Omake
A Minor Discourse on Aethyic Beings: Divine Servants
Subject: Twilight Riders
In the year 43 of Emperor Mandred II's reign of Sigmar's Holy Empire, strange reports and rumors began to spread among the peoples of the Empire, Tilea, and Estalia. Terrifying specters made of smoke and fog riding steeds of shadows and wielding weapons of indescribable darkness were seen riding across the roads of the Empire, through villages and towns, terrorizing the peasantry of every province. It would not be until four months after the first official reports began to make their rounds through the higher courts and circles that the first confirmed kills by these apparitions began to be known. Nobles and merchants were the first known victims, and it was by their fellows' efforts that the greatest cogs of the Empire began to turn.
The Colleges of Magic, the Churches, the Witch-Hunters, all sent forth great numbers of their agents on the mission to uncover the truth behind these strange figures. Even the Emperor himself sent forth his own servants, officially and those certainly not. Magisters and templars, priests and spies, all began to descend on the commonfolk of the Empire. Their efforts would take most of year, but the truth would be sussed out.
When these mysterious figures were first sighted it was believed to little more than ill-hearted pranks, dark and sinister riders raising ruckuses and depriving their neighbors of their peaceful sleeps. And it was not until the rumors spread that people began to realize these sudden uprising were too numerous and too widespread to be the work of even a handful of sick jokers. The work of evil cults or rebels it was then decided upon by people who wouldn't know the difference between the cult of Gruuvar, an Ostland god of Oxen, and dread Khaine the Elven god of war and murder and whose ideas of Rebellion was singularly against their local lords for whatever mundane reason.
It was not until Sargant Hans Kinkle of the Wurtbad Watch reported to his superiors that he and his partner saw one of these specters form itself from the fog and darkness outside Wurtbad's Eastern gate before charging off into the night that the last rumor was unleased. These terrible foes were deamons, monsters made of nightmares and hate and who desired the destruction of that which was good. And it was this rumor, combined with the confirmed deaths attributed to these figures that galvanized the backbones of the Empire.
But a curious thing would happen. Messages were sent; a witch-hunter to a priest, a Journeyman of the Grays to an Elector, a spy to the Karaz Ankor. A great web was spun. Eleven months after they were first dispatched, nearly 200 wizards, a combined 500 priests of every major religion, and an unknowable number of templars and spies made their reports. Slowly they were read and collated, the experiences of wizards and priests examining the traces of these shadow riders, of templars who chased and tracked their movements, and of spies who investigated their murders coming together to form the truth.
And so it was, in the year 44 of his reign, Emperor Mandred revealed the truth of the Twilight Riders. These foreboding beings were servants of a god, manifested to exact justice in their name. Truths behind the sinister sounding stories were brought to light. The nobles murdered by these knights of shadows were revealed to be murderers themselves or worse. The slain merchants were slave traders or brutes who made their riches by threats and violence. Mothers and fathers who abused their children were harassed by the sound of galloping horses around their houses and being covered in blood when they leave. Further stories were revealed as well, including of how one rode through a town, rallying their militia and drawing them out in time to repel a beastman attack which could have overrun it.
The people of the Empire let out great cheers that day, for the knowledge that one of their gods made such an effort to protect and better their lives was a blessing. These cheers grew much quieter when it was revealed these noble riders of the dawn and dusk were the servants of Ranald, God of many things, including thieves, gambling, and deceit.
And if Emperor Mandred, with a knowing smile and fingers crossed behind his back, went out that night, accompanied by only his faithful shadows, he may have glimpsed, seen, or even met a figure, female of shape and a form of shadow, smoke, and mist alongside a horse of the same and wearing a wide-brimmed hat. And perhaps, with just one or two tears in his eyes, he might have smiled as he watched her jump astride her mount and take off into the mist.
AN:
Did you guys know Hexwraiths are actually servants of Morr, sent out to collect the souls of evil men who refuse to die?
And would Ranald really troll the entire Empire by being responsible for something similar, but like, more directly good? I think he would.
But in all honesty I saw something today where someone talked about the Damelichter becoming a god, but I just thought something like this to be more fitting. Nice even. Ranald is so inspired by Mathilde he decides their should more people like her. So why not make some? And maybe, just maybe, Mathilde herself gets to ride through the night, a shadow of justice protecting the people who deserve to be protected.
