Alright. Like I promised, is the morning, having breakfast, slow day, going to trawl through that Elven deep lore to collate reasons for why I say the Asur do a lot of global good (in comparison to the Dwarven regional good). I would like to thank Blackout for the moral support.
Before I get into this, I remind everyone that the Asur have quite a few flaws, the most prominent practice being their complete lack of allies. When even the Dwarves have more allies than you, you must understand something is wrong. I do maintain, however, that if I understand correctly the Asur are one of the two Order factions with truly global influence, and the only one actually doing things with it on a regular basis.
I basically based it on four points:
1. the Asur keep the Vortex safe, and with it the world. Ergo, Shield of Civilisation.
(Again, it being involuntary does not make their job less important.)
2. The Asur are the primary faction fighting the Evil Elves (and, yesterday I learnt, the Evil Dwarves).
(The reason I count this as a global good and not regional good Is because of the nature of the threat. Greenskins and Skaven are a global threat, but they are not one faction with a home base and global reach like the Dark Elves or Chaos Dwarves- the Dwarves kicking the arse of Greenskins in the World's Edge Mountain does not directly affect Greenskins in Lustria or the Far East, while the Asur taking out a Black Arc or blockading the Chaos Dwarves hurts their ability to act everywhere.)
(Yes, the Under Empire should be a power with global reach, if the Under Empire was a united political entity, but it's clearly not. Not even the Council of 13 can act without trying to screw each other, let alone their even more short sighted subordinates, 99.9% of the time, and thank goodness for that. The UE is more like hundreds of regional and minor threats all connected by racial unity, intrigue, trade and xenophobia, which unfortunately means burning down warrens in the World's Edge Mountains doesn't directly effect Skaven in, say, Tilea, except by adding another factor to whatever passes for an economy down there.)
3. The Asur protect the Waystones.
4. The Asur fight Chaos over a far larger area than the Empire or Karaz Ankor.
These two are what I'm trying to prove.
(Also, Matt Ward is annoyingly wordy.)
8th Edition High Elf Army Book Quotes
The Lords of Ulthuan
Guardians of Order
While the High Elves consider themselves to be the defenders of the world, that calling doesn't necessarily extend to the protection of other races.
[Paraphrase next few lines: Most High Elves do not really believe in the sanctity of the humans or dwarves, but prop up other Order factions because the alternative is that they have to deal with even more shit.]
This is not to say that the High Elves never fight alongside other races, but it is true that such alliances seldom come about save through the intervention of exceptional and foresighted individuals.
…..
They have not the wit to see that if the High Elves choose to trade with another race, it is not of a desire for coin or armaments. [Paraphrase next few lines: Because Ulthuan is naturally large and immensely wealthy, they don't need anything outside, so don't economically care about trade. They mostly use it to spread their spy network and collect gossip.]
Even in matters of war, the High Elves seldom commit themselves unless it will substantially benefit their cause.
[Paraphrase next sentence: High Elves OP, thanks Ward.]
Every battle, whether it be a skirmish between warbands, a clash of armies or the siege of a great city, is fought because it will shift the balance between the order the HE seek to maintain and the destruction caused by the onset of Chaos. Not all such battles are fought directly with the forces of the Dark Gods. Though they know it not, rampaging Greenskins, meddling men…
[Paraphrase: GW's workshop for HE fighting everyone is that the HE are relentlessly interventionist against Chaos where they can reach, which includes slapping down Chaos plots by refusing to explain themselves and shooting the people involved.]
The war that HE fight is a desperate one, with no ultimate victory in sight. The forces of Chaos are endless and eternal, whilst the HE dwindle daily.
[Etc, etc, the HE are going extinct.]
[Now going over individual kings. Finubar seems cool.]
[In Early History, the Elves waged a massive anti-Daemon war, realised they couldn't actually win, and so created the Vortex. Later on, they would create the Waystone network all over the world with their best friends the Dwarves, and nothing could break this brotherhood.
Nothing.
And then Malekith broke this brotherhood and ruined everything forever. Even worse, Everything includes Ulthuan when he sailed off with a massive chunk of it, meaning the Vortex and the Waystones are now even more important than before in keeping the place afloat, at a time in which the HE no longer have allies or strength.
Before Finubar, the HE literally did not understand that factions like the Empire and Bretonnia existed. Like, they effectively thought Everyone Was Norscan, and were greatly confused when some people claimed otherwise, so the Phoenix King dispatched Finubar. After Finubar sailed around the globe, he came back and patiently explained no, the nations of man are not aligned with Chaos, aren't primitives, and we can deal with them. Hence, Lothern. This happened approximately around 2000, Imperial Calendar.
Finubar is the current PK. He's a pretty cool guy, but despite the best efforts of the elves the world seems to be growing only more and more dangerous, and themselves less and less numerous. Although they still prospered in past ages despite their losses, once more it looks like they may be under apocalyptic threat.]
[The Book only covers Finubar's rein in actual detail, though, with a timeline and such, so that's the only place I can draw actual examples of Elven interventionism from.]
~2250- Slaughter at Bleak Meadow. Asur + Asrai vs the Beastmen. Finubar curries favour with the Asrai by helping them kill a staggering amount of Beastmen besieging Athel Loren, and it seems to have worked.
~2280- The Asur and Barack Varr briefly team up to kick Greenskins arse. They're extremely successful, but this only lasts a couple decades before their inability to tolerate the other forces them to split up again.
~2300- Great Chaos Invasion. Ulthuan is directly invaded by an enormous amount of DE with Dark Elf Support. Many elven heroes fight and die to stop them. Two or three years later, Teclis helps the Empire out a great deal, but it doesn't say whether that was the Phoenix Throne or just Teclis.
Even more Dark Elf and daemonic assaults directly into Ulthuan.
Later, Greenskins get in on thr action too.
~2340- Tyrion takes a squire. Eldyra is cool. DoDA is set around here.
About a decade later, Otto Steinroth somehow manages to sack Ulthuan in an amazing display of good luck, for which HE sailors immediately raze half of Marienburg chasing him down. This leads to many Asur feeling conflicted about burning down Marienburg, because some of them actually lived there and liked it.
~2360- HE then sink a Norscan Fleet attacking Marienburg, and use this to resume good relationships.
~2420- Part of Bretonnia comes under attack by the Beastmen, and the HE reinforce them. In reality, the HE's primary motive is to defend the Waystones there, but they obviously don't tell the Bretonnians that. The Brettonians, in return, think the HE are Cool.
~2420- the HE kick Malekith's arse in Naggarond.
Right Now- the He are actively waging a campaign against the DE on their own turf, because it looks like the Dark Elves are responsible for the disappearance of the Asur's emissary to the Dwarves (!!!). It may or may not be going well.
The Glittering Hosts, Named Character Sections
[Tyrion's first job is defending Ulthuan. Teclis' first job is going around the other Order factions and propping them up.
Eltharion the Grim rampaged across the Badlands a few decades ago, utterly drenching himself in Greenskins blood, before realising how pointless that was and going home. This was in futile retaliation for Grom the Paunch.]
This was Part 1.
I will now go through Imrix's quest for the really deep Elven lore in part 2, and then the conclusion.
Edit: Although three expeditions every century isn't particularly fast for men, by Elven standards the HE are fighting a lot of battles in very short order.
