Slaves to Darkness

-The Slaves to Darkness are omnipresent across the Mortal Realms (except Azyr). They are the true masters of the Mortal Realms. Yet they are nothing but short-lived puppets to the Chaos Gods. Even the Daemon Princes are hapless slaves to the will of the Chaos Gods, and many of them immerse themselves in the slaughter to dull their eternal suffering.



-The taint of Chaos in the Realms is nigh-impossible to expunge. The efforts of the forces of Order to restore the harmony and order of the Age of Myth are likely futile. The legacy of the Chaos Gods in the Realms wax, and though their ultimate victory has yet to come, it looms closer, for, in time, all will fall to Chaos.



-There is a vast gulf of power between the Gods of the Realms and the Chaos Gods. The Chaos Gods and even Gorkamorka are elemental gods. They have no true physical form and enact their will on the mortal plane through manifestations like avatars and daemons. They are not bound by any physical law. Their presence is omnipresent in all the Mortal Realms, and they inhabit many realities rather than one. They are timeless and have always existed and yet have never existed at all. They are true immortal deities. Of all the elemental gods in the cosmos, the Chaos Gods are arguably the most powerful.



-The followers of Chaos see the Mortal Realm gods as nothing more than ascended mortals who achieved a limited form of godhood using magic. The scorn the tribes of Chaos feel toward Sigmar, in particular, has its reasons. In the Age of Chaos, Sigmar revealed himself to be a fraud and a weakling. Sigmar was outwitted and defeated not by a better elder god but by a mortal man, Archaon Everchosen. The retreat of Sigmar from the realms following his defeat further damned him in the eyes of many of the faithful he left behind to the mercies of Chaos, for what kind of a father would abandon his children in their darkest hour?



-For every bloodline of humanity that endured in their faith of Sigmar to become the Reclaimed, a hundred bent the knee to Chaos to survive in the nightmarish reality that realms have become. The latter reproduced and spread so much that the worship of the Chaos Gods became the norm. No longer is there any stigma for even the vilest acts of Chaos worship. After all, the Chaos Gods are true gods, and gods do as they please.



-Despite the differences between the Chaos Gods, they all encourage their servants to massacre sentient life in their name. War and strife are the favorite drink of the gods, and they are always thirsty for more. Suffering, sacrifice, and tragedy all are pleasing to the Dark Gods, who view the actions of their servants not as benevolent benefactors but as leering blood sport spectators.



-Mortals' hope for a better tomorrow, their drive to better themselves and learn, and their spiteful wishes to see their enemies brought low all feed and empower Tzeentch



-Nurgle has little desire to mislead mortals. He merely wishes to see them embrace the ultimate acceptance that all that awaits existence is rot and decay. They might as well help it get there sooner.



-All emotions and drives are the fodder of Slaanesh, even the emotions that feed his brother gods, if they are taken far enough into excess.



-As daemons are reflections of the Chaos Gods and merely parts of their sentience, they lack the imagination to thrill and surprise their masters with their deeds. Mortals, on the other hand, have the desperate ambition and limitless imagination to entertain the Chaos Gods



-Undivided champions can unite the forces of Chaos in a way that no other can.



-During the invasion of the Mortal Realms, Tzeentch and Archaon conspired to divide Azyr and Shyish. Nagash's failure to arrive at the battle of the Gothizzar All Gate sees Sigmar overcome with rage while Archaon completes his conquest of the All Gates.



-Weakened by his conflict with Sigmar, Nagash retreats to Nagashizzar where he was besieged and ultimately all but destroyed by Archaon.



-After the conquest of the Mortal Realms , Khorne's rage at the lack of worthy foes causes him to unleash his mortal servants and daemons on the other forces of Chaos. By doing so, Khorne robbed Chaos of attaining total victory over the eight realms. For a time, Chaos eats itself.



-Archaon seeks to break the Mortal Realms and allow the energies of Chaos to envelope them. completely. There is more to his quest than that. A secret known only to his closest advisors, Archaon plans to bring low the gods of Chaos and enslave them to his will. Then he would become the greatest agent of disorder in all of the cosmos.



-By breaking one of the chains of paradox, Archaon has put Slaanesh in his debt. A debt to be paid when the vengeful deity inevitably escapes his prison.



