Border Princes: Turn 0 (Introduction)

Ok, so I have decided to write up little reports on the progress of our Border Princes Campaign turn by turn to accompany changes to the map during the campaign phase.  To kick us off, here is a little intro to the campaign at the initial starting positions.  I have decided to set the campaign beginning in 2516 IC - six years after the invasion of Tamurkhan, four years before the Third Battle of Blackfire Pass and 6 years before the 'current' date in the Warhammer World: 2522.  This one is written from the perspective of a Grey Wizard of some repute writing to his superiors in the Colleges of Magic in Altdorf from the cosmopolitan town of Aldium.  I've attached the starting map again for reference.

4^th Nachexen, 2516 IC

To my Esteemed Masters and Colleagues at the Imperial Colleges of Magic

My travels in these divided and lawless lands have convinced me of that which the Colleges of Magic fear: if the Border Princes stood utterly unprepared and helpless before Tamurkhan and his fiendish hordes in 2510 IC, then they are even more defenceless now. 

Leitpold ‘the Black’ may have been a cruel, treacherous, murderous tyrant, but the villainous collection of sellswords, cutthroats and petty nobles he cobbled together as the ‘Confederacy of the Eagle’ were all that provided any semblance of resistance to Tamurkhan’s horde and a delay which, however slight, gave Nuln a few precious extra days with which to prepare for the onslaught.  And I needn’t remind you, most esteemed Colleagues, just how much of a close-thing THAT affair was than even the Great and Noble personages of the Imperial Court may ever know…  If such a threat should emerge from the South today, however, I fear that there would be no reprieve or warning from the Border Princes, however scant.  The Emperor may well desire strong (and, dare I say it, compliant) Border Princes as a buffer (or at least delay) against threats to Averland and Wissenland from the South, but as it stands this is simply not the case. 

Tamurkhan’s horde shattered the Eagle Confederacy, Halfear’s Hold and the Kingdom of Sarngul.  All settlements and fortifications which stood in the path of the horde were swept away in a tide of fire, blood and pestilence along with them, as were any of the petty rulers and mercenary companies who were foolish enough to give battle.  Of those settlements which did not stand directly in the horde’s relentless path northwards, many were razed by Tamurkhan’s foragers and outriders, or by the marauders which broke off from his main force.  I cannot begin to describe the horrors that Tamurkhan’s horde wrought here.  Settlements beyond counting have ceased to exist save for charred and blackened ruins, there are fields so choked with the bones of the numberless dead that they could not be tilled even if there w ere farmers amongst the living to work them, and all across the land the one is met by the listless, vacant stares of cripples, orphans and the mad, all haunted by the nightmare of Tamurkhan’s coming. 

Still, not all were caught in the passage of Tamurkhan’s horde, and six years on life is returning to the Border Princes.  The ancient walls of the fortress-town of Malko (or at least their venerable foundations) remain, its population swollen by refugees.  I hold little hope for the leadership of Malko’s incumbent lord (how this fat and ineffectual former toadie of Leitpold the Black survived Tamurkhan’s invasion frankly astonishes even me!), but should a stronger hand take Malko there may be authority yet in its ancient stones to bring the Border Princes to some semblance of order.

Caravans ply the Silk Road once more, bearing gold, silk, spices and other, more exotic goods (and exotic peoples!) from across the Olde Worlde and as far as distant Lustria, Araby, Cathay and beyond.  Indeed, while many caravans were presumably lost to Tamurkhan’s roving war-chest, those merchants fortunate enough to have missed the invasion find their conditions favourable indeed: not only has Tamurkhan emptied the steppe of its hordes, making the journey East less perilous, but his interruption of trade along the Silk Road has made its precious cargoes even more valuable and eliminated a considerable amount of the competition to boot!  Of course the cunning burghers, traders, mercenaries and craftspeople of Aldium (along with all manner of artists, eccentrics, and ne’er-do-wells) who managed to pay enough, flee far enough or make themselves indispensable enough to survive the passing of the barbarians have returned to take advantage of this lucrative trade. 

But it is not just merchants and mercenaries who are flocking to the Border Princes.  Many of the commonfolk from across the Olde Worlde arrive in the Border Princes every day, taking their places on the land alongside the surviving local farmers.  For in the taverns and inns of the Empire and Bretonnia it is whispered that in the wake of Tamurkhan’s desolation there is fertile land aplenty, and few petty lords to enforce bonds of serfdom or demand outrageous taxes (of course, few of these stories dwell on the gory details as to just WHY there is so much farmland for the taking).  For the desperate and the destitute, the perils of the long journey to the Border Princes, the renowned rapaciousness of its bandits and mercenaries, and the fact that those petty nobles who survived Tamurkhan tend to be the worst of the lot, is slim deterrent.  The population of the Border Princes may have been decimated, but I suspect are at least on the way to recovery.  

