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Of
Chaos
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The Third Daemon War
The third war is also
known as the end of the beginning or the dusk of the wars, for of four Daemon
Lords who fought each other in those years long past, only one survived (or remained
on the material plain). Of the three wars, the third was undoubtedly the
longest; indeed it is still unclear of whether it has truly ended. If, or
more likely, when, the Daemon Lords rise again it will be difficult to
categorize the events as the fourth war, or simply a continuation of the
third. As explained in the introduction, the long series of events known as
the Daemon Wars has been split into three separate wars. This categorization
has only been achieved by defining the goals of the individuals involved. For
instance, in the third Daemon War the goal of Amon Chakai was to become the
master of time by entering the forbidden portal. If the Daemon Lords rise
again and Amon Chakai resumes with his previous plans, then the following set
of events would be categorized as a continuation of the third Daemon War. A new plan
constructed by the evil genius of the other Daemon Lords, namely SlythRa, Oz
or Zegroth, or perhaps the plans of a new Daemon Lord yet to make mark upon
world, would come under the Fourth war. The Daemon Wars had
been raging for many years when Amon Chakai came across an ancient tomb
written by a great mage whose name is now lost in time. Inscribed upon the
relic pages were plans to construct a portal of almighty magical powers.
Whoever entered the portal would enter a plane of existence supposedly
unknown to even the gods themselves. Here, an entity would gain infinite
powers by which to control the flow of time. For a mortal, however, the
journey would most likely mean death. It was written that only those with
inhuman strength of mind would prevail, thus, perhaps the creator was
destroyed by means of his own design. By altering time, In
plans that he had not yet conceived, Amon Chakai believed that he would
finally be able to rid his master Tzeentch of his cursed brothers. The
possibilities, like the powers, would have been infinite. Construction of the
portal began immediately underground. Amon Chakai rarely set foot upon the
surface from then on, spending most of his time poring over the complicated
and delicate spell needed to activate the portal. The portal took many
months to build. Materials included rare meteoric rock and strange adhesive
substances that could support hundreds of tons of rocks. It was during these
months that the leaders of both Amon Chakai’s enemies and allies came
together for council. This included OZ, the infamous Daemon prince of Khorne,
Zegroth, the newly appointed chosen one of Slaanesh and SlythRa, who had been
the object of all the Daemon’s plans. Each Daemon had their
own path by which they came to power. SlythRa’s quest for the god like might
he then possessed is a tale in its own right. In the end, it was lust for his
death and power that eventually ignited the Daemon wars. It is an ironic fact
indeed that the only ally who stayed loyal to Amon Chakai was the Skaven, led
by the Grey Seer Krasslik. Naturally, Krasslik had gambled on Amon Chakai’s
success and thus being rewarded for his loyalty. Little did he know it was
not to be so. The three Daemon
leaders decreed that Amon Chakai must be stopped, lest he destroy them all
after attaining the power. It was SlythRa who came up with the most cunning
plan. The Daemon prince of Nurgle forged a potent staff from the furnace of
filth. It was an unpredictable weapon and rarely used. In the hands of
servant of Nurgle, the staff would grant destructive powers of pestilence and
decay. In the hands of any other, the staff would summon the wrath of Nurgle
upon the unfortunate individual. After slaying Amon Chakai’s
most trusted apprentice, Pantaphrak, in single combat, SlythRa was able to
use his gift of shape shifting and transform himself into the guise of
Pantaphrak. With no resistance
form the guarding army of Daemons, SlythRa ventured down in to the bowels of
Amon Chakai’s citadel where the greater Daemon of Tzeentch had finally
completed the portal. As Amon Chakai was
about to enter the portal, the stricken form of Pantaphrak handed him the
plague staff disguised as the greater Daemon’s own personal warp staff. The
records are unclear of happened after then. Some say that a huge skeletal
hand, the hand of Nurgle, stretched forth and dragged Amon Chakai into the
realm of decay. Most, however, claim that caught between Amon Chakai’s
intricate spells and Nurgle’s onslaught, the portal malfunctioned, sucking
Amon Chakai into the abyssal plane where he remains frozen in time for all
eternity. One by one the arcane spells and wards that held the portal in
check gave way. In its final death throes it released massive shock waves
that rippled through the landscape. No longer able to contain the masses of
energy building up, the portal exploded. In the apocalyptic fireball the
followed, Amon Chakai’s entire army was reduced to dust and his huge citadel
crumbled into the ground where nothing to this day remains except for a vast,
ashen crater. SlythRa was never
seen again. The Daemon never emerged from the Citadel before the explosion.
