The Chronicles of Khuresh

[Terratyrant]

I figured it prudent to update this thread with a little bit of the fluff surrounding the campaign, instead of diving right into the mechanics. The reasons for this are very simple. First off, there's no point in reading up on new rules to a campaign if you're not interested in it, and while you're free to do so, it's kind of a waste of time. Secondly, this particular lizardmen campaign takes place in the Hinterlands of Khuresh, a region we have very little first hand knowledge of. As a matter of fact, that's exactly why I chose Khuresh, as it allows for a lot of freedom on the GM's part.

Anyhoo, here I go setting everything into context. The fluff for the campaign is going up in three parts, all of which I'll try to keep reasonably brief:
The multi-part chronicles of Khuresh, which is a short general history,
The lands of Khuresh which will describe the temple-cities and some of the places of power,
The denizens of Khuresh, in other words a few differences between the critters inhabiting Khuresh and Lustria.

Needless to say, all of this is non-canon. The thread will be updated at irregular intervals, but expect something to come up within the week. I only ask that the reader be forgiving for any errors on my part, I'm not quite up to Warpanda's level of writing. That and the names. I suck at coming up with Aztec/lizardmen sounding names.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Warpanda]

Hey, it never hurts to take a look. I'd like to see what you've got. If it seems solid, I'd be more than willing to participate.
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[Terratyrant]

THE CHRONICLES OF KHURESH (All dates based on imperial calendar)

-c 7500: Slann of the third generation are brought forth. Huiptlapoa, the greatest of the temple-cities to be raised in Khuresh is established and Lord Aztlahuetzi of the first spawning is granted the title of High Mage-priest of the city.

-c 6800: Slann of the fourth spawning are created to attend to the polar warp gates. They also found the remaining temple-cities, establishing a grid of power that spans the globe. In Khuresh, no less than seven such cities come into being: Altepetl, Ocelotl, Maztehwa, Chaputeo, Xocoyotzin, Yohuac and Tlathuitetl.

-c 6200: The single super continent is divided into separate, smaller lands. The World Pond is created, and the temple-cities across the globe are separated from one another.

-c 6000: A series of genocidal crusades known as the "Orc wars" are initiated in an effort to wipe the warlike race off the face of the world. These are met with varying degrees of success, though Lord Tonecuaq of the second spawning achieves remarkable results in the lands that would later be known as Ind, Cathay, Nippon and Khuresh.

-c 5600: Collapse of the polar warp gates. The results are apocalyptic, and the fabric of space and time is torn asunder. The consequences for Khuresh, however, are graver still. With the fall of the southern warp gate, a hellish rain falls upon the temple-cities of the creators: warpstone- the raw stuff of chaos. For a day and a night the sky weeps its bloody tears... And with it the denizens of Altepetl, a million lives snuffed out in a hideous cacophony. Huiptlapoa would have suffered this very same fate if not for the combined efforts of Aztlahuetzi and Tonecuaq, who manage to maintain a barrier around their home. This is not the end of Khuresh's hardships, but rather the beginning. No sooner do the last meteors hit the ground than the spawn of chaos ooze forth from the hole rent in reality: Daemons. The lizardmen muster the greatest armies ever witnessed to combat this new threat, and Khuresh is no exception. Tonecuaq takes command of this legion as the High Mage-priest is forced to exert the entirety of his power to curb the twisting, malign influence of the warpstone scattered across the blasted landscape.

-c 5400: Lord Tonecuaq leads his host against the forces of chaos in a series of victorious campaigns. His mastery over the winds of magic is made apparent, his will dominating even the most powerful of Daemons. For a time, it seems that the slann are at the cusp of total, ultimate victory.

-c 5000: Pulses of energy from the gates grow ever stronger, and the winds of magic become erratic. Aztlahuetzi can no longer contain all of the warpstone's infernal predispositions. No longer able to control the tide of battle, Tonecuaq's relentless march is ground to a halt, and then a steady retreat. Unable to fully utilize their abilities, the slann are no longer the preeminent lords of magic they once were, the mantle now taken by the greater daemons of chaos. Slowly but surely this situation gives rise to a new, undisputed arcane tyrant of Khuresh: Lethphaos, Planemaster, Lord of Change, Greater Daemon of Tzeentch.

-c 4900: Lord Yectenkha of the fourth spawning, the last of his kind on the Dragon Isles is forced to pull back to Khuresh, abandoning the islands to the supernatural tide.
The Saurus Kromictar is spawned in the Eternity Basin, part of the first spawning to ever have emerged from those luminescent pools.

-c 4700: The sheer number of daemons compels Tonecuaq to gather what little remains of his once proud army and seek refuge in Xocoyotzin, where he is greeted by Lord Tlamatini of the third spawning. There the two erect a barrier through which the foul spawn of chaos cannot pass through. For days they rage against the dome, expiring even as they claw at the crackling blue field. It seems that both sides find themselves in a stalemate... One that is broken Khadar'phak, Keeper of Secrets. Using the multitudinous shards of warp stone within and around the city, Khadar'phak creates a whirlpool of chaos energies that at first batter against the shield, but soon began to pervade through it and disturb the slann's ritual, killing those not quick enough to close their minds. All the defenders of the city would have fallen that day if not for the sudden arrival of Kromictar and his Horned one riders. The city falls, but both lords Tonecuaq and Tlamatini, as well as half-a-dozen other mage-priests manage to escape the slaughter.

