Lords
Marshal
Appointed directly by Von Drak, the Marshals are the best that the Iron Bastion and, indeed, the whole Empire, have to offer for strategic thinking and battle prowess. Peerless fighters and commanders, they lead the forces of the Iron Bastion against the undead scourge, first in the fight to redeem the province and cleanse the night.
A Marshal is not appointed by noble connections or birthright. Only those that perfected both mind and arm through a lifetime of study and training are considered worthy of consideration by the Dread Count. The result of such high standards is a caste of warrior-generals that has nothing to envy the rest of the Empire.
Usually drawn by the ranks of knightly orders, Marshals are called to a life of duty and battle. Often, they are nobles gathered from all corners of the Empire and beyond, having refined their skills in and out of the battlefield in the classrooms of the upper classes or as assistants to accomplished Generals. Less often, they were knights whose martial prowess and strength of character attracted the notice of the latest Elector Count.
Whatever their origins, Marshals have left their old life behind, embracing the path of war, governance and service, their oath to Sylvania now overwriting all old loyalties. They're all close servants of the Count, sharing their Lord's vision of a redeemed Sylvania, as well as his devotion to the realization of such a dream. For its realization, they live and fight, having been invested with supreme authority over a part of the province by Von Drak himself. In this guise, they act as governors, leading the forces of the Iron Bastion and ruling over the peasantry they are sworn to protect.
On the battlefield, Marshals cut a noble figure, their bodies adorned in dazzling armors and enchanted arms. Calmly they assess the battlefield, noting possibilities and chances where others see only howling chaos and flailing monsters. Their decision-making is swift, and it invariably coalesces into shattering offensives that see the enemy on the run or legendary defensive formations against which even the worst undead stampede dashes itself to pieces.
A paragon of duty and self-discipline, a Marshal is a knightly commander that watches over his subjects while acting as the shield against the darkness. Monsters and horrors have no bearing over him: the Marshal has faced the worst the world has to offer, and come out all the stronger from it. A veteran of dozens of battles and engagements, he answers to fear with zealous conviction and bull-headed determination in the worth of man and his right to freedom. And as he shares his patron's ideals, he also seems to partake in a sliver of the darkness behind the power of the Dread Count himself, a power that swells his already prodigious might to incredible heights.
Able to maneuver their armies as skillfully as their own weapons, Marshals are among the best generals and warriors mankind can muster, as well as the most ardent supporters of the Sylvanian crusade and its Lord. Their strong arms and keen minds will see the night cleansed of all impurities, the fate of man secured against all the horrors that would dare to try and threaten it.
Equipment:
- Full Plate Armor
May be upgraded to:
- Silverite Armor
- Brightshard Armor
- Vulcanite Armor
Weapons:
- Hand weapon
May be exchanged with:
- Hand weapon and Refined Gun
- Hand weapon and Aurum Shield
- Two-handed weapon
- Halberd
- Twin hand weapon
Magic Items: a Marshal may take items from The Count's Armory
Mounts: a Marshal may take:
- Barded horse (may be upgraded with Sylvanian Resilience, Grave-Stench, Feueraugen)
- Mechanical steed (may be upgraded with OVERDRIVE!, Reinforced Frame)
- Worgar (may be upgraded with A Taste for Dead Flesh, Burning Blood, Silver Sheathes)
- Gryphon (may be upgraded with Two Heads, A Taste for Dead Flesh, Burning Blood)
- Worgar Alpha (may be upgraded with A Taste for Dead Flesh, Burning Blood, Silver Sheathes, Vampire-Bane)
Special Rules:
- This unit is Immune to Psychology
- This unit is a Knight and a Torchbearer
- The Best of Man: a Sylvanian Marshal is among the best fighters mankind can muster. Augmented with enchanted arms, his martial prowess is a match for any hero and monster. When he fell an enemy, a Marshal lifts a trophy of his victory, making his troops erupt into cheers and redouble their efforts.
- No dogs. Only men: be it by incredible prowess or speaking skill, a Marshal can make a sturdy frontline out of any rabble. Marshals make use of a specialized defensive style refined against undead stampedes, turning his arm into an unmovable obstacle. Ditches, palisades, traps and sophisticated formations turn his army into an unbreakable, fire-blasting wall of iron, sinew and determination.
