So, my muse is currently in a coma and refuses to let me write anything. Seriously, anything I try to write, I just have my hands on the keyboard and go "uuuhhhhhh" and get nothing done. Which means no update today and at this rate I'm not sure I'll be able to get it done in a week. I hope I can get it done sooner rather than later but I'm not going to set a timeline with how bad this piece of writer's block is. Sorry for the disappointment.
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Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
My Life as Mordred in Warhammer World After Training on Earth Bet
- Thread starter wowow2264
- Start date
- Mature Fantasy
Captain_Saint
Observer Meddler Annihilator...totally not Evil
we'd be horrible people if we sent messages of disappointment explaining to you how very disappointed we are, but we are not like that here so I believe we all understand and accept the things that happen, we can't control what life throws at us, but hey I recommend taking walk on a beach with some ice-cream or going for a two-hour-long drive through the countryside it often helps me when I try to come up with new scenarios to write in my story posts.
Chapter Seven - Arc Three
Sorry this is so late, but at least I didn't miss this posting week in addition to the one two weeks ago. It was a near thing too, I had most of this written up but then my dog got attacked by my neighbor's dog and he needed to go get surgery the next day when we realized how bad it really was. So I've been too stressed out to do much the last couple days. Thankfully he has been doing a lot better today which put me in a decent enough mood to finish writing this chapter.
Obviously, not much editing was done because of that but hopefully it is enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed coming up with the gatorelles and writing Bait so let me know what you think.
Obviously, not much editing was done because of that but hopefully it is enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed coming up with the gatorelles and writing Bait so let me know what you think.
Chapter Seven, Bait lives and empires fall.
Lightning sparked off of Clarent, arcing towards the skaven attempting to circle around me to attack the dwarfs and men at my back. With that same swing, I sliced and fried the last Rat Ogre as the smell of charred meat, burnt fur and ozone became stronger still. Those who wanted smellovision were either truly ignorant or truly twisted. The smells weren't pleasant, especially when mixed with the stagnant air in these tunnels.
I swung Clarent again, letting an arc of lightning shoot off into the distance to fry the lurking skaven in the dark tunnel ahead. I had been down here for almost a month trying to uproot the damn rats from these very specific tunnels, these being the tunnels connecting Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks.
Progress had been slow but steady over the last few weeks in that regard up until a couple days ago when we had finally cleared two thirds of the tunnels and suddenly we started rapidly picking up the pace as resistance to our advance crumbled the closer we got to Karak Drazh. Granted, I was sure that this was far faster than normal and going even faster might give the dwarfs aneurysms from the fact we were being very thorough in our skaven removal but it wasn't taking forever as tradition says it should.
With the enemies temporarily gone, I checked over the dwarfs and men behind me. They were tired, the frequent seemingly endless marching and constant battles were taking their toll on them. Between the labyrinthian interconnecting dwarf and skaven built tunnels, the ceaseless march towards Karak Drazh, and the battles that happened daily if not more, there had been little rest despite the fact that I had done the majority of the fighting. Fortunately for them, there were only a couple more days before we reached Karak Drazh and they could rest for the two weeks it would take the rest of the army to catch up with their slower pace.
Once I was finished with my assessment of the soldiers under my command, strange that it was having dwarfs willingly put themselves under a non-dwarf's command, I called for us to stop and make camp. It was an fortunate coincidence that just a short jog away was a prime space to set up camp.
I had noticed that such coincidences had started happening more and more frequently as I got older and more powerful. I appeared right before a major battle and somehow got assigned to the one captain in the empire that was not evil while willing to give the magic wielding girl a chance. I ran off to hunt down some greenskins only to somehow run into a halfling town just in time to save it and gain a small army of halfling archers before stumbling across the aforementioned imperial captain who had the frontline soldiers I needed to back up my new archers.