-c 4650: The fall of Xocoyotzin marks the beginning of the end. The geomantic web weakened, Other temple-cities soon begin to succumb to the darkness. Both Maztehwa and Chaputeo are razed by Lethphaos, scorched beyond recognition, their mage-priests transformed into mewling, crawling things that would blast a man's sanity to behold. Soon all that remains under the control of the children of the Old Ones are twenty league rings around the four remaining temple-cities.

-c 4570: The lizardmen lose what little of their domain they have left. The warpstone's bleak powers have begun to wax with full potency, rendering all but the temple-cities uninhabitable.

-c 4560: The sky wracked with storms, the ground groaning under the weight of hellish feet, armies that fill the horizon surround each and every last bastion in Khuresh, with the most powerful of the greater daemons waiting to despoil Huiptlapoa, the final stand of Aztlahuetzi, Tonecuaq, Tlamatini and Kromictar among others. Leth and Khadar begin preparations for their final victory, preparing to use the phenomenon known as "warp resonance". Knowing that there would be no hope if the fiends were allowed to succeed, Aztlahuetzi decides upon a desperate gamble. Entrusting the defenses of the city to his younger brethren, the venerable slann focuses his formidable mind upon the source of the resonance, the warpstone. The task is a trying one for a slann, to touch this substance is to risk one's mind. Nevertheless, the slann of the first generation spawning succeeds in launching his catastrophic spell, and for a brief moment every piece of warpstone outside of the cities of Khuresh rips a hole in the fabric of reality, in effect creating a gateway to the realm of chaos. With the aid of the other, lesser, slann, (many of which give their lives in the process) all but the most powerful representatives of the daemonic armies are drawn screaming into the realm from whence they came before the gate is shut once more.
Doing so spells out doom for Huiptlapoa, however, as Leth and Khadar attempt to tear into the city with a score of other greater daemons seeking revenge. Aztlahuetzi is unable to recover in time, and Lord Tonecuaq cannot hold the barrier, overcome by the furious hell-spawn. The ensuing battle sees Aztlahuetzi killed by the mutating flames of the Planemaster. Tonecuaq is torn asunder by the Keeper of Secrets, but not before he manages to seal the preoccupied Lord of Change in a sizable chunk of warpstone and send it speeding away from the city along one of the lines of power. Kromictar, unable to fulfill the duty of defending his liege lords launches himself into combat with Khadar'phak. The saurus warrior loses an eye, his right leg, and his right arm is mangled beyond recognition, but Khadar falls.
With the two most powerful daemons slain, reinforcements from the other temple-cities soon manage to cleanse the city of any remaining monstrosities. Yectenkha and Tlamatini bind Kromictar to the Form of Xokha, and in doing so save the warrior's life. The threat to Khuresh is eradicated, but Huiptlapoa is left an uninhabitable shadow of it's former glory. It will one day come to be known simply as "The Lost City of the Old Ones".
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Terratyrant]

-c 4500: The elves on Ulthaun enact the great ritual. The daemons are forced to the north and south poles. Contact is restored with Lustria and the Southlands. Tlamatini, the oldest remaining slann in Khuresh settles in Tlathuitetl, making it the unofficial capital of Khuresh. He takes up Aztlahuetzi's former duties, and slips into a meditative state to keep the warp stone strewn across the landscape in check. The other slann of Khuresh begin to ponder the meaning of the great plan.

-c 4400: After over a century of recovery, Kromictar sets out on a journey that takes him and his entourage far from Khuresh, to the places that compose today's Cathay, Ind, Dark lands and World's edge mountains. His goal is to aid the slann in their contemplation, and he searches far and wide for lost plaques that were scattered during the war with chaos.

-c 4290: The Warpstone polluting Khuresh slowly begins to cloud the slann's thoughts. Contact with Lustria and the Southlands becomes more sporadic and difficult to maintain. Worse still, it seems to have an adverse effect on the spawning pools of the lizardmen, each spawning yielding fewer of the new generation.

-c 4198: Kromictar returns from his travels bearing many relics of the Old Ones, the most important of which are a series golden plaques that contain within them the clues needed to begin the unraveling of the Great Plan. Every slann save for Tlamatini wakes from his meditations to study these cryptic pieces of the puzzle.

-c 4187: After consultation with the Lustrians upon The Plan, the rebuilding of Maztehwa begins under the watchful eye of Lord Zlathuehue. Kromictar sets out to gather the warpstone in one place, making its malign influence easier to counter. This is made possible due to the Form of Xokha.

