow come into his personal chamber was a Vampire of sorts reading a book of all things! He could only stare at the sheer audacity that the Vampire was displaying, he was dressed as he a nobleman taking the night off, with simple half-moon glasses and a goblet of what smelled to be blood (Most likely that of his Weaker KIn, but aged finely if he could recall...then he noticed it was one of his personal bottles of blood wine and the fury began to redouble), as well as a damned fire nearby giving him a picturesk of a noble's night by the fire.
That alone was insulting, the other was the sheer amount of strange undead the surrounded him that had SOMEHOW gotten inside without his notice all mockingly taking positions similar to that of the phoenix guard of old, but that was not what also infuriated him to the last straw, he KNEW the sword of Aenarion, he knew HIS BIRTHRIGHT by sight, smell, and sound alone as the sword was laid across the Vampires lap like some kind of hound.
Then the Vampire spoke something that would forever only be known by the Vampire, The Witch King, and the Undead around him, though many would speculate the words said, None dared to ask the Father of Dragons and King of the Night what he had said to so infuriate the Witch king beyond all reason and thought of tactic's and strategy. Only that with a scream of raw fury and hate the witch king charged the Vampire who had MERELY LOOKED at the Witch King before engaging in combat of both Sorcery and Martial Might. The result was only half the dead that accompanied the Father of Dragons were left, another third of those number were heavily reduced in strength and stature, and the rest were in shambles of their former selves. Dracul himself walked away from that fight with Malekith's head, and thus when the court rejoined he had sent the head over to the courtiers...which resulted in a massive slowly growing battle for the crown of the witch king.
Then, and only then, did Dracul Unleash his Undead Army and his Dragons, only then did he within a week crush the black city by having his dragons tunnel under the walls, and steal all the slaves, plunder, and artifacts the Dark Elves had taken over the centuries, and only then did Dracul Kill The Dark Elves Pantheon, or at least most of them were slaughtered and devoured. The power they held and the domains were carefully picked apart from their personalities, and the Father of Dragons and numerous other titles was bloated with power and riches beyond beleif.
It was after this, and knowing the fate of Mother in the north did the Father of Dragons leave with a armada of fallen ships, either raised from the oceans depths, or plundered from the raiders along with the numerous black arks taken by weight of numbers. It did not matter that the campaign had cost him a 1/3 of his undead army, for he had made far, far, far more undead from the sheer mass of centuries of slavery and murder that the dark elves had done unto themselves. Not to mention the wealth of knowledge both mundane, arcane, and twisted Dark sorceries he could now study and wield...if not also lock away for safekeeping (the truly hideous books and knowledge he destroyed so that only he may know of their secrets).
In some way Dracul would have come to Pity Malekith, if he had not his Bitch of a Mother around maybe he would have lived up to his Fathers reputation, but as it was, the Father of Dragons, ect. ect., did not fully care for the whelp, as he had dared to enslave the black dragons to his will. True the Children were larger, stronger, and more malevolent then their other kin, but they were akin to toddlers in intelligence, stunted social cues among their kindred, and not to mention completely unsure of how to proceed with him unless they were dragging numerous dead Dark elves they had "fetched" for him to pursue over and see who was "Better" like the dark elven political courts...thankfully he had prevented them from unleashing their cruelty onto each-other and their kin, as well as the slaves they had freed much to the toddler's confusion on why their father was not keeping what was his.
Dracul would come to Hate the Dark elves and whatever remained of their society as he scourge it from the world and cursed the lands of Naggaroth fully and completely with blights reaching to the depths of the earth, and only when his wrath was satisfied, and he bloated on the souls of regain high elves, dark elves to be delivered to their just punishment, and the rightful people's and former slaves and their ships/cargo did he turn toward ulthaun along with everything he had taken from that twice cursed realm. Even as the Bitch queen fought and then destroyed herself to spite Slannesh and the other chaos gods from taking what was hers in HER city, reducing it to naught but ash on the wind and infuriating the chaos gods into a greater scale of open warfare against one another then ever before, did the Father of Dragons turn the fleet now commanded by his will and that of his children towards ulthuan...where in the warp the Pheonix King awaited the coming of the Dragon, and the return of such priceless things to the high elves, as well as preparation for the party that would be welcome by the elven gods who had watched in interest a the destruction of Naggaroth...though Isha despied the act of carring the souls of the elven dead that Dark Dragon had done, the elven god-king had declared it a sucess and a much needed respite for their people, unless she wanted slannesh to grab its hands on them he had reminded her a bit non-to gently.
Isha knowing of her kings temper heeded his wisdom though kept her dark thoughts private until the Dragon arrived at the head of a immense armada...and the rejoicing of the children reached the gods ears as numerous artifacts were presented and returned as well as former captives and slaves by the Dark elves, even the now terrified out of their souls twisted kin stepping forth and throwing themselves at the feet of their former kin to be spared from the Dragons Fury.
For Dracul, he would lighten his load by a full third, and with this act had undone many a grudge that the dwarven gods had long since undertaken, as well as striking off many grudges by the dwarven peoples, the horrors however would see a full 2/3's of the dwali taken by the druchii to take the slayers oath's while the rest had slowly been healed of their afflictions and sufferings, for the mortal men and women however...they had a new god now...and even some of the high elves that had been taken by the Druchii worshipped the Dragon of The Night.
To Dracul, the power that he had temporarily gained from the dark elven pantheon was given over to the High Elven Gods and their own groups...for them to settle what domains would be given and what power distilled from the warp would be handed out. it would take many years afterwards, a full decade to recover from the battles he had under-taken...but now the God-Eating Dragon could set sail to his homeland with his army of the dead, former captives, and Dragons in tow.
The only words recorded as Dracul walked upon the shores of his homeland once more were this "Everything went just as planned."