Flash forward years later as I gathered up all of the useable manpower in Drachenreich in an attempt to gain an army large enough to burn out the expanse of land infected with greenskins on our southern border, only to get a large boost in manpower practically delivered to my doorstep by Malekith. Whose death in turn made the empire go from a three way civil war to a four way civil war that removed any worries about them attacking while I was gone. Sometimes my luck felt more like subconscious reality warping than chance, and considering everything? It might just be.
Unfortunately, my luck definitely didn't help with the rumors that I was the daughter of Ranald, adopted or otherwise. But at this point, it was pointless to concern myself with the various versions of the Mordredian cult. They were going to believe what they were going to believe and as long as they didn't do things in my name that I strongly disapproved of, I let them be. If they did such acts then I smote them Zeus style but that was fortunately rare as the cases when I did smite someone got spread around and people quickly figured out what not to do.
Shaking my head clear of my mental rabbit trails, I approached the center of camp where the Aegis of Mordred was kept. As the only mage in our small but elite group, it fell to me to get the greatest protection we had against ambushes and attacks up and running. Unfortunately not many mages wanted to come along this time to free Karak Eight Peaks and the main army needed all of them to power their own aegises which left me to handle running the one for us.
Which honestly, was pretty easy when you were a god of magic and using what was considered a holy item of yours and it happened to run on magic. It took merely fifteen minutes for me to get the set up finished and the magical field up, this far underground it mostly ran off of my own magical energy and the slow seeping of magic into the planet.
Fortunately for us, tapping into the excess magical energy I produced granted the relatively small area quite a bit of strength. More than enough to prevent the shoddy but extremely poisonous and or diseased weapons favored by the skaven from even scratching anyone inside.
I was mentally rambling again wasn't I? I sighed to myself, I missed my boys, having decent food, and not being shoved into the constant company of a bunch of dwarfs. I held the dwarf race in high regard but it was so stressful having to be on my best behavior at all times to avoid angering them with my flippancy and disregard for tradition. The stress of leading a group into combat day in and day out at a rapid pace for a month straight was also wearing on me.
We probably could have been done far sooner if we didn't also do our best to clear out the nooks and crannies that had been built into the tunnel system we were in but we were helping the dwarfs and no one wanted to do a shoddy job on this, especially with the lives of anyone traveling this tunnel in the future on the line. Just a couple more weeks, I reminded myself, just a couple more weeks and I could finally make my way home and be done with this.
These last couple of weeks seemed far more like a couple of months. Having cleared the underground tunnels between Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks of skaven, my forces and I took some time to recover from our hurried blitz through the tunnels while waiting for the rest of the army to catch up.
While my men were enjoying their well deserved break, I was stuck in meetings and dealing with politics and only now a day after the arrival of the rest of my soldiers, that I was finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
"And it has been ratified as such: The kingdom of Drachenreich shall be granted the total sum of fourteen billion gorl for its assistance in reclaiming Karak Eight Peaks. She will be paid as outlined in clauses eleven A, eleven B, eleven C, eleven D, and further outlined in clauses fourteen B and fourteen C." The elderly dwarf declared, before carefully packing up and leaving the room. Leaving only myself, King Truefist and soon to be crowned Thane Mithrilfoot along with our guards.
With nods and firm handshakes, the three of us royals departed and went our separate ways. It was only after we were deep into the human quarters that I relaxed and left out a sigh of relief. Finally I was done with all of that, and not a moment too soon. We were leaving early tomorrow morning and this had been the final chance for us to settle the score and allow the dwarfs to start repaying their debts to me before I had to leave. Trying to negotiate through messengers and with the long delays in between would have taken months if not years which was why I was relieved we were able to ratify our agreement today.
I was also quite happy to be finally done with the constant meetings with stuffy and rigid dwarfs over money and honor. In a twist of irony, I had been trying to decrease how much they were paying me rather than increase it. I had been fairly successful too, otherwise I would have been receiving fourteen trillion gorl instead of fourteen billion. And I had added a number of alternative ways to pay instead of in coin.