-c 4083: Kromictar returns after having relocated over half of the scattered shards in six deposits. Their energies are much easier to control, and the resulting relief of pressure on the minds of the slann is met with gratitude. The areas surrounding Altepetl and Huiptlapoa are left untouched, as even Kromictar cannot safely enter the blasted terrain surrounding them.

-c 3894: Chupayotl slips into the sea. All communication with lizardmen of the Southlands and Lustria is rendered impossible.

-c 3656: Maztehwa is returned to its former glory. Zlathuehue takes the title of High Mage-priest of the city. Spawning pools are now yielding only a little over half of what they were in ages past.

-c 3500: Lord Tlamatini stirs for the first time in nine-hundred years and focuses his tremendous mind on the relics found by Kromictar almost eight-hundred years earlier. He declares that the geomantic web in Khuresh must be strengthened, and a massive effort is put into cleansing the places of power.

-c 3494: Under the guidance of Tlamatini, the slann of Khuresh begin to strengthen the leylines that connect their temple-cities.

-c 3460: For the first time, slann can contain all of the warpstone fragments in Khuresh. The ecosystem finally begins to recover, and the lizardmen march to exterminate the myriad of creatures that have risen from the warpstone's mutating effects. Lord Quateotl begins his travels across Khuresh, lending his impressive talents in an effort to help nature expunge the taint of chaos. This heralds the coming of a new age of recovery, and the spawning pools begin to normalize.

-c 3100: The wars in Khuresh come to a close, with the offspring of chaos left only in small pockets around the six deposits of warpstone. The restoration of Chaputeo begins.

-c 2800: There are now five fully functioning temple-cities in Khuresh, and the spawning pools show no deviations from their prevalent spawnings. The slann begin to focus more and more on what the Old Ones meant for the world.

-c 2397: As forseen in the prophecy of Xapati, an expediton of Cathay to the jungles of Khuresh is destroyed by the magicks of lords Yectenkha and Mozuma. Tlamatini issues Kromictar on another journey to recover the lost treasures of the Old Ones.

-c 2138: Kromictar returns. He brings with him few plaques, but much information on the outside world.

-c 2120: After further study of the Old Ones' plan, The construction of Arch Sanctum and half-a-dozen lesser places of power begins at different nexus points of the geomantic web.

-c 2076: The Eternity Basin yields its second spawning: The saurus Chaq-gor and over a hundred chameleon skinks. This marks the beginning of the return of a species of skink previously thought extinct. The spawnings coincide with a sudden beastmen attack on Maztehwa, which is beaten back by the defenders of the city, aided by a mysterious albino kroxigor. This creature vanishes after the battle. Not a clue is found from whence the assailants came.

-c 1893: Chaq-gor stumbles upon the Lord's Plaza, a place of power that was believed to have been destroyed with the collapse of the polar warp gates. In doing so he fulfills the oracle of Yectenkha.

-c 1642: The restoration of Xocoyotzin begins.

-c 1500: Lord Quex's realignment is the cause of massive earthquakes within Khuresh. Chasms are torn into the landscape, and the red blood the planet disgorges swallows no less than three deposits of warpstone, and then proceeds to scatter them.

-c 1496: The warpstone cannot be located. Indeed, some has already melted and becomes an almost integral part of the environment. The slann's meditations are made more difficult, the geomantic web is weakened and spawning pools begin to fail again. Tlamatini is alarmed as there is no mention of this catastrophe in any records left behind by the Old Ones. He slips into a deep meditation.

-c 1495: A massive wave of beastmen sweeps out of all former deposit sites, catching the lizardmen off guard with their numbers and ferocity. Xocoyotzin is destroyed before any effort of a defense can be mounted. Chaq-gor falls in battle near the Lord's Plaza. Mage-priests Zlathuehue, Yectenkha, Quateotl and Laxotl begin to stabilize the situation aided by Kromictar.

-c 1494: An army of Hung led by Gansuk Saikan, having pillaged it's way through Cathay, sweeps past the northern border of Khuresh. The lizardmen are unprepared for this, and must fight a war on two fronts. The Hung ransack the Celestial Pyramids of the Northern Skies, along with the Dominion Spires. They are soon seen in battle fighting alongside beastmen, and not even the combined armies of the lizardmen cities can stand against these numbers. Kromictar and the slann are forced to retreat, Zlathuehue remains in Maztehwa which is then besieged.

