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Sword and Spell: A Warhammer fantasy general quest

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A Warhammer fantasy Warlord/General Quest.
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Introduction/Faction Selection
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    • Swordswain

    Swordswain



    This is a dark age.

    A bloody age.

    An age of daemons and of sorcery.

    It is an age of battle and death, and of the world's ending.

    Amidst all the fire, flame and fury, it is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage.

    From the sprawling cities of the empire to the brawling hordes of the badlands, from the great Bastion to the glittering shores of Ulthuan, from the sun-baked ruins of Nehekhara to the steaming jungles of the new world, there is only war. Vast legions and petty mobs of bandits alike give battle in every place, in every way, and for every reason imaginable.

    They fight with Spear and Bow, Pike and Shot, Sword and Spell. They fight in struggling shieldwalls, or mounted atop mystical beasts, or from the ramparts of stalwart fortresses. They fight for gold and glory and gods of a hundred stripes, for kith and kin, for honor, for survival or simply to inflict suffering on another living being.

    They are lead by the great, the good, or the greedy. The Ambitious, the cowardly, the mad. By highborn lords and grungy mercenary captains. By noble heroes and villains most foul.

    And, somewhere in this vast melting pot of armies and leaders, some of them have the misfortune of being led by you.

    You, willing or not, are the leader (or something approximating a leader) of one of the countless warbands that roam this world, and your troops hail from among the:    ​

    -[] Tribes of Albion
    Though often underestimated by outsiders, the tribes that live on the misty isles are warlike and courageous, having staunchly defended their homes against all comers, making up for a lack of technology for sheer, heroic skill at arms and druidic sorcery. Frenzied woad-warriors and wind-swift charioteers rush into battle, hoping the gain the favour of the Morrigan, accompanied by the island's own giants and monsters.

    -[] Amazons
    In a world where the fairer sex is often looked down upon in the world of men, the Matriarchal tribes that have settled in the mouth of the greatest of Lustria's many rivers have proven they can be just as mighty, and just as vicious, as any men. Isolationist by nature, outsiders are forbidden from learning the primordial secrets they still guard, and the ancient technology locked away in their vaults.

    -[] Caliphates of Araby
    Adventurous explorers and merchants, the people of the Arabyan peninsula have ventured far and wide across the world, bringing back riches and knowledge to their desert homes, and transforming their cities into glittering wonders of the world, populated by almost unrivalled scholars and artisans. At the beck and call of the Caliphs are dervishers and Djinn-binders, Camelry and Jezzail gunners, and the fanatic devotion to their one god of Order.

    -[] Beastmen Herds
    The true children of chaos are less like an army, and more like a force of nature. They dwell in the wild places of the world, stamping and snorting and rutting in sheer outrage against the very concept of civilization. Like an unpredictable storm, their great herds come roaring out of the forest to tear down the artifice of man with claw and horn and fury.

    -[] Kingdom of Bretonnia
    Fair Bretonnia is the land of chivalry, and it shows. For although it's impoverished peasents leave much to be desired, Bretonnian Knights are the finest heavy cavalry in the world, each striving on quests of honor and virtue to prove themselves worthy of but a single sip from the blessed grail of the lady of the lake.

    -[] Grand Cathay
    The single largest of all human nations, Grand Cathay is an Empire without equal, it's vast legions benefitting from entire compendiums of academic strategic theory, Mystical astromancy, and the secrets of smoke and powder in equal measure. So long as the great bastion stands, so too will civilization. Perhaps the only thing that can bring Cathay down is itself, for the empire long united must divide.

    -[] Chaos Dwarfs
    The Dawi Zharr, as they are called in their own tongue, are the most inventive of the slaves of evil. Where others would assail the bastions of good with endless hordes of wretches, the Chaos dwarves bring those walled citadels down with Daemon-infused artillery barrages, reducing blessed castles to little more than molten slag in their relentless quest for ever more slaves, and ever more wealth.

    -[] Daemons of Chaos
    Nightmares made flesh, the Daemons of Chaos take physical form in this world at the behest of their immortal and terrible masters. Magical by their very nature, they bring the flickering unreality of Chaos to meterial fruition, wreaking terror and destruction wherever they go. To beings of Aethyr, this world is an endless feast of delights.

    -[] Dark Elves
    As sadistic as they are sophisticated, the Dark elves, or Druchii, as they call themselves, consider themselves the superior beings of the world, and sneer down at the younger races who are fit only as slaves and entertainment. Vicious and elegant in equal measure, they sail the world with nigh impunity, engaging slaver-raids backed by ancients sorcery and monsters tamed by whip and will.

