Dragon Wars
By: Alith Anar
Disclaimer: If I owned this game or the novels that were spawned from it I would make the elves the ruler of Warhammer but alas I don't so the elven race continues to decline.
I do however own Arathnar Daemonbane and the elven house of Daemonbane.
Amidst the wars of conquest filling the world of Warhammer, a tale of couage and honor, of maturing in the face of adversary is told, in the land of the elf on the continent of Ulthuan, of a young Caledorian prince turned dragon tamer named Arathnar Daemonbane who set out on a quest to grow a dragon of tremendous power. There were many that shared that goal he had heard tales of two of his cousins, an Yverssian ranger named Kaltous Silvertree and a Saphieran mage named Marcion Spellcrafter were also gifted with dragons to raise. Rumors had reached the young lords ears of two Caledorian dragon eggs stolen by the druchii to be raised by their dark teachings. The orcs and chaos seemed riled up as well and it seemed that some of their champions set out to raise their own dragons.
Arathnar made sure to visit his family's hidden repository of magical items in their household he pulled out a few items that he was allowed to take including the Talismin of Saphery gifted to his family by the Archmage Teclis and one of the many swords of might inside the vault. He headed to the mundane armory and picked up one of the intricate suits of dragon armor along with a shield and ithilmar barding for his horse. Off the racks of finely honed weapons he chose a lance and longbow to add to his power.
Before he left he made visit to his father. His father, Narthok Daemonbane, was a victor of thousands of skirmishes against the Daemons employed by their dark kindred but was reaching late in his life at the age of 55,492 he was dying. The old elf was old enough to remember the victorious charge of the dragon riders on back of their fabled beasts and he wanted to if not see that again, see his own son riding on one of those great wyrms. He asked Arathnar to take care of himself and his dragon and to remember to uphold the honor of the Daemonbane house as he ventured out into the world.
He left the ancestral Daemonbane house headed to pick up his dragon. He received his dragon egg and incubated it till it hatched he named the baby dragon Narthok, after his father, and made his way to Lothern to board a vessel to the lands of the human empire. He followed visions until he reached the blasted landscape outside a ruined fortress of an unknown land he soon discovered that he was drawn to various markers strewn throughout this land, he was not alone, however, as two orcs, two of his dark kindred, a chaos champion also made it to this land. Arathnar rode through the blasted landscape looking for the various items needed he found an orc in possession of one of the artifacts and quickly raced to the attack.
The elf took off riding at full speed towards an artifact when a spell from a lizardman mage blindsided him, he was hurt but otherwise fine when he got out of range of the lizardman mage. He charged and bested a black orc but before he could catch his breath a druchii charged at him on a flying dark Pegasus. "Foul Druchii," he yelled "you will fall at the hands of the Asur and Sarathi, the World Dragon." "The might of Khaine will not be matched by the forces arrayed against my lord Malekith, traitor." Responded the fell warrior. "Shutz up stinky elf-things, Gork an' Mork will stompz you but good." The ork that was already in combat said. Arathnar was forced to defend himself on two fronts one against his fallen kin and the other against the ork. Even though he outmatched either by themselves, he slipped at the dark elves attack and was clubbed unconscious and dragged away by his horse. The last thing he heard was his foul kinsman's mad laughter right before the druchii cut down the orc.
After recovering from his injuries at the battlefield Arathnar swore never to be taken lightly ever again. He was able to attempt to make good on his promise by his father's blade 'Demonbane' which suddenly appeared by his side. The death of his father was hammered home as only 3 hours later a messenger-warrior, by the name of Carcion Wintertree, arrived by great eagle and carried his fathers favored possessions, the Helm of Fate and guardian phoenix. Arathnar borrowed the eagle for his next campaign that occurred the next day.
