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Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy

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IEatAssSometimes said:
Well malekith did make his bestie a cup made of Ilithmar back in the day so i'm sure some noble has all of their cutlery be made of it
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Somewhere, Grombindal had held an Ilithmar cup, a gift from his Best Buddy Malekith and remembers the good times as bros. The symbol of their broken friendship and promise Malekith turned his back on him.

Not wanting to do with it anymore, Grombindal gave that cup to some random Umgi he encountered in his path, not caring if the cup would be sold or melt it down for some Umgak stuff, and he never looked back.

Only settling the Grudge against the Witch-King no matter what it takes.

Meanwhile, the random Umgi whom Grombindal gave the cup to was a Cathayan named Shen Zoo in her journey of the West and was enamoured of the cup's Ilithmar, keeping it for herself.
 
Warmachine375 said:
Somewhere, Grombindal had held an Ilithmar cup, a gift from his Best Buddy Malekith and remembers the good times as bros. The symbol of their broken friendship and promise Malekith turned his back on him.

Not wanting to do with it anymore, Grombindal gave that cup to some random Umgi he encountered in his path, not caring if the cup would be sold or melt it down for some Umgak stuff, and he never looked back.

Only settling the Grudge against the Witch-King no matter what it takes.

Meanwhile, the random Umgi whom Grombindal gave the cup to was a Cathayan named Shen Zoo in her journey of the West and was enamoured of the cup's Ilithmar, keeping it for herself.
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I suspect this is a reference to something but I'm not sure what.
 
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Dragonofelder said:
I suspect this is a reference to something but I'm not sure what.
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Shen Zoo, the youngest of the Cathayan Royal Dragon family and she went missing, probably due to having enough of her siblings' squabbling and wanting to stay away from Cathay.

Durin said:
"because other elves attacked us and we decided that fighting them was more important"
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Some human smartass: "That's not what our Dwarf buddies tell us when they brag about it."

High Elf: "We didn't lose! We just decided not to win and let them have their short victory!"

Mopman43 said:
Killing Caledor the Pointlessly Tall happened before the Druchii invasion.
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Plus High Elves don't like to talk about the Druchii like how Dawi refuses to acknowledge the Chaos Dwarfs.
 
The Asur consider the War of the Beard to be a stalemate, where both sides suffered heavy losses but both sides also still had plenty of strength to keep going, until Malekith forced the Asur to quit the field.

Caledor II may have fallen, but the Asur are more than any individual elf, and wars are not decided by any single battle. Let the Dawi keep the Phoenix Crown, for though it a potent symbol it is ultimately just that, a symbol.

The war didn't end at the 14th Siege of Tor Alessi, it ended when the Asur decided they would rather focus on defending Ulthuan itself than keep going. Indeed, when they received word of Malekith's invasion they were in the middle of planning their next offensive. And they would point to the fact that they did beat Malekith's invasion as evidence that they were far from beaten.

Dwarfs do, of course, tell the story very differently, but if the Asur and the Dawi could agree on how things went down there wouldn't have been a war in the first place.
 
How DOES the Ulthuan volcano work? Is it a magic volcano that sources lava from the warp? Or is it a normal volcano attached to the sea floor that has impaled Ulthuan (which would explain why the island doesn't drift.)
 
Blackout said:
Let the Dawi keep the Phoenix Crown, for though it a potent symbol it is ultimately just that, a symbol.
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But didn't the High Elves repeatedly try to get back the Phoenix King's crown from the Dwarfs every time but nothing budged between two bitter Elder races?

And they view it as the greatest humiliation to their pride as Asur and the new replacement they made was not as cool and magnificent as the first one they remembered in its creation?
 
Warmachine375 said:
But didn't the High Elves repeatedly try to get back the Phoenix King's crown from the Dwarfs every time but nothing budged between two bitter Elder races?

And they view it as the greatest humiliation to their pride as Asur and the new replacement they made was not as cool and magnificent as the first one they remembered in its creation?
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Probably depends on who is telling the story.

Yes, the Elves want the PC back, but not because it's essential. It's because its an heirloom, made in their ancient past, and dosn't belong to the Dawi.