-c 1493: The main forces of lizardmen are forced ever further south by new influxes of beastmen. Cut off by massive numbers of the servents of chaos, the situation looks hopeless for Maztehwa. Lake Xoxi is captured, and the geomantic web is weakened further. The influence of the warpstones becomes more pronounced without the slann to keep them in check.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Terratyrant]

-c 1492: Chaq-gor, previously believed to have been killed defending a place of power returns at the fore of a small force made from the survivors of the aforementioned battle. It is the first time in the history of Khuresh that the "Khuresh dragon", is seen in battle. Chaq-gor, riding atop the foul-tempered beast breaks the siege of Maztehwa and pursues the Hung across the border of Khuresh. Before Gansuk can reform his forces, the Hung are set upon by an army of Cathay, led by none other than the Divine Dragon Emperor and are scattered to the four winds. The Hung threat is eliminated, but the beastman menace remains. Even with the respite granted by Chaq-gor, the lizardmen are hard pressed, their numbers decimated. This, combined with the warpstone's baleful energies and the subsequent dwindling of reinforcements from spawning pools across all of Khuresh makes it impossible for the children of the Old Ones to wipe out the beastmen. This leads to an era of strife christened as "The war of the Beast".
This is a period of almost constant warfare that lasts over one thousand five-hundred years. This is due to a startling array of unfortunate circumstances. The lizardmen are unable to restore their numbers with any sort of efficacy, while the slann are not given the chance to stop the warpstone's twisting repercussions. The few intervals of time that followed a great victory, and theoretically allowed for a final answer to the beastmen question were all too often interrupted by yet another outside threat. The population in a steady decline, the slann's servents are forced to abandon most of Khuresh and fight a defensive battle.

-c 1110: After executing a brilliant strategy conceived by lords Mozuma and Zlathuehue the lizardmen win a decisive victory in the Ophidian marshes against the beastmen. Lamentably, a cathayan expedition led by Beiryu Feng prevents any further actions to be taken against the servants of chaos. At this point, more lizardmen are being killed than spawned.

-c 776: Rajesh Digavvi spearheads an attempted expansion of Ind into Khuresh. The lizardmen find themselves unable to combat his forces, and after raiding the shrines surrounding the Phantasmal Heralds of north Khuresh, the settlement of Nainital is established. The constant forays into the deeper jungle made by the warm-bloods prove to be a severe complication for the lizardmen.

-c 615: An army of Chaos marauders cross the Gates of Calith into south Khuresh. Initial attempts to repulse this new invasion are met with utter disaster. Lord Mozuma is killed in the battles, his body desecrated and hung from the invader's battle standard. This act of sacrilege begets an awesome rage in his followers, but the lizardmen are unable to avenge their fallen leader.

-c 613: Nainital is destroyed by a rampaging army of beastmen. It's inhabitants are sacrificed in blasphemous rituals, and the settlement itself completely wiped off the face of the world.

-c 611: In a bold attempt to purge Khuresh of its invaders, the armies of the five temple-cities pool their strength to create a great host under the command of Kromictar and Chaq-gor. The slann task themselves with the defense of the cities, as very few warriors remain to defend them.

-c 609: The three battles of Flame Creek end in a momentous victory for the lizardmen, the first in an age. The chaos armies of the southern wastes are routed, but the body of lord Mozuma is never recovered. The lizardmen then proceed with the gradual eradication of the bands of beastmen roaming the land. They are met with victory after victory.

-c 569: The Army of Five Cities is at this point a shadow of its former glory, and is forced to withdraw. The immediate causes are constant beastman ambushes, a severe lack of reinforcements and the sickening consequences of a warpstone polluted environment. Indeed, it seems as if the very jungle has turned against itself, with mutated flora and fauna rampant.

-c 530: The slann cease all attempts of reclaiming Khuresh, and revert to attempts of curbing the warpstone's wild energies, as well as strengthening what remains of the geomantic web. Small bands of chameleon skinks are left to guard the places of power whilst all other lizardmen take refuge in the temple-cities, which remain unassailable. This time is known as the Era of Asylum.

-c 50: First contact is made with the Dark Elves. The Black shrine is sacked, it's treasures brought to Naggaroth. Its innermost chambers, guarded by potent glyphs of warding, traps and puzzles remain untouched. The dark elves seem to be satisfied with raiding the coastal shrines without trekking inland.

-c 28: Lord Tlamatini is granted a foreboding portent of the future. He presents Kromictar with a seemingly suicidal task: to brave the ruined jungle and beast hordes and enter Altepetl in order to recover a certain item from the vaults far beneath the city. Accompanied by the few warriors that can be spared, Kromictar leaves the city.

-c 26: Kromictar returns to Tlathuitetl bearing a single golden plaque. The mighty saurus is wracked with a virulent warpstone affliction, and is unable to fight. The warrior lies in a permanent state between death and life, sustained only by the Form of Xokha, and the efforts of several skink priests. Of the entourage that left with the Oldblood, only three saurus and a skink remain. None of these survivors ever speak again, and a haunted, ghastly light plays in their reptilian eyes to the end of their days. From the recovered plaque, Tlamatini declares the prophecy of the Forked-Tongue.

C 0: A twin-tailed comet appears in the sky. Not a single lizardman is spawned over the course of the year, and perhaps most grievously of all, the temple-city of Maztehwa finally succumbs to the beastmen. The slann mage-priests of the city survive however, for the fall of the city was foreseen in the prophecy of the Forked-Tongue. An escort led by Chaq-gor sees them safely to Tlathuitetl.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Terratyrant]

C 100: The twin-tailed comet blazes in the sky, and Khuresh is the subject of a shower of what seem to be shooting stars. This event is at first viewed as a fell omen marking the end of the last remnants of the Old Ones' empire. Despite this, the mysterious, transparent meteorites are soon seen to have an adverse effect on the beast herds. Wherever these celestial bodies land, the bands of beastmen grow disorganized and confused. The slann decide to use this to their advantage, and a final offensive is made.