The next day led him back to the castle where a malign intellect left an amulet on top of the wall section still intact. Arrayed against him was the orc leader he battled earlier along with the other orc, his kinsman Kaltous also made it for this battle, a dark presence was felt as a skaven assassin was found on the field as well, terror filled the battle field as two chaos lords, one daemon one mortal, were also present. All of the forces arrayed against each other were heading to the ruined parts of the tower to attempt to climb up it. Arathnar laughed at the folly of the orcs as his great eagle bore him to the top of the wall and he picked up the artifact and then flew off to the middle of the field and found himself nearly surrounded by the orcs and one of the chaos lords on open field. During his flight he saw his kinsman Kalous knocked unconscious by the daemonic chaos lord who then moved to the pedestal that the artifact in Arathnar's possession was supposed to be placed upon.
Thinking his brother elf dead he urged the great eagle on and charged the daemon in combat after two lucky hits by the lord by a daemon weapon that was not blocked by the Talismin of Saphery, Arathnar then nullified its effects and with a combined effort from his eagle and dragon he managed to distract the chaos lord enough to keep him from landing anything but glancing hits that were nullified by the dragon armor worn by the lord. After a few minutes of swirling combat in which the follower of chaos did no more damage but the elf managed to defeat the demon worshiper in single combat by a mixture of sword slashes and eagle claws. He stood ready to deliver the final blow to the fallen chaos worshiper when his dragon psychically urged him to the pedestal, Arathnar finally realized that the artifact was a dragon strength multiplier made by the elves in days of yore.
Arathnar made it to the pedestal when the skaven assassin, who was cowardly biding his time leapt upon him with a 'mighty' SQUEAK. Feeling the aberration of nature's presence Arathnar avoided the assassin's attack beat him back with a couple of sword blows and then his dragon leapt to attack his masters foe and took the foul beasts through the throat and killed the beast which then evaporated into a foul mist.
He made it to the pedestal and placed the artifact on the pedestal and he could feel all the energies coalescing into the artifact. He turned around waiting for the energies to subside when he saw another dreadful lord of chaos marching towards him. Arathnar charged forward shouting his battle cry of "DEATH TO THE DAEMON!!" He landed a hit from his lance which pierced his armor and caused enough damage that the chaos lord was as damaged as the elf. A low rumbling laugh echoed out of the lord's armor as he made himself ready "I will sacrifice your soul to my god Tzeentch, you will learn terror firsthand at the Lord of Change! So speaks his champion, Lord Zarghan Daemonsoul" Arathnar retorted "It's nice to know of the beast that you are going to kill. In the name of the Daemonbane house you will fall this day!" Two titanic energies were set on the battlefield unseen to either of the lords the chaos god Tzeentch and Arathnar's chosen elven god Sarathi turned to watch this battle between two of their most powerful servants prepared for the combat of their lives. They struck at the same time with a speed and strength unheard of Arathnar flowed around his opponents strikes like water as his own viperishly fast strikes were rebounded off the Chaos plate armor. One of Zarghan's strikes managed to connect on the elf but the magic of the helm rebound the strike effortlessly, Arathnar's talisman still draining the power of the daemon inside the daemon worshipper's blade. Arathnar finally made it passed the daemon lord's armor and plunged his sword into the throat of the chaos champion, the otherwise fatal wound caused Zarghan to cast himself into the realm of chaos to keep from dying outright.
Arathnar cursed his foe and vowed to face the warrior wherever he took to next but he turned around when he felt a power near him he saw his baby dragon take to the sky when, from the artifact a beam of light struck the dragon. Not knowing what the beam was Arathnar flew up to the dragon expecting the worst when he saw that instead of a dead dragon, Narthock had grown up! Not enough to let Arathnar ride him but still enough to help him in battle even more so. The dragon let out a mighty roar and flew around Arathnar. Laughing as he made his way down to his camp in an old elven fortress he played his silver lyre as the dragon flew around him roaring in tune to the music.
When he made it back to his camp his blade caught his eye the polluted blood of his foe still covered his blade but the runes covering the blade caused the blood to be incinerated but not before the blade knew of Zarghan and would be subtly drawn towards him. The power of the blade reminded him of the stories passed down by his family about this sword.