    -[] Dwarfs
    Stolid and unyielding as the mountains they call home, the true Dawi have weathered the ages of suffering with unflappable courage, and sheer bull-headed stubbornness. Though the ancient glory days are behind them, and many holds have been lost to invading monsters over the centuries, the dwarven kingdoms still bitterly hold on to what remains, nursing their grudges like good ale, and defended by the finest crafted arms and armor in the world.

    -[] Empire
    A flickering light of civilization in a world gone mad, the Empire is a nation founded by the great, but torn apart by the greedy. Bearing the weighty legacy of the man-turned-god Sigmar, the Empire's well organized state armies grapple against their inhuman and impossible foes with little more than faith, steel, and gunpowder. A balanced faction, the Empire's armies can do a little bit of everything. A jack of all trades, so to speak.

    -[] Estalia
    The fractious kingdoms of the southwestern old world are loosely collected under the name of Estalia. They share a common culture and language, a love for the arts of fencing, and collectively represent the greatest number of old world colonies and expeditions into the forbidding continent across the sea. None of this stops them from constantly fighting one another, crashing great blocks of pike and arquebus against each other in squabbles over who owns which land.

    -[] Tilea
    The feuding republics and principalities of Tilea are ruled more by merchants than nobles, and they view war as a business more than anything else. Whenever there is a dispute, it is settled by whoever is willing to spend the most money to hire the most swords, making the peninsula a hotbed for mercenaries, sellswords, thugs-for-hire, and other such enterprising warbands. For these priced-warriors, each battle is an investment, and they must measure their actions carefully to ensure profit at the end of the day. Still, among their number is a disproportionate amount of hardened veterans and specialist regiments of renown.

    -[] High Elves
    The magical island-continent of Ulthuan is the original home of the elven race, and still the holdfast of the Asur, or high elves, as mankind knows them. Possessed of a long history, older than the race of men, as glorious as it is tragic, the High elves are fading shadow of their once world-spanning sorcerous might. Still, they arrogantly treat the younger races like ignorant children. Perhaps they have the right to, for nobody else could understands the depths of sacrifice they have made to keep the world intact time and time again.

    -[] Kingdoms of Ind
    Ind is called the land of a thousand gods, and not without reason, for the deities worshipped by it's many peoples are without number, forming a complex panoply of divine powers and spirits that govern the land just as much as it's opulently wealthy Maharajah's. When a temple or shrine is violated, armies of gilded war elephants and noble chariots roll out to avenge the slight (or to subjugate competing kingdoms), and that is if the spirits of the sacred place do not manifest to avenge the slight personally.

    -[] Tzardom of Kislev
    Though sometimes derided as a kingdom of half-barbarians, the old world owes much, even its very existence, to Kislev. Existing as the northern frontier of civilized life, Kislev's vast icy steppes are always the first to be invaded by the madmen and cultists of the great hordes of Chaos, and it is by the staunch resolve and sacrifice of their warriors, Winged hussars and ice Witches all the way down to the common Kossar, that the people of the south can sleep soundly at night.

    -[] Lizardmen
    Called "Lizardmen" by the ignorant, these creatures were designed, not born. Created as the perfect servitor race for the enigmatic and godlike old ones who once shaped the very world, the Lizardmen dwell in vast temple cities deep in the interior of the lustrian jungle, fending off constant invaders and saboteurs, and enacting rituals of Geomantic magic, still doggedly determined to go through with the "Great Plan" exactly as it was laid out, no matter how many millenia it takes, and no matter how many wayward species they must put down in the process.

    -[] Shogunate of Nippon
    They say Nippon is a land where honor is stronger than steel. Perhaps this is so, for its elite warrior-aristocracy are known to fight to the death or take their own lives rather than surrender, and daily life is governed by ten-thousand or more strictly adhered to rituals. The islands have kept themselves in a state of isolation for some time now, fending off outsiders with immaculate swordsmanship and divine wind.

    -[] Ogre Kingdoms
    Several times the size of a man, Ogres are massive, strong, brutal creatures, more at home in prehistoric environment of the mountains of Mourn than in a city, but let it never be said they are unintelligent. Driven by an endless hunger and practical (some would say lazy) outlook on the world, Ogre tribes are just a likely to work as mercenaries as go raiding, extracting from their employers exhorbitant fees in gold and meat. After all, why not get paid for what you were going to do anyway?

    -[] Orcs and Goblins
    Greenskins love to fight, its as simple as that. They love to fight humans, elves, dwarves, and especially one another. A powerful warboss builds up momentum, gathering lesser tribes in its wake with each victory until an unstoppable green horde has been formed to roll across the badlands in one unending tide of chipped axes and whooping chants, ready to kill until finally slain themselves. Greenskins are numerous, savage, and brutally cunning.

