Chapter 44 - Travelling (Patreon)

Codex: Warriors of Chaos

The Warriors of Chaos, also known as the Hordes of Chaos, the Followers of Chaos, the forces of Chaos Undivided, the forces of Ruin, the Dark Land Barbarians (not to be confused with the Children of Bul-Khatos) or simply just the Darkmen, are the names given to a race of savages, warlike tribes of Human barbarians that occupy the harsh and unforgiving lands of the Dark Lands located in the realms that are swarming with the Daemons and horrors of the night. 

It is only in the Dark Lands that the mortal plane mingles with the hellscape of the Realm of Ruination.

The Darkmen Barbarians are considered by the civilized peoples to be the enemies of all the Known World, whose unwavering worship of the uncaring and sadistic pantheon of the major Chaos Gods has given them a single, driving motive to usher in the inevitable downfall of all mortal-kind into their hellish enslavement and ultimate extinction.

Out of all the many threats that the Known World of Azyr must face, none strikes such fear and misery into the hearts of Men like the Followers of Chaos. Slaves to darkness all, they have given themselves wholly to the Ruinous Powers, some willingly, others because they felt they had no other choice.

From the Dark Lands, armies in service to the Dark Gods would attack the western borders of the Holy Arcadia Empire from time to time and again, slaughtering without reason, pillaging that which is not nailed down, and just simply wreaking wanton destruction to the realms of the Order and enemies of the Khaos.

Since the reconnection with the Westeros and Essos, many of the Warriors of the Chaos have created huge expeditionary fleets that went to attack the lands of the Westeros and Essos. Most of them often clashed against the Tzardom of Kislev, Principality of Estalia, Corrin Kingdom or the Andalos Kingdom.

No matter how many of these marauders are killed, no matter how many invasions are pushed back and enemy armies annihilated, the Hordes of Chaos can never truly be defeated, and after a few years of relative peace, they shall once more come down south and begin the vicious cycle once again.

The Warriors of the Chaos are long spread through the Westeros and Western Essos, and there are many cases when they reach the far east of the Eastern Essos. Outside of the continent of Lordran, the most notable locations for the Warriors of the Chaos are the region of Vale in the Westeros, the Dothraki Sea, and the Bone Mountains. 

So long as there is still Chaos within this world, there will also be those evil and greedy Men who are wholly willing to serve them.

- From the Book: Introduction of the Forces of Ruin: 5th Edition by High Scholar Jinfarah, Imperial Year 10,395 of the Imperial Lordranese Callendar

***

3rd POV

Lands of the Ancient Lords, Holy Arcadia Empire, League of Khaz-Modan, Holy Imperial Capital of Anor Londo, Second Week of February of Year 10,282 - of the Imperial Lordranese Callendar 

Crossing through the sea that was separating the Grand Principality of the Reikland and the League of Khaz-Modan was a rather arduous task when they needed to transport the entire G-1 Mobile Base and a whole bunch of the War Wagons that were used by the Stormcast Eternals as their means of transportation.

Unfortunately, right now, the Ministry of Science and Technology won't be finished with the prototypes of the Airships, or else they will be flying through the air, which was a much more straightforward pathway to their destination.

League of the Khaz-Modan was part of the Norsca Peninsula together with the Grand Province of Fenris. Geographically and climatically, the peninsula of Norsca is, for the most part, a frozen, boreal wasteland of mountains and snow. 

Albeit, it was enormous in size because the Norsca Peninsula could fit the entirety of the "Old World", which was terms used for the Grand Principality of the Reikland, Grand Province of the Bretonnia, and certain regions of the Grand Province of Sylvania and Grand Province of Faelor.

Few crops could grow there, for the land was hard as iron and the howling winds cut like daggers of the purest cold. When there was a storm, even Professionals would freeze to death without any protection. Thus, the entire peninsula survived on the underground farmlands developed by the Dwarves and the export of the food from the other Grand Provinces of the Empire. 

At the same time, though, the Norsca Peninsula was the wealthiest region in the entire Holy Arcadia Empire because the sheer quantity of the minerals, ores, and precious gems was second to one. 

Now, with the appearance of the Hex Gems within the Norsca, even more so.

Even right now, the Norscan Peninsula was the largest deposit of the Lacrima Crystals, Mythril, Orichalcum, and other rare metals that were highly sought after and needed in the industrial machinery of the Holy Arcadia Empire.

The appearance of the Hex Crystals?

That would be an entirely new elevation.

It was also one of the reasons why Karl Franz was so eager to visit the League of Khaz-Modan, as he needed to scour the area for the CHOAM to buy good mines to start making money and control some it's wealth.