- Undead Cleanser: The Marshal possesses an innate fervor for eradicating the undead scourge, and he can pass it to his troops. Their unwavering faith and inspiring leadership fill their soldiers' hearts with righteous purpose, granting them increased effectiveness when confronting these unholy abominations. A Marshal can issue Calls to Crusade to boost their troops' spirits, instilling them with renewed determination to smite the undead and achieve victory
Worger
For all the vampires' claims at being the undisputed lords of the darkness, there are creatures, living, noble creatures, that still contend their rule. The Worger are the guardians of the sanctity of the night. Appearing as enormous wolves, they stalk the shadows, feasting on all foolish enough to stray in their hunting grounds, reserving a particular viciousness for vampires and their undead lackeys. The hatred is mutual: for all their dark power, vampires find their necromantic magic fails against the Worger, the beasts' pelts repelling their black magic. More, Worger's claws are akin to silver, able to sever unnatural unlife as easily as they cleave through flesh and bones. More than one arrogant scion of the Kiss tried his luck into the Worger's shadowy grounds, only for his bones to join the many already littering the beasts' dens and hollows.
After his return to Sylvania, Von Drak walked alone in the night, only to return accompanied by two massive Worger. Since that time, Marshals and commanders of the Sylvanian crusade are known to ride Worger into battle, the noble beasts leading their supernatural might to the eradication of the undead scourge.
A Worger won't accept any rider: only those with warrior hearts and souls of steel will be allowed by the noble beast to ride on his back. Even more so for the ancient Worger Alphas. The shining, silver pelts of these gnarled beasts are covered with the scars of hundreds of battles against the terrors of the night, and only those just as veterans will be considered worthy companions by such a creature.
Supernaturally strong, even more so than what his bulk might suggest, an Alpha can endure the blows of a Greater Daemon, wrestle a giant to the ground and savage even a Zombie Dragon. He moves with the silence of ancient dark and the speed of the vanishing of light. And there's no darkness that his eyes, shining with the cold glow of unsullied night, cannot pierce.
The origins of the Worger are unknown, some saying that they lived on the world even before Chaos, sharing the silent, frigid nights of primeval times only with dragons and those that would become the Dragonogres. Whatever the truth, these noble beasts have endured, living in the dark Valley of Shadows, a holy ground that even vampires and daemons fear to thread.
Now these guardians of the world emerge once again, having thrown their lot with Von Drak to rid themselves of the upstarts polluting their blessed night. Acting as allies to the Sylvanian crusade, they act as mounts for its generals and terrible war beasts before which any unnatural unlife retreats before. Poised and regal, their cold rage is something to behold as they savage their ancient enemies, and they won't be denied. They will never stop, not until the night is made pure once more. As it was once, and as it will be again.
The Circle of Drakenhof
After taking the ancestral seat of his family, Von Drak established a body of governance to help him in his rule, appointing the five most powerful members of his original following to it.
The Circle of Drakenhof is today the highest authority in Sylvania, second only to the Dreaqd Count itself. Its members speak with Von Drak's own authority, and there's nobody in the Iron Bastion that dares to question them.
The Circle Marshals are paragons of stoic devotion and unflinching duty, having sworn themselves to fight and die under the banner of their dark lord. Blessed with a might that almost matches that of the Count himself, each of the five is a supernaturally powerful combatant, more than able to best the worst the unholy night can throw at them.
Among them all, High Marshal Bernt Hoffman is the leader and the most aggressive by far, his authority inferior only to that of Von Drak himself. The Old Wolf has been given Castle Templehof as his personal domain and from there he constantly raids the dark forests of north Sylvania, ravaging necromancer camps, running down undead soldiers and setting any infested ruin to rest. His cavalry force is renowned across the whole Empire, as well as his supernatural strength. Voices say that the High Marshal bested a Blood Dragon in single duel, slashing the monster apart with his silver-lined sword.
Despite his zeal, Hoffman never misses the meetings of the Circle in Drakenhof. During these solemn occasions, the five and the Duke meet to discuss the fate of the whole province. Alongside military and economic matters, a constant topic is how to eradicate the undead scourge, not only from the province, but from the world itself. Names of ancient terrors like Neferata, Arkhan, Abhorash and even Nagash are heard spoken with shocking regularity at his meetings, as well as the number of Lahmian vampires that have been caught trying to infiltrate them. The reason for such a high rate of failures among the usually successful sorority is maybe explained by the cowled figure that appears at the meetings as well, a man bearing strange symbols very similar to Nehekaran hieroglyphs and bearing the mark of an Asp.
What's certain is that Von Drak nurtures great ambitions toward the eradication of the undead. Some say, he even spoke of finding what remains of the corpse of the Great Necromancer himself, but as to what purpose, it remains unclear.
The Circle Marshals maintain the secret and follow their Lord, even if it means facing darkness out of human memory and reckoning. Each of them. a knight-lord true, is more than ready to face this trial.
Black Judge
If Inquisitors are the hunting dogs of Sigmar, a Black Judge is a grizzled bear, slaughtering wolves and extirpating vermin wherever they emerge to threaten the flock. Be it undead, daemons, or cultists, there's no enemy that the followers of the Supreme Judge don't face with grim determination, or aren't trained to annihilate. And if he's a bear in the fight, he's a hunting dog in catching the vermin, his smell augmented by training, equipment and holy magic.