Mostly it was them sending expert builders to specific projects, lowering their tariffs for Drachenreich merchants, or large discounts on purchases of bulk goods. There was also a couple other ways but they were less likely to happen since I typically handled such things before outside aid would even be able to respond. Some would wonder why I had negotiated the dwarfs down instead of happily taking them for all their worth, Naturally these people were shortsighted dumbasses.
If I did take them for all their worth then they would be destitute and end up resentful of me. Then it would only take one spark to incite them into going Chaos dwarf which wouldn't be good for anyone. No, it was far better to talk them down to far more reasonable numbers so that they could rebuild Karak Eight Peaks safely while still making decent sized payments to me steadily over the years. I took a moment to reengage with reality as my guards and I reached the room I was staying in. I walked before closing the door and collapsing into the nearest chair.
Where was I in my rant? Right. And with both Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks back into dwarf hands, two great strongholds of my enemies were now friendly to me and left only smaller, less important strongholds to remove from enemy hands. In a few decades, after most of the available space in Drachenreich was finally made use of, we could start the process of slowly taking over the badlands and removing the greenskins from play. It was unlikely we would ever be fully rid of them, what with their spores being difficult to fully remove, but we could eventually reduce them down into an annoying pest instead of a global threat if they ever united.
Not that I had been planning that when I first started retaking fallen holds but I was going to have to get used to longer term planning since I wanted my kingdom to last at least as long as the Karaz Ankor if not longer. It was probably petty of me but being able to say that my Drachenreich had outshone Camelot would be quite satisfying.
Having recovered a little bit of my energy, I moved from the uncomfortable chair I had been slouched in and went to my slightly more comfortable bed. I had a few hours to myself for once and I was going to laze around like the days of old, doing nothing but relaxing in what comfort I had before reality reminded me that it existed.
The next morning was a brutally early start for everyone, well, I was already awake as per usual but for everyone else it was O'dark a clock. As drill sergeants and unnaturally peppy morning people got the zombies to work getting ready to head out, I was busy being one of those unnaturally peppy morning people and getting my command staff up and moving for the long walk home.
Hours later, we left Karak Drazh and started our march back home. Everyone seemed to be in good cheer now that we were out in the daylight again and on our way home from a successful campaign. Hmm, odd thought but I wonder how everyone would react if I started working on a tan? I know that another version of me could pull off a tan very well which should hopefully apply to me but deciding to go for a tan now would probably make other people question why I would do so and probably cause a whole new fashion trend like every other time I changed up my looks a bit.
It was true madness that I was a fashion icon for my people, me, the person who wore practically the same outfit everyday of the week like some anime character. Ironic yes, but true. Thankfully, I was able to convince a small majority of people to seek their preferred style of clothing instead of imitating me. Sadly, it was a very small majority which meant I still saw lots of women with bleached hair or blonde wigs and wearing outfits nearly identical to the last outfit I wore to an event.
But enough about that, no need to focus on that particular bout of madness while marching across the arid plains known as the badlands. You would think the place would have mushrooms everywhere and be green as far as the eye could see but no, it was mostly normal. Mostly because there were still plenty of roaming packs of greenskins and other dangers lurking, like the alligator gazelle that "mysteriously" appeared years ago and now were a common sight across the entire badlands.
Never seen an alligator gazelle? Then you were fortunate, they were truly a cursed being. They had the body and legs of a gazelle but instead of hooves, they had alligator claws. Their legs were also somewhat shorter but were far more powerful to compensate. The head and tail was that of an alligator but the head also had the eyes and horns of a gazelle.
An alligator gazelle could outrun almost everything in the badlands while also having immense stamina and preferred to catch their prey in their powerful jaws before dragging them across the badlands for potentially hours as they shook the life out of their prey. It was made even worse by the fact that alligator gazelle hunted in packs, often literally tearing their prey in half or even drawing and quartering them.