His fate can only be guessed at. Subsequently, with the destruction of their only
ally, the Skaven fled the Chaos wastes, closely pursued by the armies of OZ
and Zegroth. The Daemons eventually caught up with the Skaven just north of
Kislev, only to find that the ratmen had been heavily reinforced and that
grey seer Krasslik was in fact a Vermin lord. In the ferocious battle that
ensued, Zegroth was slain by Krasslik who in turn was mortally wounded by
OZ. Their leader bloodied and
battered, the Skaven retreated back into the old world. Of the four great
Daemon warlords who had fought each other during those terrible times, only
OZ remains. His survival meant little, as the power he had fought so hard to
possess was lost with the death of SlythRa. It is said that upon
the eve of Amon Chakai’s and SlythRa’s destruction, two new stars appeared on
the night sky, their light burning fiercely perhaps as a testament to the
Daemons’ blasphemous ambition. The consequences of
Amon Chakai’s actions reverberated in the many years that followed. For the
backfiring the Daemon’s plans did not mark the end of the war. The Northern
Campaign It was Krasslik who
attempted to rebuild the portal so that he could summon back the Greater
Daemon of Tzeentch and use him as an ally in his ongoing war against the
Dwarves. Krasslik’s first task
was to find the book that gave instructions as how to build the portal. The
book had been in Amon Chakai’s possession, but after his death Oz had found
it amidst the rubble that was once Amon’s castle. Unable to break past its
arcane wards and destroy the book, Oz sealed it in vault deep under ground,
intent on keeping his Daemonic rival trapped for eternity in the astral
plain. As a daemonic Vermin
Lord, Krasslik used his magical powers to track down the book and embarked upon a massive expedition to the Chaos Wastes. After many weeks of marching, Krasslik finally found what he thought to be the magical presence of the book, deep under ground. Just as his
slaves started digging, the army of Khorne descended down on them. Amidst the
ferocious fighting that ensued, Krasslik met Oz face to face once again. This
time, however it was Oz who was forced to flee. The resolve of the Blood
letters wavered with the loss of their leader, and Krasslik, seizing the
opportunity, hastily ordered a retreat with the book and the tattered remains
of his expedition force. Back at camp,
Krasslik realized that the book was useless to him. He did not understand any
of the complicated instruction, but lucky for him, the council had decided to
reinforce the expedition in the wastes with a retinue from clan Skyre. Among
them, was their chief engineer, Skarath. After hearing word of the
reinforcements from clan Skyre, Krasslik copied the bulk of the book onto a
series of scrolls and then gave the scrolls to Lurk, the captain of the Storm
Vermin regiment that had accompanied the expeditionary force. Lurk was
ordered to give the scrolls to Skarath as fast as possible. On the journey to
Skarath’s camp, Lurk was ambushed by a scouting force of Dwarves and only
just managed to escape with the scroll and a handful of his men. Upon
reaching clan Skyre’s camp, Lurk learned that his involvement in the northern
campaign was only just beginning. Skarath was able to read the scrolls and
identified mysterious material that would be needed for the construction the
portal. Rather than sending
an entire mining team out into the Chaos wastes on what could be a wild goose
chase, Skarath decided to venture into the wastes himself, taking with him
Lurk, a few of his troops and his apprentice, Neymos. When the materials had been found, Skarath
planned on sending a message back to his camp instructing a mining team to
come out and start excavating. All, however, did not
go as planned. Upon finding the materials, Skarath and his companions
stumbled across what appeared to be a nest of Daemons and Spawn. In the chaos
that followed, Skarath, Lurk, and Neymos were lost and most of Lurk’s troops
were killed. A lone messenger, however, managed to scramble back to camp with
news that materials had been found. It was to no avail,
though. Upon escaping the carnage in the wastes the messenger found no camp.
The council of thirteen had withdrawn its support from Krasslik’s campaign
and ordered that the clan Skyre reinforcements return home. The Council of
Thirteen unanimously agreed that Krasslik’s campaign in the north was too
risky and proving costly. Too many resources were being wasted. The Elves and
Dwarves aware of the growing danger in the north were gathering there forces,
and the risk of releasing Amon Chakai back into the material plain was too
great. Krasslik failed to
heed the Council’s warnings and as result the Council had no choice but to
order his assassination. Although Krasslik was never seen again neither were
the assassins who were sent to kill him. Futher tales are told
of the adventures of Lurk, Skarath and Neymos as the battled to escape the
horrors of the Chaos Wastes. Regardless of the
aftermath, the third Daemon War seemed to have come to an end. The Council of
Thirteen decided to formulate a new plan in their war against the Dwarves. Oz settled back in
his throne, content in the knowledge that his rival Daemons weren’t coming
back and the Elf and Dwarf alliance stood down form their offensive
positions, also content in the knowledge that the mortal lands were safe from
the Daemon Lords. And so it was that
the Third war came to end.......... for now. But like a dormant volcano, many
believe that the Daemons are just resting, gathering their forces and
preparing for the eruption that will sooner or later spell the end of the
mortal world. Rumours have spread that Krasslik
is still alive, but no longer a Vermin Lord, that SlythRa has returned, that
Oz is planning a new war and that somewhere in the Chaos wastes a new portal
is being built by an unknown power. Extracts from
the ‘Ire De Daemonicus”: From book
3: The Portal |
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