-In their battle, Katakaros stalemated Archaon on the tactical level. However, he was crushed on the personal level when Archaon struck him down with the Slayer of Kings.



-Archaon's goals have suffered setbacks thanks to the meddling of his rivals in darkness, Morathi and Be'lakor. The rise of the Orruks has also threatened his plans. Despite all of this, Archaon determination burns hotter. Though, he cannot be everywhere at once. For his plans to see Azyr burned to ash and made a playground for daemons, he has to reforge the hordes of Chaos into an unbreakable host. Should he succeed, the fate of the realms is sealed.



-Sensing the convergence of fate at the Siege of Excelsis, Archaon resolves to unite his forces with those at the Dreadspine Fort to sack all of Thondia. He pulls strings to get Sigvald and Glutos to buy time for his muster. However, the two Slaaneshi warlords fall on each other in battle rather than push toward the city, and then they were waylaid by the Seraphon. What could have been a grand conquest for Chaos was averted. The forces of Order won the day and Kragnos was teleported by Kroak to the Dreadspine Fortress.



-Meanwhile, Archaon led his 8th Circle (The flying Varanguard) over the walls of the Arx Terminus to the heart of the fortress and emerged on the other side to assail the City of Gothizzar Archaon made his way to the Greedmouth realmgate, fighting through a vast Ivory Host armada whose animal rage allowed them to resist Archaon longer than was possible, exacting a costly price on Archaon's forces.



-Through the realmgate to Ghur, It was a short journey to the Dreadspine Fortress. But Archaon was late by days. Kragnos and his Orruk minions had reduced the fortress into rubble and massacred the Chaos legions there. Archaon gazed at the ruins for a time before being overcome with rage. Blinded by his wrath, Archaon slew three Varanguard and ranted about the death of all gods before his iron self-control reasserted itself.



-Archaon drew up new plans and decided to abandon Ghur to its self-destructive hunger. When news reached him that Gordrakk was marching toward the Eightpoints, He made to return there, and he ordered his men to make their own way back. Considering that Archaon's forces were in disarray and the wilds of the awakening Ghur were incredibly dangerous, the journey would be difficult. What transpired at the Dreadspine fort shocked the 8th Circle Varanguard to their core.



-The Varanguard Atarus listened well when Archaon spoke of the slaying of all gods. He decided to turn his back on Archaon and seek a new master. He sought out and found Be'lakor, the first Everchosen.



-Be'lakor was taken by glee by the potential of this latest servant. He grabbed Atarus and flew him into the Cursed Skies. Two of the souls of the Stormcast trapped in the skies lashed out at Be'lakor. They did nothing but scorch Be'lakor. Atarus on the other hand, was burned to a crisp. Be'lakor breathed in the souls of the Stormcast and breathed them out into the corpse of Atarus as bolts of dark energy. Atarus was reborn as Eternus by the stolen immorality of the Stotmcast. Be'lakor gave Eternus a warning. Should he betray him, Be'lakor would withdraw his protection allowing the energies of the Stotmcast within him to burn him to ash.



-Eternus turned the majority of the 8th Circle to Be'lakor's side. The handful that remained loyal to Archaon fled and are hunted by the agents of Be'lakor to prevent them from spreading word of Eternus' treachery.



-Those who felt the bite of the Slayer of Kings find that they have paid a lasting cost. Vandus Hammerhand and Katakros are assailed by increasingly dark visions of Chaos. It's rumored that Vandus sometimes speaks in a voice not his own. When not on active duty, Vandus is confined in a cell. Aghast by his thoughts being invaded in such a manner, Karakros destroys one body after another in a vain attempt to escape this curse. Ignax's eye glimmers with dark energy.



-It was perhaps wise for Sigmar to have fled the Battle of the Burning Skies. If there is any weapon capable of slaying him, then it is the Slayer of Kings. One blow from the sword is capable of tearing out the sentience of the victim. Archaon had slain gods of battle with the Slayer of Kings and will likely do so again.



-Archaon is the one soul in the universe that can claim to be the representative of the original gods of Chaos. Through force of will and might, Archaon has brokered a sort of truce in the Great Game of Chaos. As a result, the favor of the four Chaos Gods is bound to his body and soul.