Fortunately, there were a few things keeping them in check. One was that they tasted damn good which made them a lucrative hunt despite the danger involved in hunting them. Second was that their instincts led them to laze about near watering holes and they often got eaten because of that. And third, The greenskins liked to show off their brutality and or cunning by hunting alligator gazelle alone or in small groups which reduced the numbers of both species.
Not that any of that made my soldiers all that happy about the prospect of traveling through the badlands with the chance of getting dragged off and torn into pieces by a pack of hungry monstrosities but they've made this trip before and they could make it again. This time, hopefully without lazy sentries being dragged off screaming into the night like a bad horror film. Those morons were lucky that it had been just one per person which meant the alligator gazelle took a bit of time to kill their prey so I could rescue them.
"Oi, Bait! Over here!" One of his… Friends called for him. Sighing to himself he walked over and sat down. He grimaced as he sat down, his new nickname hadn't gone away at all like had hoped.
"Guess what Bait? Turns out these two had never heard why ya got your nickname. So, we were thinking that instead of one of us telling it, why not the man who was there? Waddya say?" Dole, one of his pain in the ass friends 'suggested' as if they weren't going to keep bugging him into telling the new guys if he said no.
"Fine, but next time one of you can tell it, it's not like you haven't gotten enough practice already." He grouched.
""Yes!"" His so called friends cheered quietly as he settled into his preferred storytelling position that he learned from his grandfather.
"Alright, so I had been saddled with sentry duties for that evening when it had happened. It was pitch black out. None of the stars were visible through the clouds, neither moon was out, and the land was quiet. That should have been my first sign that something was wrong, looking back." He took a dramatic pause at this moment as he built the atmosphere.
"Many of us on duty were exhausted from the long march and decided to be a bit looser in our duties than we should have been and barely managed to avoid paying the price for that. I was the first to learn that exhaustion was a poor excuse for carelessness when guarding both your own life and everyone else's." He took another pause to breathe and let his words sink in. the pair of newcomers completely caught in the tale he was telling.
"I had separated from the rest of my fellow sentries a bit so as to avoid the terrible singing as much as I could, that left me open to the first gatorelle snatching me up. It had chomped down on my leg before dragging me screaming into the night." Another dramatic pause as he caught his breath. Even his friends were paying attention at this point despite having heard and told this story again and again.
"I tried to stab it with my knife as I had dropped my spear when it grabbed me but the damn thing seemed to drag me into every thicket and tree it could. I could hear screaming off in the distance from my fellow sentries, as I later learned they had also been dragged off while distracted by my own disappearance. It was as two more gatorelle appeared out of the darkness that I knew I was going to die." The final dramatic pause as he prepared for the finale.
"Just as I was ready to go down fighting before entering Morr's realm, a burst of wind gushes past me and then I was suddenly on my feet, freed from the jaws of the beast. Our queen, long may she reign-" "Long may she reign!" Everyone within hearing range chorused.
"Had appeared before me, sword in hand. Clean cuts decapitating the gatorelles as evidence to what happened. It was an hour's walk back, such was the distance the gatorelle had dragged me. It was in our debriefing that led to my nickname. As I started my report, the queen incredulously asked me 'As to WHAT? To play BAIT? Because that's the only reason as to why you would go so far away from your post and fellow sentries.' and thus, I've been stuck with the nickname Bait ever since." He finished to the laughter of his audience.
It was weeks later that we finally made it back to Drachenreich. The majority of the army splitting away to return to their original stations or taking what time they could get off to spend with family before they returned to duty. I was looking forward to seeing my own boys again. Johen had taken up charcoal drawing a bit before I left and I was looking forward to drawings to preserve for future embar- display as a parent should.
Greggory had decided he wanted to spend some time learning at his uncle Cobbelly's farm while I was gone, which likely meant he was picking up mischievous habits from his honorary uncle. Thankfully I could dump him in his other honorary uncle's lap to at least tame some of that mischief. Erhard had done well enough reining in Cobbelly and I after all.