Yes, the Elves want the PC back, its a symbol of the Phoenix King's authority and a link to Anerion, the first and greatest.
 
Boodlesnoop said:
How DOES the Ulthuan volcano work? Is it a magic volcano that sources lava from the warp? Or is it a normal volcano attached to the sea floor that has impaled Ulthuan (which would explain why the island doesn't drift.)
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It is literally a blessing from Vaul. It is his divine power manifest. It doesn't connect to anything save Vaul's power. Divine power is magic, but it isn't really explained mechanically in Warhammer Fantasy as it isn't wind magic, but at the same time also is especially for elves who's gods and people are pretty inherently magical.
 
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Warmachine375 said:
But didn't the High Elves repeatedly try to get back the Phoenix King's crown from the Dwarfs every time but nothing budged between two bitter Elder races?

And they view it as the greatest humiliation to their pride as Asur and the new replacement they made was not as cool and magnificent as the first one they remembered in its creation?
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The Asur have sent the occasional envoy for attempts at dialogue since Aethis' reign if that's what you mean by 'repeatedly try to get it back'; along with what Blackout mentioned, they were planning their next offensive when Malekith invaded but beyond that? No. Some of the armybooks discuss a campaign to siege Karaz-a-Karak and get it back which never made it past the basic planning stages as a suggested immediate goal before Caradryel took the throne and laid out his strategic priorities, Malekith invaded, monsters poured out of the Annulli and they had bigger problems to deal with.

As for greatest humiliation to their pride as Asur? I imagine there are some Asur who are still very angry over the crown specifically but what's repeatedly emphasised in the armybooks and novels when Asur are bitter over the War of the Beard is that they're more angry about so much death and loss more than anything else. It also probably helps that Caradryel famously went: 'I'd rather lose the crown than the nation, leave it be,' as a proper decree as Phoenix King.

I don't doubt that there are some Asur who see the loss of the Phoenix Crown as salt in the wound or an encapsulation of everything wrong with the Dawi's actions during the WotB (because when the Dawi Crown Prince opens with genocide, there's not really much higher you can push the escalation meter, though oh boy did both sides give it a good go); but I seriously believe the Asur who hold the loss of the Phoenix Crown as the thing they're most bitter over to be in the minority as opposed to see it as 'yet another thing on top of all the death and destruction'.

And yes, the replacement was undoubtedly not as cool, though Caradryel, being a smart cookie, did manage to turn it into rather effective political statement (given the Phoenix Throne's authority at the time was probably the least respected its ever been) and thus going for a humble crown in comparison was an excellent first step of going "Behold! I am not riddled with the defects of Caledor II, I am going to be a ruler who won't ruin you."
 
Boodlesnoop said:
How DOES the Ulthuan volcano work? Is it a magic volcano that sources lava from the warp? Or is it a normal volcano attached to the sea floor that has impaled Ulthuan (which would explain why the island doesn't drift.)
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That's another element that makes me think that Ulthuan isn't actually floating on the ocean. While reading the official material, I never got that impression and discovered that info while interacting with the fandom. So my thoughts were that Ulthuan was a regular island that got destabilized during the Sundring, and that needs magic to prevent massive landslides of its coasts.
 
K von Carstein said:
That's another element that makes me think that Ulthuan isn't actually floating on the ocean. While reading the official material, I never got that impression and discovered that info while interacting with the fandom. So my thoughts were that Ulthuan was a regular island that got destabilized during the Sundring, and that needs magic to prevent massive landslides of its coasts.
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I actually like this approach.

Ulthuan became a floating island not due to design by the Old Ones, but because of the Sundering and magic was the only thing to prevent it from collapsing into the ocean.
 
UponALotusBlosom said:
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Ie, "That's going into the book, Elgi."

Right between that time a Marienburg merchant short-changed them by a copper coin and the time Starbucks misspelled Grombrindal's name on his coffee.

Although, to be fair, it should be less of a Book of Grudges and more of a Library of Grudges.
 