C 110: The skink priest Pehua makes a remarkable discovery: the extraterrestrial minerals, now known simply as lodestones, act in a manner that is diametrically opposed to the workings of warpstone. Shards of lodestone seem to absorb the taint of chaos around them, and Tlamatini orders that arrays of this material be set up at all recaptured places of power. These "installations" are looked over by Pehua and mage-priest Yectenkha. Spawning pools begin to produce greater numbers of skinks.

C 132: Pehua is successful in drawing out the taint of chaos from Kromictar's body via lodestone. Despite this, the saurus warrior sickens soon after the treatment. It seems that there is no way to eliminate the disease permanently, but with the aid of lord Yectenkha shards of lodestone are fused with the Form of Xokha, and the venerable oldblood returns to the fray.

C 134: The beast herds are now three-tenths the size of what they were only three decades ago. An army of skinks led by chief Axtetyl scours the land along with Kromictar and Chaq-gor. For the first time in years, the spawning pools yield a new generation that exceeds the number of lizardmen lost in battle.

C 140: The beastman threat is all but eliminated with the death of banelord Kherkul at the hands of Axtetyl. The places of power are restored and the last of the lodestone is gathered within and around them. The geomantic web is strengthened, and the slann focus their efforts on the restoration of their empire.

C 160: Spawning pools are functioning at half of their full potential, and the spawnings become larger with each passing year. Lord Quateotl repeats the his actions from ages past, and supported by the lodestone begins to purify the jungle surrounding the temple-cities.

C 200: The temple-cities are fully restored. The need of warpstone containment is lessened, as lodestone arrays set up at crucial nexus points in the geomantic web begin to make their presence known. The slann, free from this arduous task, begin to meditate upon the great plan once more. Around this time, the skaven of Clan Pestilens find their way to Khuresh. They establish a great warren under Altepetl.

C 272: The zenith of Xla-tepec. Realignments made by the mage-priests of Lustria are the cause of earthquakes in Khuresh. These knock the delicate lodestone arrays out of position and also mark the beginning of a new war, for the skaven choose this moment to strike. The children of the Old Ones have yet to fully recover from the war of the beast, while the skaven have experience in fighting the lizard-things from time spent in Lustria. Plagues run rampant, and many skinks and saurus sicken.

C 275: The temple-city of Chaputeo falls to the rat-spawn, becoming a second Quetza. The plagues concocted by the plague monks of Pestilens force the lizardmen to close the gates to even their own kin, and once a warhost leaves, it is not allowed to return. Scar-veteran Chaq-gor contracts the Red Ague.

C 276: Skink priest Chtitlan uses lodestone in attempt to augment the potency of his healing arts for the first time in an effort to cure Chaq-gor. This proves to be effective, and the method is presented to the slann. The use of lodestone in such a manner drains it of its power however, and it becomes nothing more than a piece of rock.

C 277: Clusters of lodestone are mounted upon the backs of stegadons and are used as mobile weapon platforms. Slann skilled in the lores of life use these to draw out disease, and the skaven are hard-pressed to find an answer to this development.

C 280: The skaven cannot resist the awesome power of the lodestones. They are driven back to Altepetl, where the slann then destroy their warrens with a series of earthquakes. This ends the war, and most of Clan Pestilens migrates north and west, eventually reaching Skavenblight and the Old World. The alignments of lodestone arrays at the places of power are reset.

C 312: The kingdom of Ind attempts to establish settlements near the northern border of Khuresh, but their efforts are thwarted by Lord Laxotl.

C 437: Waaagh! Zorghal sweeps into Cathay and northern Khuresh. The initial assaults on Khuresh are repelled by Skink chief Oxtekh, foreseen as they were by Zlathuehue. Borg da Stompa, the warboss leading the greenskin's force is killed by chameleon skinks and his army soon routed and destroyed by the combined arcane onslaught of Zlathuehue and Laxotl.

C 439-43: Orcs enter Khuresh for the second time. Their numbers are so vast that direct engagement is impossible, and battles are fought using guerrilla tactics. The efforts of lords Yectenkha and Notltehe are impressive, but they serve only to stem the green tide. The Dominion Spires are taken, Ocelotl is besieged. A counter-offensive led by Kromictar is stopped at the last moment by Tlamatini himself, who declares that the orcs will fall by their own hand. This proves to be true, as the orcs warlike nature sees them attempt the pillaging of Chaputeo, where they then become infected with the lingering skaven plagues.

C 445: Chaq-gor rides forth at the head of an army and defeats the sickened orcs. Kromictar and Tlamatini lead one of the greatest war-hosts of Khuresh in over a thousand years, rivaling the Army of Five Cities in size. They march into Cathay, it's existence apparently vital to the Great Plan.

