Warlord Tchar’zanek

Warlord Tchar’zanek is a mighty Champion of Tzeentch, and leader of the Chaos warhost and the elite Raven Host, which is invading the Empire. His origins are shrouded in mystery.

Overview

As a Chosen Champion of Tzeentch, Tchar’zanek is a much more subtle warlord than many of the Chaos Champions who have come before him. Strategically, he relies upon psychological warfare and targeted attacks on civilian populations to demoralize the enemy, disrupt their supply chain, and disguise his true intent. To accomplish his goals in Ostland, the Raven God’s Champion will turn to the methods he knows best: corrupt the strong, destroy the weak, and sow the fields of battle with terror until no resistance remains. In the woods and dales of Ostland, the enemy infiltrates and raids, striking at random, sacking farms and villages without warning and leaving just enough alive to spread the panic they carry. In the cities and towns, Tzeentch’s subtle minions twist the minds of men, raising up cults and converting secret sympathizers to their unholy cause.

As part of his command strategy, Tchar’zanek has created an elite force within his army which acts independently of the main body of the army, bent on a secret mission of which the actual invasion is a mere cover or gambit for. In Ostland, this Raven Host is dispatched behind enemy lines, to find “four forgotten relics of power that holds the key to Tchar’zanek’s master plan.” In the Troll Country, the Raven Host are also called upon to block the investigations of the Order of the Griffon into the origins of the plague, and to seek out “an ancient artifact of great power that can be found there, in the possession of a particularly ill-tempered Chaos Troll. 

To what purpose Tchar’zanek seeks to put these artifacts to use, and what they might have to do with the mysterious Chaos Troll that saps the strength of the Empire, no mortal man knows. For Tchar’zanek is a Champion of Tzeentch, and the mind of the Changer of Ways sees all paths of the future.

Malekith

Malekith, the Witch King of Naggaroth is the supreme commander of the Dark Elf army. From his capital city at Naggarond he dispatches the dreaded Black Arks with one goal in mind - the complete and utter capitulation and subjugation of the High Elves. In the setting of WAR, the “Age of Reckoning”, Malekith was the primary instigator of the titanic conflict and is the force behind the sudden rise to power of Grumlok and Gazbag.

Background

Malekith was the son of Aenarion, the first of the Elven Phoenix Kings, and the mysterious and beautiful seeress Morathi. She became Aenarion’s second wife after he rescued her from a Chaos warband. Unknown to Aenarion, Morathi was already a secret worshipper of Slaanesh. Raised as a prince of Ulthuan, Malekith grew up to be a fine soldier and general like his father. Under his mother’s tutelage, he became an accomplished mage. Malekith was brought up surrounded by political intrigue, but he had little interest in Elven political society. He preferred to lead armies and win battles in his father’s name.

After the death of his father, Malekith was the obvious heir to the throne. Unfortunately, amongst the court of Lothern there were those who felt that Malekith was unsuitable to rule. He was headstrong like his father, and preferred to sort out disputes with violence. The High Elves were in a time of rare peace and many nobles thought that Malekith did not fit in with this new order. A vote was taken to choose the new Phoenix King, which resulted in Malekith being passed over in favour of Bel Shanaar. Malekith appeared to accept the result with good grace, but privately he seethed with resentment and frustration. He vowed to bide his time until he could make the throne his own.

Malekith instead was appointed Commander of the High Elf forces. He proved to be a brilliant young general, gaining power and allies with his glorious victories against Greenskins and the forces of Chaos. His campaigns gradually pushed forward the frontiers of the Elven colonies. While leading a campaign in the cold north of the New Worlds he came upon an abandoned pre-human city, within which he discovered the Circlet of Iron, a talisman of awesome sorcerous power. After many decades spent mastering his powers of combat and magic, he had worked himself into a position second only to the Phoenix King’s.