-Be'lakor was the first daemon prince ever created and the first to be elevated by the combined power of the four gods of Chaos



*Personal Note: It seems that they retconned the previous STD lore of Be'lakor being the only prince of Chaos Undivided. Imo, they did it softly in this book. There is no mention of other Undivided princes at all in the lore section. It's as if they don't want to commit to this retcon and want to keep the door open for a reversal.



-Be'lakor slow but steady takeover of the hordes of Chaos has reached a new level. Now every warband and horde has First Prince agents and sympathizers in their ranks. And by stealing from Archaon's elite armies, Be'lakor has thrown down the gauntlet and declared war on Archaon. A reckoning between them will come soon.



-Regardless of gender, the champions that lead the Chaos hosts are called Chaos Lords.



-The Gaunt Summoners are daemons created by Tzeentch himself. They are to mortal sorcerers as a lion to an ant, for they are not attempting to master dark power; they are made of it.



-The magics unleashed by the Chaos sorcerers are not cast as so much they are unleashed. Many of the spells seem to have a sentience of their own. This has been exacerbated by the Arcanum Optimar. The spells unleashed by the sorcerers on their foes have the side effect of permanently scarring and corrupting the land around them. They twist the earth into nightmarish shapes and abominations, often with malign predatory sentiences. The Chaos sorcerers, having abandoned their humanity, care not for the ruin their practices inflict on the land.



-The Ogroid race once hailed from Ghur. Once, their name was the Goroa. They were among the beastly tribes that followed Gorkamorka in his beast-hunting quest assigned to him by Sigmar. The Goroa saw the quest as worthy, and a means for them to form a stable civilization. Indeed, their civilization rose in Ghur with its own unique culture, language, and systems of trade. However, civilization and stability were not things that Gorkamorrka and the green masses that followed him were fond of. They sought to disrupt it with all their power whenever they found it. The Goroa found their efforts to create a lasting civilization undermined by the Orruks. The greenskins defaced and destroyed the works of the Goroa. Orruk leaders used the master-crafted weapons gifted to them by the Goroa as cauldron stirrers, tent poles, and snotling swatters nearly as often as they used them in combat.



-Worse for the Goroa was being mistaken for Ogres due to their similar stature. Ogres whom they considered to be uncivilized oafs. Even worse were the times when they were mistaken for the Bullgors, the Beasts of Chaos. The creatures were the embodiment of all that the Goroa feared in themselves.



-For a time, the Goroa found peace within the culture of constant battle and managed to raise cities in the wilderness of Ghur. However, the tense accord between them and hordes of Destruction finally reached its law straw when a Waaagh! of Bonesplitterz sacked the jewel city of their empire. Most of the Goroa elsewhere fighting a campaign. Though the Gotoa young left in the city fought fiercely, the city was utterly destroyed by Orruks so drunk on Waagh! energy, they couldn't tell or care they were ravaging the lands of one of their allies.



-Ever since, a thorn of spite and hatred formed in the hearts of the Goroa for their Greenskin allies. At the end of the Age of Myth, Archaon exploited it to turn them to his side. He promised them a land where they could rebuild their civilization anew, safe from the rampages of the greenskins. Enthralled by Archaon's mighty authority and motivated by their hatred for the hordes of Destruction, the Goroa eagerly accepted. Thus forward, they have become the guardians of the Varanspire, the shock troops of Archaon's hosts, and drill sergeants of the Everchosen's legions. And the magically gifted among them studied under the Gaunt Summoners.



-In the era of the Beasts, the Orgoids do not escape the call of Ghur. The Awakening of Ghur begins to see them slide into savagery. Archaon sends Orgoids out from the Varanspire to Ghur through the Mawgate. They cut their way through the greenskins that laid claim Fangtharak and proceed to aid the lend their might to the Chaos warbands beset by the numberless hordes of Destruction. The Ogroids find that more and more, they are succumbing to the beast within. In this, they finally know fear, realizing that they perhaps cannot conquer the beast within them.



-Fomoroids were a builder caste for one of the civilizations of the allpoints. In the Age of Myths they had built greater wonders and raised empires. Archaon had enslaved them to build his Varanspire. Knowing that no physical prison would hold them too long, Archaon placed a curse on them. Now they can only destroy and bring ruin. Though, to this day, a small measure of their affinity for construction can be glimpsed from the gorey paintings and sculptures that line their lairs.