C 447: Cathay, ravaged by Zorghal Skullsplitter, teeters on the brink of destruction. The remnants of its once grand army make a final stand in the valley of Weijin, but they are sorely outnumbered and Zorghal himself seems invincible. At the apex of the battle, Tlamatini's host arrives and Kromictar leads a devastating charge into the rear ranks of Zorghal's force. This sows confusion in the entire greenskin army, and allows the Dragon Emperor to escape. One of the greatest battles in the history of Khuresh, the fighting lasts for a two days and two nights, with no sign of abating. Kromictar and Zorghal meet in single combat no less than three times, but neither can best the other. At the dawn of the third day, the divine ruler of Cathay returns and his arrival is enough to turn the tide. Within moments, the elite of Cathay are in the heart of the greenskin army, and Zorghal is slain by the emperor himself. The lizardmen use this time to pull back, and Tlamatini, Yectenkha and Zlathuehue pool their power in order to change the course of the nearby Tianlanse river and sweep away the routing green horde, while at the same time separating the forces of Khuresh from those of Cathay. The lizardmen then march back to their jungle homeland.
The threat of Zorghal is ended, but small tribes of goblins and orcs remain in Khuresh, a nuisance that seems impossible to dispose of.

C 753: The forces of Naggaroth return en masse, led by Dralnir Sharel in the black ark "Talon of Agony". They begin raiding Cathay and Nippon, their attacks vicious and bloody, taking thousands of slaves and untold riches. Dralnir soon sets his eyes on Khuresh.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Terratyrant]

C 774: Arch Sanctum is sacked, its defenders slaughtered by dark magicks conjured by the sorceress Iyreldrys of Ghrond. Portents and glyphs of warding alike are shattered by the powerful witch , and the relics within are taken back to the Talon. This renders any retaliatory efforts futile, as none know the precise location of the black ark.

C 785: In a series of unpredictable lightning raids overseen by Dralnir and Iyreldrys, the Black Shrine and Blood Temples are despoiled. The Ziggurat of Dusk is also set upon, and while the attack itself is successful, the assailants are run down before they can escape by a pursuit party led by Chaq-gor.

C 787: Tlamatini can find no reference to the dark ones in any of the Old Ones' plaques. He tasks Kromictar along with the skink chief Xepli with locating these most sacred of relics. Their attempts are fruitless, as the few locations where such items might still exist in Khuresh are unreachable: Huiptlapoa is literally lost to the world, and Kromictar refuses to return to Altepetl.

C 811: After a long period of time where elven actions in Khuresh are limited to minor raids, the dark ones storm the Obelisks of Petoc. After dispatching the guardians of the place of power, the invaders make off with one of eight Orbs of Mastery. The loss of Azyr's star is keenly felt by the slann.

C 816: A band of dark elves seeking glory steal inland and attack the Eternity Basin. The reckless trespassers are set upon by skink chief Xepli and promptly killed.

C 824: The Vermilion Tiers are defiled. Though considered a minor place of power, the attack has very dire repercussions, as it is the first time in the history of Khuresh that a lodestone array is destroyed. Previously thought to be impervious, the lodestone is overwhelmed by a blast of dark energy summoned by Iyreldrys and ceases to function. The slann triple coastal patrols.

C 839: The dark elf fleet launches a massive coastal raid on Khuresh. Though the slann repel the attackers, they are left blind to Dralnir's true intentions, who is acting on information gleaned from the sorceress of Ghrond. Using the attack as a distraction, Iyreldrys succeeds in eliminating no less than four more lodestone arrays on the eastern coast of Khuresh.

C 847: Skelt, a particularly large and cunning goblin unites the greenskin tribes in eastern Khuresh after his numerous "political" opponents mysteriously vanish, and launches his own Whaaagh! On the lizardman temple-cities. Beastman tribes, which have swelled in number since the destruction of several lodestone arrays, use this opportunity to harass the age-old enemies of their kind that are the children of the Old Ones. Both of these threats are disposed of with relative ease, but serve to show the importance of functioning lodestone sites.

C 857: A blitz attack led by Iyreldrys herself enters the temple-city of Yohuac by night, somehow evading both the mundane and mystical defenses of the city. The ensuing combat is a bloody one, with the lizardmen desperately trying to mount some kind of resistance. The emergence of slann mage-priest Laxotl buys the time needed for such an endeavor at a tragic cost, for he himself dies during an arcane duel that sees a large portion of the temple-city leveled.
The elves are not routed, but rather pull back after their opponents recover from the initial surprise. They take with them many an esoteric prize, as well as a fortune in gold. Their trail is marked however, and unnoticed by the dark ones, chameleon chief Inhixi steals aboard the corsair's vessel.

C 859: Inhixi returns with knowledge of the black ark. He also brings with him a collection of golden plaques that the druchii had stolen from a remote shrine in Nippon.

C 860: The "Talon of Agony" is overturned and sunk by a tidal wave, the likes of which has never been witnessed before or since. Iyreldrys attempts to calm the raging sea, but her feeble attempts are unable to undo the workings of a mind far wiser and more ancient than her own.