In the dark winter of -2751 IC he accused Bel Shanaar of being a Slaaneshi devotee (A member of the Cult of Plesure) during Feast of Purity, a religious festival celebrating the power and glory of the great phoenix. Shortly after his accusation, Bel Shanaar died of poison. Some say Bel Shanaar took his own life in order to avoid the shame of being interrogated while some say Malekith have him poisoned and later claimed Bel Shanaar took his life in guilt. At any rate, Malekith took Bel Shanaar’s alleged suicide as proof that he was a devotee of Slaanesh. Any who defied Malekith’s claims were led outside and killed by his own elite guard.

Believing all he now had to do was crown himself as the new Phoenix King for he had the blood of Aenarion running in his veins, Malekith confidently marched into the sacred flame of the god Asuryan, the final test that each prospective Phoenix King has to pass to prove their worthiness for the crown. The sacred flames would not suffer his polluted body and refused to let him pass, and the holy flames cast him out. Horribly injured, he was carried to his stronghold in Nagarythe with his mother on her dark pegasus.

There, Morathi nursed her son back to health. With the aid of the sorcerers he had trained in the arts of dark magic. Hotek, a renegade Priest of Vaul, forged a great suit of black armour which would lend strength to Malekith’s withered and fire-blasted body. The suit was fused onto his body while still white hot from the furnace. After his torment on the flames of Asuryan, he felt little pain. The completed suit was named the Armour of Midnight, and few could look upon it without feeling dread. From that day onwards, the fell Elf lord was known as the Witch King.

Meanwhile the council had elected Imrik as the third Phoenix King, who assumed the title Caledor I, taking his name from the kingdom of Caledor and the Elf mage Caledor Dragontamer, his ancestor. Caledor and Malekith gathered their supporters and battled each other for the throne of Ulthuan. For more than a decade they fought a great civil war. Time proved to be Caledor’s ally for as time passed, Malekith’s treachery became more evident and more elves flocked to Caledor’s banner. In a climactic showdown, Malekith was defeated by Caledor in single combat in the Field of Maledor. The Witch King’s supporters retreated back to their fortresses.

Malekith decided to try one final gamble for the Phoenix throne. He instructed his sorcerers to undo the spells that bound the Realm of Chaos in a bid to secure aid from the Dark Gods of Chaos. For hours they struggled to undo the barrier. In the end, the task proved to be too great even for the combined might of Malekith and his coven. Their efforts were thwarted by a group of mighty elven mages trapped in the Isle of the Dead. A surge of raw arcane power struck back at Malekith’s fortresses. Many of his sorcerers died from the magical flashback. The land itself buckled under the magical strain and a great tidal wave came crashing down on northern Ulthuan. Mighty earthquakes devastated the land and fine cities of Ulthuan. The lands of Nagarythe and Tiranoc were submerged under water. Thousands of elves were killed in the cataclysm known as The Sundering.

The fortresses of the Witch King survived the catastrophe, being protected by powerful spells. The fortresses broke off from the land and floated out into the sea, thus the dreaded Black Arks were born. Large as icebergs, they floated to the northern part of the New World where they grounded. Naming the desolate chilled land Naggaroth or “Land of Chill”, the Witch King claimed it as his own new domain. The kingdom of the Dark Elves was born.

Malekith in the Age of Reckoning

In the Age of Reckoning, Malekith heard tell of a great invasion of Chaos gathering to invade The Empire and took advantage of this fact to plan his own new invasion of Ulthuan. Realizing that in order to stop each of the races of Order aiding each other he would need to tie them up in conflict - Malekith sent Kaloth Coldshadow (son of Lord Uthorin) to capture two Greenskin tribal leaders and bring them to him. Kaloth captured Gazbag and Grumlok, the fearsome leaders of the already powerful Bloody Sun Boyz. Malekith gifted each of the protesting Greenskins with a magical artifact which would increase their power and draw other Greenskins to their banner, and without their knowledge, increase his influence over them.

Waiting until the High Elf forces of Finubar Seafarer had sailed into the east to aid the struggling Empire being assaulted by the forces of Warlord Tchar’zanek, when only the meager High Elf defense forces left behind and the Shining Guard headed by Prince Tyrion; Malekith launched his titanic assault on Ulthuan.