Chapter 1454 - 617: Chaos Dwarfs

Chapter 1454: Chapter 617: Chaos Dwarfs

The Dark Realm lies to the east of the World’s Roof Mountain Range, south of the Ogre Kingdom, and east of the Evil Land. Thousands of years ago, this vast plain had become foul and desolate under the corruption of Chaos.

Many of the human provinces in the current Empire were once human tribes from the Dark Realm. During the Chaos Invasion, these tribes, who were still primitive and uncivilized, were utterly incapable of resisting the Chaos Demons. They were either destroyed or succumbed to Chaos, though many tribes chose to leave. Led by the Oracle of the Master of the White Wolf, Yurik, and the God of Nature, Tal, they migrated westward, crossing the World’s Roof Mountain Range to settle in the current location of the Empire. Most of the human residents of the Talabeck Territory and the Middenland Territory are descendants of those who migrated from the Dark Realm. The White Wolf God Yurik used his giant axe to carve a plateau among the mountains for his followers to build their main temple.

This is the famous Great Temple of Yurik in Middenheim.

Similarly, Talabeheim was chosen as the dwelling place for these Dark Realm humans by the God of Nature, Tal.

During their migration, these humans experienced endless hardships, and notably, it was during this time that Dwarfs first encountered humans. The Supreme King on Eternal Peak was quite displeased, believing that this race of inferior craftsmen should have paid proper respect to the Dwarfs’ Supreme King, and their discourtesy was recorded in the Book of Hatred.

Nevertheless, the Dwarfs eventually allowed these fleeing human tribes to cross the World’s Roof Mountain Range, blocking their pursuers, including Beastmen, Green Skins, and Ogres, on the eastern side of the range.

The birth of the Chaos Dwarfs happened thousands of years before the migration of the Dark Realm’s human tribes. The story of how they were born has been told before: a group of stubborn Dwarf pioneers refused to leave the Dark Realm and were trapped on the severely corrupted land during Demon Toad Shilan’s "revisions" of the continent, losing contact with the Dwarfs of the World’s Roof Mountain Range.

It’s well-known that Dwarfs have a very strong resistance to Chaos corruption. Facing the severe corruption of the Dark Realm, they endured; faced with the incessant erosion over millennia, they endured even more, begging the Dwarf Three Main Gods for salvation.

But this endurance had its limits. Over the long years, the Dwarf Three Main Gods gave no oracle to these desperate Dwarfs. In their agony, a brand-new deity appeared before them—a giant blood-red bull that called itself the "Dark Father," Hassut, a Chaos Minor God.

Thus, through unknown transformation, the Dwarfs of the Dark Realm became Chaos Dwarfs.

In the millennia that followed, in exchange for the blood, faith, and sacrifices offered by the Chaos Dwarfs, Hassut rewarded them with the secrets of the Chaos Power he possessed.

Now, Tamu Khan and his Chaos Army have reached the vicinity of the Blackwater River. As soon as they cross the Blackwater River, they will be in the Chaos Dwarf Realm.

At this time, the army that departed from the Kurgan Steppe led by Tamu Khan has fewer than eighty thousand troops, but many Beastmen, Giants, and Ogres have been continuously replenished along the way. Most of these strange beings are indescribable, so his force still numbers over a hundred thousand.

In this landscape saturated with the stench of Chaos, the King of Maggot encamped his Chaos Army along the river, and the entire force wandered aimlessly in the wilderness for food. The hungry Chaos Raiders and Plague Ogres even began eating the Chaos Eggs within the army, and Tamu Khan was helpless; he is merely the Divine Chosen Champion of Nurgle, possessing only the blessing of Nurgle, and could at most command the Champions of Nurgle and the Chaos Warriors of Nurgle who received Nurgle’s blessings.

Only the Eternal Divine Chosen, blessed by the Chaos Four Gods, could effectively command the entire Chaos Army.

Therefore, as the army faced supply issues and difficulties crossing the river, and was forced to camp for a period during winter to reorganize while the Raiders, Beastmen, Ogres, and Giant Demons foraged on their own, the army fell into total chaos. Tamu Khan had to promise that they would cross the river as soon as they briefly rested, and he loudly announced that he had received an oracle from Father Nurgle, and he would hold a grand sacrificial ceremony to praise Father Nurgle, barely suppressing the Chaos Army’s disorder. The Kurgan warriors weren’t pleased they couldn’t spread Nurgle’s glory across these lands, but weighing the imminent honor, they temporarily curbed their dissatisfaction.

After a tremendous sacrifice, Tamu Khan underwent even greater changes. He now looked like a mass of festering, pus-filled flesh, emitting a foul odor all over, with hundreds of mosquitoes and maggots crawling and flying upon his decaying body, many internal organs exposed and continuously oozing grease. His subordinates had to use ropes and plate armor to "stitch" Khan’s body together to prevent Tamu Khan from falling apart. A crown covered with pustules had grown on his head, with a twisted horn atop it.

The Chaos leader gazed at the distant black castle, a fortress of Chaos Dwarfs standing like an obsidian dagger stabbing into the smoke-filled sky. Black Fortress, located in the southeast of the Chaos Dwarf Realm, is a magnificent sight, a gigantic, jagged castle built on a plateau of black volcanic rock, seemingly welcoming the Chaos Army that had come from afar.