C 862: A new, tentative peace allows for study of the golden plaques. Unfortunately, they are incomplete, and two schools of thought form on the matter. After many years, the debate ends with the younger slann acknowledging Tlamatini's seniority, though not all agree with the mage-priest.

C 955: Tlamatini's interpretation proves to be startlingly accurate, and during the nadir of Mextlcue the chaos moon Morrslieb waxes. This event precedes an invasion from the southern wastes led by champion of chaos undivided, Sevryn Stoneheart. He is joined by bands of beastmen from eastern Khuresh. Worse still, the orc warboss Forklaw Crimsontooth rises to prominence, and the skaven return in the form of Clan Moulder, drawn by the promise of a nearly endless supply of warpstone. Under Tlamatini's guidance however, the lizardmen are prepared for the coming storm.

C 956: Unable, or perhaps unwilling to face all of these threats, Tlamatinin adopts a new policy and plays his foes against each other. Careful planning, preparation and manipulation allows the lizardmen to survive the most perilous times since the War of the Beast.

C 962: At the foot of the Ziggurat of Dusk Kromictar bests Sevryn in single combat. His horde is undone by the combined spell of Zlathuehue and Yectenkha, the first summoning the might of Ghyran and bringing a howling gale down upon his foes, the second igniting the wind of Aqshy to create a whirling dervish of destruction. The blazing tornado can be seen for miles in any direction, and the forces of chaos are swept up in fiery oblivion.
This battle marks the end of the recent conflicts, for beastlord Jehrak fell in a challenge issued by Crimsontooth, who in turn died within the rat warrens beneath Khuresh. Clan Moulder never recovered after the second battle of the Ophidian Marshes, set upon as they were by Chaq-gor and a seemingly unstoppable kroxigor with scales the hue of fallen snow.

C 1103: Laithikir Fellheart begins to pillage up and down the coasts of Cathay and Ind. Strangely, the she-elf limits the raiding of Khuresh to small excursions in coastal regions.

C 1231: Lord Yectenkha orders a large army to the jungles of eastern Khuresh to quell a beastman uprising. The battles are fierce, and the lizardmen are ambushed time and time again. The slann recalls the warhost after only a few months, satisfied with diminishing the numbers of the chaos spawn, preventing any sort of prolonged war in the nearby future. It becomes customary to send a token force every year or so to control the beasts' sum total, as eliminating them completely seems impossible. An age of relative peace ensues.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"

[Terratyrant]

C 1567: The dark ones return under the command of Vandein the Hydraflayer. Like Laithikir before him, he concentrates his efforts chiefly on Cathay in addition to Nippon and Ind. He leads occasional forays into Khuresh, but nothing of great import is ever taken. This state of affairs lasts until 1783, the last recorded sighting of elven kind in Khuresh.

C 1722: Asim Dhaval, a Rajah of Ind, is betrayed, disgraced and framed by a trusted companion. He escapes Ind in order to avoid a death penalty, along with a few loyal retainers and a group of criminals he himself had sentenced. The rag-tag band stops at the former location of Nainital and establishes a new municipality by the name of Silvassa.
The young town is constantly harassed by forest goblins and chameleon skinks, but eventually grows in size with the steady influx of new inhabitants fleeing Ind in order to escape a massive ogre migration.

C 1726: Lord Yectenkha declares that the rise of this new settlement is not part of the Great Plan, and that it must be destroyed. Mustering the host of Ocelotl, the slann sends a sizable force under the command of skink chief Acitica to crush the warm-bloods.
Upon seeing the lizardmen on the outskirts of town, Asim Dhaval prepares not an army, but a tribute. The former Rajah, having heard tales of the reptilian beings that dwell in the jungles of Khuresh views them as an almost supernatural force of nature, and not something to be trifled with.
Though the mass of golden trinkets, exotic spices and perfumes do not interest Acitica, there is an item included in the warm-bloods' offering that sends waves of confusion through the lizardmen ranks: a single, perfectly round, white gem of seemingly no particular value. Viewing this bauble with agitation, the skink chief halts the advancing ranks and sends a swift messenger to Ocelotl.
Within an hour, the temple-city's finest turn their backs to Silvassa, leaving the entirety of the human's "gifts" save the alabaster stone behind. Yectenkha decrees that the settlement is not to be touched, its inhabitants left in peace as long as they refrain from delving deeper into the jungle. Silvassa becomes the first of two lasting settlements in Khuresh inhabited by man.

C 1797: The rat-spawn return for the third time in the history of Khuresh under the guise of clan Skryre. The skaven expand the network of tunnels underneath the jungles and marshes, as well as establish new warrens.

C 1809: First contact with Skryre is made around the ruins of Maztehwa, where a warpstone gathering party is defeated by a patrol of skinks. This new development forces the skaven to make their move prematurely, afraid that the discovery has stripped them of the element of surprise. The ensuing chaos resulting from multiple armies emerging from the underway at several different points in Khuresh more than makes up for their unreadiness.