    -[] Pirates of Sartosa
    There is fortune and fame to be had on the high seas, for those brave and mad enough to claim it. The Pirates of Sartosa are a scurrilous, treacherous, utterly selfish, and unnaturally lucky set of rapscallions, ne'er-do-wells, villains, and other assorted unkind names who prowl the vast oceans of the world near and far. Using cannonades and sheer daring to plunder merchant vessels or cut their way through to buried treasure, regardless of the risk.

    -[] Skaven Under-Empire
    Teeming under the skin of the world in their millions is the worlds biggest and most dysfunctional empire. If the ratmen who infested every sewer and tunnel had the collective will, they could swarm the overworld with a tide of endless numbers, fell sorcery, and maniacally powerful warpstone fuelled warmachines, making it theirs forevermore. unfortunately, every single Skaven is primarily concerned with stabbing the Skaven directly above him in the back.

    -[] Tomb Kings
    Out of the sands of time march the undying legions of the Tomb Kings. Cursed by ancient magic to forever defend the ruins of their once golden empire, entire generations of fathers and sons squabble in their undeath over who properly own which bit of which ruin, commanding hordes of skeletons and enchanted stone constructs to wreak terrible vengeance on those who would dare steal their burial riches.

    -[] Vampire Counts
    Immortal, beautiful, endlessly thirsty. The looming midnight aristocracy live unseen among human kind, masquerading among the halls of the rich and powerful, building entire secret networks of blood-slaves and unknowing collaborators so that, when the time is right, they may once more take up the sword and bare their fangs, squashing the realms of the living beneath endless waves of mindless, undead thralls or terrifying flesh-monsters held together by necromancy most foul.

    -[] Warriors of Chaos
    Bleeding out from the top of the world like a scalped skull are the tribes of the Northmen, worshippers of the ruinous powers. Each warrior and chieftain desperate to prove himself in the eyes of the powers that be, to earn glory in the eyes of the gods through deeds of bloodshed and ritual, to have his name carved in the annals of history and be ascended to Daemonhood. They reave south with hordes of furious berzerkers, mutated monters, chaotic shamans, and Hell-Plated chosen warriors. Raw destruction given form.

    -[] Wood Elves
    Guardians of the sacred forest, wood elves are in tune with nature, and only a fool thinks nature gentle. Archers and skirmishers without equal, entire armies have been scythed down by volleys from hidden wood elves before they manage to close, and when they do, they are met by fists of oak as the very forest itself comes alive to slay intruders. Capricious tree spirits with stabbing branches and massive treemen elders make quick work of most mortals. Unrepentantly cruel to those who trespass, the wood elves would happily let the civilizations of man burn if it meant saving the forests.

    _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Hello and welcome to Sword and Spell. In this quest, you will play as the leader of one among countless warbands in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. Depending on your choices this may mean you end up running a territory/fief, or that you struggle to keep together a roaming tribe, or that you are simply a mercenary captain carefully assessing each new job. Well see where it takes us.

    I should note that, in terms of rules, I am basing this mostly on the Fanmade 9th Edition of the tabletop wargame, and that for both rules and lore, I reserve the right to switch around lore from different incarnations and headcanon of Warhammer fantasy, both as a matter of preference and for the sake of making the quest run smoother.

    First choice here is the Faction/Army list you will be mainly using. As you may notice, this includes several options that are not part of the standard 8th edition set or in the Warhammer: Total war series. Since I have rules for those factions and I think they're pretty neat, I thought id include them in case people wanted to try something a bit different.


    Other than that, I can only say I hope you have fun!
     
  • Threadmarks
    • -[X] Tribes of Albion

    -[X] Amazons

    We never see wither of these in lore or even in fanfiction so I think it would be interesting to see them here.
     
    [X] Ogre Kingdoms

    Even Tomb Kings get more love than Ogres, whether it be lore, novels, quests, fanfiction, or TW.

    These are bruisers to which fighting to the death is fun most of the time. Who relish primordial landscapes and adapt, who knock down castle walls with their charges and boast the greatest of physical prowess on average. And so underutilized.

    Exatto said:
    -[X] Tribes of Albion

    -[X] Amazons

    We never see wither of these in lore or even in fanfiction so I think it would be interesting to see them here.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    We have seen both in fanfiction, especially the Tribes.
     
    Last edited:
    -[X] Tomb Kings

    Would be better if all voters could agree on -[] or [] the tally is confusing at the moment and it will certainly not get better if more people vote (-[] is QM choice for this vote so I would stick to it)
     
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