Black Judges preside over Sylvanian justice, keeping court in somber tribunal halls or traversing the province to go where their expertise is required. Each of them considers their duties a sacred calling and so they act, administering justice as a priest would with their religion's sacraments. Living repositories of judicial knowledge, it's rare the Black Judge that needs to open his Book to remember what law is being broken, what post-scriptum is the most adapt, or what punishment is in order.
The black cap and flowing vestments of the Judges have become a symbol of fear across the province, for the Judges are notorious for their strict justice, and very few criminals escape their watchful gazes, or intricate nets of spies, informants and officers. Still, what truly a Black Judge looks for in society is signs of vampiric or chaos infestations. It's a tribute to their hard-bitten souls that these grizzled men and women would go searching for those that anyone else escape without a thought.
It's when the enemies of man are found that the Black Judge reveals his true power. Each of these grim individuals is an ex-inquisitor, with decades of training on his shoulder in exterminating foulness. Their souls are scarred, hardened things, able to face the madness of Chaos without flinching. Hidden beneath black vestments, there is a veritable armory of blessed weapons, more than enough to burn away daemons and undead in their scores. And where iron is not enough, the Black Judges are accomplished mages, each of them tutored in the arcane arts by the Judge-Lord herself. They cannot reach the skill or power of their patron, and need to compound their natural skills with tools and implements, but that doesn't change the result. Monsters that dare to attack a Black Judge thinking that he's but a mortal man soon realize their mistake, as that same man erupts with holy light that pulverizes their bodies, burn their souls to ash with sacred fire or just bludgeons them to death with his Black Book.
The divine source of their magic makes the Black Judges incredibly stable mages, their arcane power effectively a mix between the prayers of their fellow warrior-priests and the more traditional spellcasting, overcoming both in the devastation they can produce, especially against daemonkind. Another heritage of the esoteric knowledge transmitted to them by their Lady. Yet, their true power lies in the strength of their souls. Each Judge has been judged by the Gods and found worthy of carrying the fight against the darkness infesting the world. They pridefully carry that knowledge, facing all the horror so that others may live.
Black Judges are shockingly effective in their duties. Criminal rates plummet where they operate. while pyres and stakes blossom in their scores, as if they had a very special gift in finding their quarry. This effectiveness makes it so that all main churches claim them as their own, saying that it's their own god to bless them so. It's a notion that no Black Judge denies, since they are as skillful at diplomacy as they are in the courtroom, and often play the diplomats between opposing churches. But the truth is that these men and women of true grit follow the heretical teachings of their Lady, believing that all Gods are unworthy apart from a very restricted pantheon of five deities, that is then considered as a single, many-fold entity. More, they believe magic to be sacred, and that all holiness stems from it.
This belief would make them the worst heretics, even in the church of Sigmar, whose patron they accept and venerate. But no Black Judge falter in his duties for such a trifling thing. Unfazed, they follow through, certain of the need for their mission. In their eyes, each judgment they carry, each act of justice cleanses the world, breaking the shackles of pain, ignorance and tyranny. Their work is planting the seeds. One day, they know, they will blossom, and bear fruit for the good of all men, something that the Black Judges are ready to sacrifice their lives for. Because, as they share the ideals of their Lady, they also share her mercy toward the wretched fate of man, and the willingness to stare into the abyss, unflinchingly, to alter it forevermore.
Equipment:
- Light armor
May be upgraded to:
- Holy Vestments
- Vulcanite Armor
- Holy Aegis
Weapons:
- Blessed Gun with Silver-Tipped Bullets
May be exchanged for
- Holy stake
- Sacred artifact
- Brace of Blessed Guns with Silver-Tipped Bullets
- Blessed Harpoon-launcher
Magic Items: A Black Judge always carries a Black Book and a Sekta weapon. He can pick items from the Armoury of the Holy Hunter.
Mounts:
- Barded horse (may be upgraded with Sylvanian Resilience, Grave-Stench, Feueraugen)
- Mechanical steed (may be upgraded with OVERDRIVE!, Reinforced Frame)
- Worgar (may be upgraded with A Taste for Dead Flesh, Burning Blood, Silver Sheathes)
- Moving Tribunal (may be upgraded with Stakes of Heads)
Special Rules:
- This unit is Immune to Psychology
- This unit is a Knight and Salt of the Earth
- A Black Judge can pick spells from the Lores of Sigmar, Death, Heavens, Fire, Nehekara and Life
- Purge the Unholy: The Black Judge is a relentless seeker of evil, and their presence terrifies the forces of darkness. Whenever the Black Judge successfully destroys an enemy unit belonging to Chaos or the undead, he makes a dreadful example of it. When this happens, enemy units within a certain radius gain a malus to their morale and combat prowess.