So, can the Border Princes ever recover from the destruction wrought by Tamurkhan’s horde?  Of course!  Men are, by and large, fools, and they have continued to come to this wild and lawless domain to kill and be killed and play at ‘lordship’ or ‘fortune’ or ‘freedom’ or goodness knows what else since at least the Crusades against Araby (and probably long before that, too, if the menhirs and burial mounds of the Barrow Kingdoms are anything to go on).  Centuries of bloodshed and the wreckage of countless fallen petty kingdoms have not ended these absurd notions, and I don’t see why even the horrors of Tamurkhan will have done that now.  Can the Border Princes be brought to heel in a manner which serves the interests of the Empire as a buffer for the South? 

Well… perhaps… at least temporally… The Emperor was wise to dispatch his loyal Carroburgers to the Border Princes.  While their numbers are few, the many petty lords, mercenaries, burghers and commoners living in the Border Princes who speak Reikspiel and share ancestors from the Empire are increasingly throwing in their lot with the commanders of this force.  Malko’s ignoramus of a lord remains defiant (against the wisdom of my counsel!), but his rule is failing and the war-chest which pays his mercenaries cannot last forever.  ‘Twould be best for the Empire’s cause if both forces were united peacefully, but if Malko’s lord remains an obstacle to this I accept that he may have to be removed.  But there are other actors other than the Empire at play here.

In the Border Princes as at home, the Bretonnians remain our chief rivals in trade and war.  ‘Twas both Bretonnian knights and the knights of the Empire’s Knightly Orders whose overland Crusade against Araby laid the foundations of the Border Princes nigh one thousand years ago, and the dialects of Bretonnian and Reikspiel are the most common of the many tongues one hears in the Border Princes.  However, fanciful Bretonnian chansons tend to omit the involvement of Imperial knights from the history of these lands, and the Bretonnians have long made special (and characteristically pretentious!) claims on the Border Princes.  Ever vainglorious, many of the Bretonnian Border Princes were doubtless slain in their arrogant belief that they could stand against Tamurkhan.  However, the surviving knights (fool’s luck surely!) and their retinues are gathering around a young scion of Tybalt du Bois de Balzac, leader of the original crusade, in his father’s fortress to the West.  It seems they intend to make their long-held claim to sovereignty of the Border Princes in the wake of Tamurkhan’s passing. 

Indeed, it is the reckless confidence that the horrors of Tamurkhan have passed which is shared amongst both Imperial and Bretonnian borderers that alarms and rankles me the most.  While the better part of Tamurkhan’s horde were sent to Hell in the muddy battlefields around Nuln, many of the marauders had already abandoned the main force to loot and pillage their way through the Border Princes and probably remain at large.  These bands are likely to attract to them the numerous cultists and servants of the Ruinous Powers who have long made the Border Princes their haven, relatively safe as it is from the long-arm of Imperial Witch Hunters.  Divided and leaderless as they are, these bands are likely reduced to brigandage, murder and blasphemous rites on a small scale, but there is ever the danger that they are united once more.  Rumours, reports and my own investigations and observations suggest that my fears may already have been realised and that these bands are coalescing around the fortress of a new warlord in the mountains to the North West. 

Of course, one should not forget the accursed Greenskins!  These lands were overrun with orcs and goblins when the Crusaders first crossed the mountains and pushed them back across the Blood River, they continue to plague the land in small numbers, and they will likely still be here when the End Times come.  What is more, the Border Princes have repeatedly been devastated by the mighty orc hordes which periodically boil up from the Badlands to the South or pour down from the World’s Edge Mountains to the East.  Indeed, increased Greenskin raids in the East suggest that orcs and goblins are gathering in considerable numbers there, not far from a traditional summer gathering place of the notorious Ironclaw Orcs.  I need not remind you, esteemed Colleagues, that a warlord from this very clan, one Gorbad Ironclaw, lead an invasion of the Empire that wiped the Electoral Province of Solland clean from the our maps!  No, this Greenskin menace must also be nipped in the bud lest in bears foul fruit here which would do our Empire further harm!

Finally, strange tales abound of a mysterious, silent force which approaches from the South!  Some have reported rank upon rank of skeletons, marching in death as if in life in archaic armour of bronze and burnished gold.  Others say that these soldiers have enslaved members of the local populace, that they are stern and demanding slave-masters but cruel towards those who comply, and that they set those they enslave to bizarre and oft-times unfathomable tasks such as the cleaning and repair of ancient ruins or carving strange picture-like symbols.  I have yet to investigate fully myself, but it seems there can be little doubt that these are the legendary Tomb Kings from the ancient lands of Nehekhara, come North to the Border Princes for reasons which escape me.  I have attached some requests for information from our experts at the College who may shed light on this mystery, and its implications for Imperial Interests.

In sum, threats to the Empire from the south include internal divisions and feuding, orcs and goblins, the remnants of Tamurkhan’s horde, cultists of the Ruinous Powers and perhaps even the inscrutable ambitions of a long dead civilization!  If I can make the nobles of Bretonnia and our own Imperial commanders see sense and put aside their pride and differences against these threats it would be best for all, and I will surely endeaver to do so, but I’m sure I’d as well wish for the moon for all the good it will do me!

I must needs close, for there is much that is unknown and needs to be revealed.  I shall send another pigeon with further information as soon as I can.

Yours faithfully, Herr Gavius Klugge, Grey Wizard