The day of my return was very nice. The temperature was perfect, the sky bright and sunny, a gentle breeze cooling off us whenever it got a little too warm, and of course, I got to spend most of the remainder of the day with my kids. The morning after was horrible. That was my thoughts as I held the declaration of loyalty from the now former empire.
Every single one of the elector counts and emperors had been assassinated and replaced, a new emperor of the now united empire voted in, and then they all unanimously voted to give complete and utter control of the empire to me. My next thoughts were along the lines of "I don't know enough swear words for this." As I slumped against the wall.
- Location
- Paradise, Hawaii
You know that the title is a gag/ joke.
The next is "Master Bait-er"
Edit: Will the Dwarves build an Underground Railroad to connect both Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks?
The tunnels are cleared of troubles and should stay clear with lots of travel?
With the Empire now hers, will it be renamed?
How much travel will there be between North & South?
The next is "Master Bait-er"
Edit: Will the Dwarves build an Underground Railroad to connect both Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks?
The tunnels are cleared of troubles and should stay clear with lots of travel?
With the Empire now hers, will it be renamed?
How much travel will there be between North & South?
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- Location
- Philippines
When you win in a popularity contest but the judges are murderously loyal.
This might be the most bloodless, unilateral and fastest coup in Warhammer history. Pretty much an overnight thing. Her empire has... quadrupled in size? Wowzers...
I wonder what the reaction of the rest of the world to Mordred just going "I don't know enough swear words for this." as she slumps against a wall upon finding out she has to fix the equivalent to 3x her original empire's problems? This is like someone somehow getting full annex of a country in a grand strategy game and seeing everything in the red, and having nowhere near enough resources to sustain it, outta nowhere. Best of all? She'd only just gotten everything in the black.
"My free time... MY FREE TIME! NOOOOOOOO!" is basically all I can see poor Mordred going right now.
O man! Poor Mordred stuck being Queen of the Empire and her own Kingdom. God that would suck so much trying to sort allbthat out. I mean it was hard enough for her starting from the ground up. Now she is stuck with a framework but she will have to worry about all the political nonsense and trying to reform the Empire.
I wonder if she can just say no to being Empress.
I wonder if she can just say no to being Empress.
Possibly on the railroad, it is a pretty short distance relatively but the two of them are just rebuilding and I imagine that trains would be pretty new at this time. The main highway between Karak Drazh and Karak Eight Peaks as well as the main side areas are now clear and with dedicated work from both Karaks, it will stay safe enough to be used reliably. In other words, yes it should stay clear without a major attack or large new (enemy filled) tunnels being connected to the main tunnels.
Yep, as someone pointed out, Drachenreich can also mean Dragon's Empire so I figure that I, the Author, can use the excus- power of human nature and laziness to fold the empire under Drachenreich's banner while still allowing people to think that there was a nod given to the now former empire.
Assuming you mean North Drachenreich and South Drachenreich, there will be about as much travel going on as if it was the USA but with horrible monsters and worse lurking everywhere and everyone has to travel by wagon/horse/foot. Eventually, Mordred will get those problems taken care of but making sure they aren't completely broke/starving/whatever and no more empires are dropped into her lap will be her priority.
Well... I was struggling to come up with a title and I had just written that section about how Bait got his nickname so I figured why not.
Well, she could, much like she could just say screw it and run off to live with her kids in some rural village but at this point, as much as she complains, she isn't willing to give up all of her hard work just because some more is being dropped into her lap. She is being both stubborn and prideful about sticking it out as well as experiencing some sunk cost fallacy on top of that.
As of this very moment? I'd say it's about even, leaning more towards Drachenreich. Properly utilized, the empire united no doubt but Drachenreich has been experiencing years of unprecedented peace and development while the empire is in their dark age. On top of that, Mordred did get quite a bit from killing Malekith from both dwarfs and elves so... Yeah.