- Witch-Hunters' Gaze: The Black Judge possesses an uncanny ability to detect hidden evils and traitors. Before any movement or action, he may designate one enemy unit as a "suspect." For the duration of that turn, the suspect unit's special abilities are nullified, and its defensive bonuses are reduced.
- Weaponry Virtuoso: the Black Judger is a true master of weaponry, adept at swiftly changing tactics in the heat of battle. He seamlessly switches between different weapons during battle without penalty. Each weapon possesses distinct attributes and effects, enabling the Judge/Demon Hunter to adapt their approach to best suit the current situation.
- Master of Unbinding: The Black Judge's main quarries are black mages and Chaos abominations, and there aren't men that have perfected the arts of the hunt at his same level. When confronted with the forces of undead or daemons, a Black Judge may attempt a rite of exorcism. When he does so, he puts his will and the power of his magic against the wicked wills of necromancers and black mages, or the chaotic winds sustaining the daemons' existence in the material world. If he manages the titanic effort, he can twist unholy spells back upon those who cast them, sever the necromantic hold over puppet corpses and banish daemons back to their hell.
The undead have lost their way. Reacquaint them with death.
The daemons are despair, lies and woe incarnate. Break the bones of despair with the hand of the Five. Reject the darkness of lies with the light of knowledge. Face the winter of woe with the seeds of hope.
This world is beset by chaos, and the soul of man wallow in misery. Add not to the wretchedness with evil wrought by your own hand. Be a paragon.
You shall receive nothing. Riches won't be yours, for wealth would be a temptation. You shan't receive praise, for the judge is feared and not loved. The power you'll wield will never be truly yours, for as you judge, so you're judged in turn, the eye of the Gods fixed upon you. You're called to give in everything. In exchange, you'll receive the chance to look evil in the eyes and plant your dagger into it. Take the Black Oath now, inscribe it upon your heart and know that your destiny will be the brightest and the darkest. Receive the Cap, Judge.
- Passes from the Black Book
Sekta Weaponry
All Black Judges have been, at some point in their life, Inquisitors, grim hunters set in exterminating the worst monstrosities stalking the dark. As such, they all retain the skills learned during that profession, as well as the vicious implements. A Black Judge is a veteran slayer, a walking arsenal trained to slay all kinds of monsters.
Sekta weapons are the latest addition to a Black Judge's armoury, one they receive alongside the Back Cap. They are superb weapons, combining edge-cutting Imperial technology, arcane might and the most powerful blessings. Compact and easy to conceal, they are usually hidden by a Black Judge under his robes, until it's time for a lethal blow.
A specific twitch of a finger, an arcane command concealed as a normal phrase, or a vague gesture can be the way to activate a Sekta weapon. Once unleashed, these weapons are as varied as they are deadly. A vambrace-mounted Sekta could shoot a foot-long blade with enough force to pierce a mutated monster's hide, only to lodge itself into its innards and explode when the spell of destruction inscribed on the edge erupts with holy fire. A Sekta hidden in a ring could emit a cloud of tiny razors that, embedded into unclean flesh, disgorge venom powerful enough to turn a vampire into a gibbering wreck. Small, unassuming symbols of the faith could be thrown, just to erupt with enough explosive force to rip a chaos warrior apart. And even more, like rifles passed as canes and walking sticks, guns hidden inside judicial or holy books, spells of destruction and holy wards woven in complicated embroideries with silver thread, hidden among decorations or inscribed on the skin as tattoos. Otherwise, seemingly innocent gloves could hide arcane-powered coils able to relay enough electrical might to stun a Minotaur into submission, or a pocket watch could be a holy disruptor of hostile magic.
Despite being usually on the hidden side, Sekta weapons can also be more direct. Piston-driven blessed spears and mauls have been seen bulging from the wrists of the most combative Judges, as well as blades and razor-studded chains swung suddenly from the legs. Blessed flamethrowers and water launchers, their rumbling apparatus powered by arcane holiness, are also a popular choice for the Black Judges of more warring disposition. Bekker Jongt, the Iron Judge, has become renowned for the use of knuckles dusters inscribed with words of power from the Five-fold God and fed by electrical coils. The aging Judge has ripped apart countless abominations with fists wreathed with lightning and divine energy, each blow powerful enough to bend metal and blow unclean flesh to bits.
No matter what form they take, Sekta weapons are invariably useful, powerful and, most importantly, deadly. In a way, they resemble the Black Judges that wield them. Combining the best of the arts cultivated by the men of the Empire, they are stern defenders before which all the enemies of humanity do better to beware. Be they abominations, madmen or monsters, they will be sent back to the hell that spawned them in pieces, by magic, holiness and technology employed at the service of man's stern, brave soul.