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K von Carstein said:
That's another element that makes me think that Ulthuan isn't actually floating on the ocean. While reading the official material, I never got that impression and discovered that info while interacting with the fandom. So my thoughts were that Ulthuan was a regular island that got destabilized during the Sundring, and that needs magic to prevent massive landslides of its coasts.
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Full disclosure, I don't agree with this theory but for the sake of this discussion I'm treating it as true.

If we're taking Calador Dragontamer's "No u" during the Sundering was enough to destabilise Ulthuan than the real factor we should be looking at is his creation of the Great Vortex. The ritual, much like Caledor's Clapback, obliterated large chunks of Ulthuan, but was throwing around so much more power that, in my opinion, it's just not really comparable.

The Vortex was a ritual that was the product of years of planning from not only the greatest elven mage to ever walk the world but also he has a bunch of Archmage helpers - and every single one of them was the best of the best of those who'd learned to operate with the level of magic screaming around the world during the Great Incursion. By comparison, the end of the Sundering basically has Caledor alone going Smite whilst hopped up on the largest storm of magic currently in existence (the Vortex) - an apocalyptically destructive spell? Absolutely! But it's just not in the same league of the creation of the Vortex given the numbers involved, how much more planning went into the Vortex ritual (and how many of the elite mages still died in the casting of it regadless) as opposed to Caledor's comparatively impromptu riposte and the fact that it changed the magical environment worldwide rather than 'merely' unleashing such forces that the tectonic activity could be felt all the way out to the World's Edge Mountains.
 
How often do the elite of the Druchii, such as Malekith, Morathi, and Helebron get out of Naggaroth? Do they only come out for invasions of Ulthuan or do they go raiding occasionally?
 
Boodlesnoop said:
How often do the elite of the Druchii, such as Malekith, Morathi, and Helebron get out of Naggaroth? Do they only come out for invasions of Ulthuan or do they go raiding occasionally?
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Morathi has gone down to Lustria at least once in canon (though after the 'present', it was in 2472); she had a brief team-up with Luthor Harkon that ended with them arguing over the loot and her locking him in a vault.
 
one thing to remember about fantasy, is that basically everyone is racist and nationalistic to a rather exterme level.
The Dawi are considered to get on well with humans thanks to the empire, and their standard word for humans is a insult.
The empire considers themselves to be the future, unlike the old and tied to their ways, literlly everyone else.
Bretonia are the only honorable people.
Kislav are the true bulwarks against chaos, unlike the weak and soft southerners
ect
 
Durin said:
one thing to remember about fantasy, is that basically everyone is racist and nationalistic to a rather exterme level.
The Dawi are considered to get on well with humans thanks to the empire, and their standard word for humans is a insult.
The empire considers themselves to be the future, unlike the old and tied to their ways, literlly everyone else.
Bretonia are the only honorable people.
Kislav are the true bulwarks against chaos, unlike the weak and soft southerners
ect
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They have to have an excuse for why the order tide factions all fight one another every tournament that Games Workshop tries to claim steers the direction of the canonical plot while trying to force to have the outcome the Games Workshop writers want to go. Having all the order factions prideful and willing to throw down over insults despite being in existentential war is their go to answer.

Boodlesnoop said:
How often do the elite of the Druchii, such as Malekith, Morathi, and Helebron get out of Naggaroth? Do they only come out for invasions of Ulthuan or do they go raiding occasionally?
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Whenever someone pays their point cost to bring them into a tournament.
 
Boodlesnoop said:
How often do the elite of the Druchii, such as Malekith, Morathi, and Helebron get out of Naggaroth? Do they only come out for invasions of Ulthuan or do they go raiding occasionally?
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I think Malekith leaves only for invasions of Ulthuan.

People like Tullaris Dreadbringer, Beastlord Rakarth, Lokhir Fellheart, Shadowblade and Malus Darkblade are said to commonly go on raids both in the Old World and other parts of the planet. Books and short stories in wich they appear typicaly have them go on incursions somewere.

In am not sure abaout Helebron, i never read of her going regularly anywere outside Naggaroth.

Kouran Darkhand is the Captain of Malekith's Black Guard, so i suppose for him the answer is "he goes were Malekith goes".
 
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