C 1811: In a single night over a dozen skaven commanders are assassinated by parties of chameleon skinks on order and careful instruction of the slann. This sows disarray within the creatures' ranks, and an offensive led by Kromictar and Chaq-gor shatter the hordes of vermin before them.

C 1813: Mass appearance of wapstone-fueled weaponry on the battlefields of Khuresh. The lizardmen are unprepared for these new, fearsome legions, and the skaven begin to regain lost ground. The war host of Yohuac in eastern Khuresh is scattered by the infernal contraptions, made to retreat to the relative safety of the temple-city in hopes of regrouping.
The engineers of Skryre are unsure as to why their inventions prove less effective the further west they march, but this does not prevent the clan from taking a huge portion of eastern Khuresh under their iron paw.

C 1814: Yohuac is besieged, the energy barrier surrounding the city faced with the constant onslaught of the enemy's weapon batteries. While fighting in the western Hinterlands continues, the skaven's dominance in the east is total, and all conventional methods of combating their rule are met with failure.

C 1816: Stegadons bearing lodestone arrays are brought into the fray, despite the misgivings of many slann. Battles with the rat-spawn see their weapons, and in consequence their strategies, fall apart. Yohuac is relieved, and Skryre finds the conditions on the fields of battle unfavorable. The skaven apparently withdraw from Khuresh.

C 1821: Teams of hired Eshin assassins destroy multiple lodestone arrays. This is a devastating blow to the lizardmen of Khuresh, for there are no new sources of lodestone. Skryre returns at full potency, all of its machinery fully operational. Armed with knowledge concerning the workings of lodestone, the skaven are careful to avoid existing array sites, and work to combat its usage on the battlefield.

C 1824: With the battles against clan Skryre having left the lizardmen preoccupied, beast herds grow in size. A labyrinthine scheme devised by Tlamatini sees the beastman ambushes and raids turned against the followers of the Horned Rat. The skaven of Skryre are caught off guard by these attacks, and are quick to draw reinforcments from the front lines.
Slann mage-priests Xektep and Zlathuehue begin an inexorable campaign against the weakened skaven hordes in unison with Tlamatini's overall strategy. Chameleon and terradon hit-and-runs see weapon batteries ruined, and the minions of Skryre return to their warrens once again.

C 1825: Unwilling to risk the regrouping of their opponents, lizardman parties enter the underway through openings in the surface of Khuresh, gateways marked by chameleon skinks. The ensuing battles are bloody, the lizardmen carving a swathe through the warrens with their initial assault, the element of surprise now on their side. Nevertheless, the seemingly endless number of ratmen as well as uncontrolled warpstone energies take their toll on the inhabitants of the temple-cities, and the attack is ultimately deemed a failure by the slann.
When tidings of the lizardmen's bold assault reach Skavenblight, the Council of Thirteen flies into a rage. They order clan Skryre's immediate return to the capital as well as the destruction of all entry points to the underway in Khuresh in order to prevent further infiltration by surface dwellers.
Despite this apparent turn of events, the Hinterlands are left in turmoil. The reason for this is a severe deficit in the amounts of functional lodestone in Khuresh brought about with the aftermath of the third war with the rat spawn. Without the lodestone's power, large portions of jungle and swamp begin to succumb to the taint of chaos once more. The slann put much time and effort into relocating existing arrays in such a manner as to cover as much territory as possible with their influence. Despite this, many places of power are left without an array, and the telltale signs of a warpstone polluted environment begin to manifest themselves. To combat this, High Mage-priest Tlamatini retires to the Chamber of Binding in Tlathuitetl to enact a ritual not witnessed in Khuresh for centuries, echoing the actions of Aztlahuetzi in ages past.

C 1871: Port Gardis is erected on the east coast of Khuresh by cathayan pirates. The ramshackle seaside village is built beyond the influence of the slann, whose only remaining bastion in the eastern hinterlands is Yohuac. As such, Gardis is left unmolested by the attentions of Khuresh's reptilian inhabitants. The fledgling port soon draws a wide variety of colorful characters, being one of the few "safe" stops in any sailor's journey from Cathay to Ind. Mercenaries and merchants alike flock to Gardis, though roaming bands of beastmen prevent the warm-bloods from embarking upon any expeditions into the deeper recesses of the marshes and jungle surrounding them.

C 1937: With the High Mage-priest's absence, the controversy concerning the legitimate interpretation of the Great Plan once again becomes palpable. Theories and speculation abound, but three dominant groups can be singled out, and it is these that garner the most supporters. These "circles of enlightenment" are all represented by the slann that formulated the prevailing philosophy within their circle. These slann are: Notltehe, Quateotl and the joint doctrines of Yectenkha and Zlathuehue, who claim the continuance of Tlamatini's perception of the Plan.
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"They are coming! I can hear them... Scratching, clawing, SCREAMING inside my mind... So many... So many voices! They are coming for us, flesh and blood, body and soul!"