Where to rule from though? For at least a year or so, it will have to be Drachenhohle because there is no way Mordred is moving to a new place that hasn't been prepped aka cleansed of Chaos/traitors/vampires/what have you by people she trusts to do the job right which means not the former imperials. Later on? Probably Nuln, it has a decent rep in Drachenreich because lots of founding members of Drachenruhe come from there, it is inside the empire which the former imperials will like, and it is close to the former border princes so she isn't going too far.
This is both hilarious and insightful. Unfortunately, I can only give you one emote on your post.
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
I'm gonna need to see an interlude about this whole mess because my mind kept asking what the everloving f*ck happened there?
- Location
- washington
Just call it the Drachenreich empire its not taking away from either culture.
AldariSiradla
Knight of the Fountain Pen
And your holdings grow!
CKII-CKIII principles at work...
Truly it is a tried and tested method of gaining land!
Glad to see that Mo-chan's life is going good!
I always knew being King would do wonders!
CKII-CKIII principles at work...
Truly it is a tried and tested method of gaining land!
Glad to see that Mo-chan's life is going good!
I always knew being King would do wonders!
- Location
- London
You want to call it the Dragon Empire Empire?
- Location
- washington
yes how many peasants even know what reich means anyways?
PyroTechno
The Procrastination Pokemon
Well, they speak German-ish... so, uh, all of them?
Gave me "moon moon" Vibes haha
Hahahahahaha! Being supreme ruler always looks so Glamorous but then comes PAPERWORK
RIP Mordred, Neither Chaos, Nor Beastie, Nor EdgeElfies, Nor GreenMatsutakes, NorRatfurs, Nor wars ETC ETC ETC Killed her. No it was ... Paperwork. All hail The new Ruler and Woe to any who dares to brave the papercuts.
Seriously tho, that was some major smooth planning from the people in the empires to just Off their own heads like that, like WOW! Perhaps some of that unusual luck from Mord be spreading there too?
Now-- SUCH big events make me Look forward to outside POVS!
- Location
- Hell
That's pretty much calling it dragons empire empire.
It's redundant to add another empire to its name.
- Location
- Pale Blue Dot
Honestly? I can very much see the greater majority of the Empire being quite happy with said leaders being dead as doornails. Unless you live in a third world hellhole (and maybe not even then), you do not have leaders as bad as they have, for as long as they have.
Having Mordred Pendragon as a leader... well. They can see how Drachenreich has evolved. And the Dwarves have most definitely told stories in bars everywhere. Ditto with the Mordenian cult. Even the people who hate witchcraft with a passion would grudgingly agree that the Aegis of Mordred is something they VERY MUCH WANT, even if it means they have to guard a mansion full of wizards from the town, and guard the rest of the town from them. "Mutation is utterly horrible" is something everyone who's not a Chaos cultist can agree on.
The big thing, however, is that even a mediochre ruler would be a number of steps up from the utter mess the Empire has had so far.
Some of the luck? ...yes. I would have expected a few to get away otherwise. I'm pretty certain a lot of people will notice. Some of them quite worried. I suspect letters from Mordred down the line to neighbouring rulers about how "x, y, and z is a big problem in their realm, could they possibly handle it before it stirrs up too much resentment" will not be ignored. Possibly mishandled, but not ignored.
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They would probably take it as a threat, but for Mordred? It's a plea for help that she really doesn't want another Empire to happen to her again!
- Location
- Brasil
Mordred: Being Emperor/King sucks.
Arturia: Why do you think I didn't want you to become one? the job sucks.
The Emperor: The only reason I became the Emperor in the first place is because I was the only one who could do it, I never wanted to deal with all this shit just to get stuck on this stupid throne.
- Location
- miami
Hell take it to the next level have a thousand years pass be in the middle of a golden age and when they reach space they find there in Star Wars or battletech or something.... actually that's sounds pretty awesome and the Jedi automatically think there evil or the whole inner sphere thinks she's a actual hair to the star league or something.