////FLASHBACK\\
"Daemonbane is a tremendously powerful weapon forged in the heart of Vaul's hammer furnaces," Arathnar's father told him. "This blade was also enchanted by Archmage Caledor, the most powerful of the Archmages of yore, for the Daemonbane house before he was trapped on the Isle of the Dead." His father continued. "The sword is enchanted to be the bane of Daemons and those who have given their souls to them. The blade is nearly peerless in that regard as the only blade to kill more demons is Sunfang, the sword carried by the unmatchable Prince Tyrion in battle. Daemonbane is only carried into battle by the head of this family and when I die it will be your duty to use this blade to cleanse this world of all daemon worshippers and the daemons they follow. Once this sword tastes the blood of a daemon worshipper it will seek out and confront the worshipper until either its carrier or the daemon is dead. Keep that in mind young one." Arathnar's father ended.
////END FLASHBACK\\
The next day Arathnar had to give up the eagle back to Carcion, as he was needed by the phoenix King and Prince Tyrion for a great battle, and he mounted his noble steed. A presence that he had not felt in a long time called to him and he returned to the battle field across the field a mage was seen wielding the power of a daemon lord. Arathnar realized that this mage was his old friend Eldrad Ulthran. Arathnar was so focused on his old friend that he never realized it when a treeman from the elven colony of Athel Loren came up beside him along with the elven mage Marcion Spellcrafter or when his foe Zarghan also took the field on the other side of the battle field from him. Off in the distance Eldrad disappeared from his perch on the field reappeared a short distance from Arathnar. He suddenly realized, "You? You brother are the source of this malign entity I've been sensing all this time?" With a mad sneer Eldrad replied "Yes brother, I am. Our race is foolish and thinks that Chaos is evil. I have realized through my studies that the only one who has true knowledge is Tzeentch and as such he gives it to me freely."
Arathnar spurred his horse into combat against the traitor yelling "How could you brother?" His lance tore through Eldrads armor and was only slightly deflected by the armor wards around him. Narthok took the chance bit into the traitor inflicting further damage when from the corner of his eye a giant rat monstrosity barreled into him. "You summoned the undead, brother? How low have you fallen?" Arathnar asked him. "I have gained power beyond that which the fools at the white tower could hardly dream of!" Eldrad spouted in a mad voice. "You are a fool and traitor to your own people I will gladly put you out of your misery!" He blocked and dodged the attacks of the rat ogre construct and pressed his attack on Eldrad finally the mage took a fatal wound but instead of dying proceeded to disappear from his fate and reappear on his perch. Fortunately he took the rat ogre with him. Arathnar barely caught his breath when an undead from one of the Tombs of Khemri charged at him. Arathnar flipped around the charge and landed off his horse he flung himself at the abomination and flowed like water around the things strikes and managed to kill the construct when the undead sent him flying but he was saved by the dragon flying to save him. He confronted his enemy, Zarghan, again in the midst of the battle. He charged into the fray like a dragon, cutting down a few zombies and skeletons nothing matching his might in battle until he and Zarghan met like thunderbolts. Arathnars lance plugged into the side of Zarghan but with a force unlike that when they previously battled Zarghan grabbed the lance and pulled then shoved the lance back breaking Arathnars arm. Arathnar grimaced in pain, while his foe seemed to lap up his pain like a delicacy, "Come Asur, I thought you were stronger than that! Tzeentch will enjoy devouring your soul once you have died at my hands." Arathnar stowed himself and replied "I will not fall until the death of you and your master has been assured." They forced attacks at each other both damaged but still neither giving up. Arathnar used the last of his energy and unleashed a mighty blow that knocked Zarghan out with his last riposte he placed his blade deep in Arathnars shoulder causing him to black out.
He awoke a few hours later to Marcion Spellcrafter, the only elf still alive in this quest, binding his wounds. His brother elf told Arathnar how he avenged his ignominious defeat and killed Eldrad with one of his spells. Knowing how powerful Eldrad was, Arathnar shook his head sadly and said that despite the potency of Marcion's spells Eldrad would find a way to fight again, he is just stubborn.
A/N Thanks for the reviews I hope that this makes the story better. In answers to reviews yes this story is based on an actual campaign I took part in. Minor liberties were taken but the story is in esscence the same. Please review no flames please.