Difference between revisions of "Chaos Dwarf"

From Warhammer - The Old World - Lexicanum
Jump to: navigation, search
m (Artillery and War Machines)
m (Artillery and War Machines)
Line 60: Line 60:
  
 
====Artillery and War Machines====
 
====Artillery and War Machines====
Chaos Dwarf armies are often composed of relatively few Dwarfs, the majority of their armies being compromised of various types of [[Hobgoblins]], Orcs and [[Goblin]]s, with the occasional unit of Dwarf or [[Bull Centaur]] thrown in to keep the [[Greenskin]]s in line. As with their non-corrupted cousins, Chaos Dwarfs make extnsive use of blackpowder weapons in the field. These include;
 
  
 
* Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher
 
* Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher

Revision as of 11:02, 10 December 2015

A Chaos Dwarf Daemonsmith

The Chaos Dwarfs, known as the Dawi Zharr in Khazalid, or Uzkul-Dhrath-Zharr in their own tongue, are the corrupted, evil kin of the Dwarfs. The Chaos Dwarfs rule an empire in the blasted Dark Lands to the east of the Old World. They worship worship Hashut, the Father of Darkness.

Origins

During the time of the northward Dwarf migration along the Worlds Edge Mountains many thousands of years ago, some Dwarfs travelled east across the plateau of Zorn Uzkull - the Great Skull Land in their quest for precious ores and gems, reaching the dismal Mountains of Mourn. Then, during the Coming of Chaos, these Dwarfs were cut off from the rest of Dwarf civilisation by swirling Chaos energies and rampaging legions of Daemons. The rest of the Dwarfs assumed they had perished in the deluge of Chaos. In reality, the hardy Dwarfs were not killed but neither had they remained unchanged by Chaos. Eventually even these stubborn Dwarfs succumbed to the warping effects of the Chaos energies, gradually becoming the perverted and cynical mockery of traditional Dwarfs. Some of their number even became hideous mutated fusion of Dwarf and bull - the Bull Centaurs. Abandoned by their Ancestor Gods, the Chaos Dwarfs cried out for salvation and a dark voice answered: the Chaos entity Hashut, the father of darkness. Following Hashut, the eastern Dwarfen society started down a dark path and they became the Chaos Dwarfs.

Domain

The Chaos Dwarf empire is located in the eastern part of the Dark Lands and extends east into the Mountains of Mourn. The centre of their empire and the object of all their industry is Zharr Naggrund, a city built in the form of a monstrous ziggurat of black obsidian.

The city is built on the Plain of Zharrduk, sometimes called the Plain of Zharr - an enormous crater in the Dark Lands spanning hundreds of square miles, and located to the west of the Ogre Kingdoms. The plain is tortured by thousands of years of the industry of the Chaos Dwarfs, and its ground pitted with mines and studded with numerous workshops, foundries, fortresses and other towering edifices of industry. Throughout the plain, vast forces of slave labour of many races work ceaselessly at the endeavours of the Chaos Dwarfs.

The Dark Lands were always a barren land and thousands of years of Chaos Dwarf industry has made them even more so, covering the land in ash and choking the sky with smoke from the great foundries. The great waterway of the Dark Lands - the River Ruin, is polluted with enormous quantities of waste from Chaos Dwarf industries which is carried southwards alongside the Mountains of Mourn to the Sea of Dread.

Society & culture

The Chaos Dwarfs are a cruel, evil race who hold all other races in contempt. To them, the rest of the world is there only to be exploited and exists only to serve them. They are dependent on vast numbers of slaves to carry out their labour, which outnumber the Chaos Dwarfs themselves, and seem to have a penchant for obtaining more and better slaves to labour in their mines and foundries.

The Chaos Dwarfs are also obsessed with using foul magic and forced breeding to mutate living creatures into new, more useful forms. The Chaos Dwarfs created the daemonic K'daai. They have even gone so far as to engineer the Black Orcs, an ultimately disastrous experiment that would later result in the Orcs becoming much stronger as a race overall when the Black Orcs joined them. The Chaos Dwarfs also trade weapons with the Ogres of the Ogre Kingdoms, the Ironskin tribe in particular, in return for manpower

The Chaos Dwarfs are very technologically advanced. Without being constrained by the conservative nature of their western kin, they have developed steam technology far in advance of anything The Empire or Dwarfs possess. They are also not afraid to fuse technology with dark magic to create arcane machines of great power. The Chaos Dwarfs are not an expansionist race as they have no need for more resources. All the resources they require can be found in their own domain. All war is waged by Chaos Dwarfs with the intent of acquiring more slaves. The Chaos Dwarfs are like a slowly burning fire, content to bide their time until they can bring the world under their dominion.

In many ways they are the antithesis of the Dwarfs that remained. Where Dwarfs shun most magic except for their Runic magic, Chaos Dwarfs have embraced it; where Dwarfs worship their Ancestor Gods and despise Chaos, Chaos Dwarfs have abandoned the Ancestor Gods and submitted to the Father of Darkness. To Dwarfs, the Greenskins (Goblins, Orcs and the like) are implacable enemies, while in the Chaos Dwarf empire they are slaves outnumbering the Chaos Dwarfs themselves many times over. In other ways the good values of the Dwarfs were perverted into evil ones, the Dwarfs' traditional love of craft and industry becoming mere, base rapacity.

Religion

Hashut is a Chaos god depicted as a bull-shaped idol, who demands blood sacrifices from his followers. He is worshipped by Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer-Prophets on the summits of the mighty ziggurats erected in his name. At the temple of Hashut in Zharr Naggrund the Chaos Dwarfs have created a particularly gruesome way of sacrifice. They herd their victims into the hollow belly of large statue made of bronze which they then heat with great fires lit under the belly. As the victims burn to death, their cries are funnelled up the throat of the statue. Here they are changed by the reverberations of the metal until they sound like the braying of a bull, the louder the braying, the most pleased it is assumed the bull-god Hashut is with his offering. Bull Centaurs are revered as symbols of Hashut, as are the Great Taurus.

Magic

The Chaos Dwarfs, unlike the Dwarfs, are able sorcerers who wield dark, chaotic magics. Chaos Dwarf wizards are called Daemonsmiths, and the greatest of these become the Sorcerer-Prophets who are the leaders of the civilization. However this magic use comes at a price, for Dwarfs were never meant to channel sorcerous energies. Chaos Dwarfs who do harness the winds of magic find themselves slowly turning to stone.

Military

Lords

  • Sorcerer-Prophet

Heroes

  • Daemonsmith Sorcerer
  • Infernal Castellan
  • Bull Centaur Taur'ruk
  • Hobgoblin Khan

Infantry

  • Infernal Guard (melee or blunderbuss)
  • Infernal Ironsworn
  • Hobgoblin Cutthroats

Cavalry

  • Hobgoblin Raiders (melee or bows)

Monstrous Infantry

  • K'daai Fireborn

Monstrous Beasts

  • Bull Centaur Renders

Monsters

  • Bale Taurus
  • Great Taurus
  • Lahmassu
  • K'daai Destroyer
  • Chaos Giant

Artillery and War Machines

  • Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher
  • Earthshaker Cannon
  • Skullcracker War Machine
  • Helcannon
  • Magma Cannon
  • Dreadquake Mortar
  • Iron Daemon War Machine
  • Steam Carriage

Gallery

Notes & sources