A large part of the Imperial Household lifestyle was supported by their own money, so the state money could be used to develop the state itself. This was the practice that Karl Franz started when he ordered that all expenses of the Imperial Palace would be shouldered by the Imperial House from their own pocket.

This practice was then extended to the other things that the Imperial House was spending its money and not long afterward, practically everything was covered by their own pocket from the money that was generated by the various businesses and investments and not from the state money. 

Soon enough, the Lord High Magistrates and Elector Count Houses began following the same trend, and afterward, the Viceroys and even the Barons and Grand Paladins. Basically, every bit of the taxes that were collected were no longer used by the nobility to cover their own expenses and those of their households; instead, they were used to develop the state.

This also promoted the nobility to be smart with their money, or they could go bankrupt themselves. Nobles could use the taxes only to develop their territory, and everything must be supervised by the IRS and the Department of Domestic Affairs. 

This was vastly different from the practices of the rest of the world, where the nobles used the taxes not only to develop their territory, if they even did it in the first place, but they were also using the same money on maintaining the castles, their estates, and lifestyle.

These practices were already strictly forbidden by the Imperial Law. 

Because of that, it generated a tremendous amount of money that could be then invested back into the development of the state, improving the life of the people, and many other things if the nobles were not frivolously spending the taxpayer's money on their own expenses. 

Karl Franz realized how good a decision he made when he noticed the state of the Kingdoms within the Westeros or various nations in the Essos that barely had any extra space in their budgets to invest in the development of the state itself or to improve the living conditions of the people.

For example, most of the money that was collected through the taxes by the Kingdom in Westeros was used by various Lords to maintain their castles, cover their expenses, and many other different things that were, in Karl Franz's eyes, very ineffective and irrational.

"Why are you up this early?"

Karl Franz turned his head toward Maria, who was still asleep at their quarters at the G-1 Mobile Base. The G-1 Mobile Base was a humongous piece of machinery that was recently retrofitted with the prototype Hextech Engine and was expanded even more.

As this was the personal one of the Imperial House, Karl Franz ordered the Imperial Engineers to retrofit the G-1 Mobile Base with the Hextech Engine. Not only was this decision made to already integrate the enormous potential of the Hextech that was recently discovered, but it was also made to increase the combat potential of the G-1 Mobile Base to a new level. 

With the Hextech retrofitting, all of the weapons were now running on the Hextech, which drastically increased their destruction capabilities, while the possibility to create Hex Shield around the G-1 Mobile Base in the case of attack was something that Karl Franz deeply appreciated because it made the entire thing even safer than before.

He and Maria shared the quarters together, and today, it was early in the morning, so he woke up a bit earlier to keep up the fire in the fireplace. It was early February, and it seemed that one of the coldest winters had hit the Norsca in the past decades.

While the G-1 Mobile Base could withstand it and both of them were rather powerful Professionals, being in such coldness was very uncomfortable for both of them, thus he preferred to be in the warm.

Not to mention, everyone was strictly forbidden to enter their chambers when he was sleeping, servants included. The only person who could enter his quarters was the Lord Celestant Prime of the Reiksgarde Temple Atreus Atreides, who was in the next room as he was accompanying them on the trip.

Aside from him, only the Stormcast Eternals were allowed to enter when he was sleeping in a certain limited number of cases. Partly, it was due to his personal paranoia about being killed in his sleep, and the second major reason was the security protocols.

"Can't sleep anymore, so I put some wood into the fireplace. It seems that winter is harsher than in the past years."

The entire Lordran was naturally very cold, like really cold, and nothing like summer existed here en proper, aside from the short time periods in the Grand Province of Munn, but that was it.

When the winter hit the Lordran, it was deadly, but at the same time, people had already gotten used to it because they had been living in this kind of environment for their whole lives.

Still, Karl Franz preferred this kind of weather compared to the warm environment that was in the different. He was really used to the kind of weather in the Lands of the Ancient Lords, and he was always type for the winter, not the summer.

"I can see that... all the windows are covered by frostbite. If you just agreed to take the portal, then we wouldn't be on this lengthy journey from this frozen wasteland."

Maria slowly sat on the bed as she finished her process of waking up from her sleep, though she would have preferred to sleep a little more as she was still tired. This was also the perfect time for the sleeping, as everything outside was freezing while the fireplace was keeping them warm as wood was burning.

"Don't need to remind me that... If I knew that we would be hit by the winter storm, I would have taken portal, but now it's worthless to complain, or I would jump at you."

He said with a smirk as she flushed mildly, still sore from the nightly activities between the couple. Because there was nothing much to do at the G-1 Mobile Base, they were typically fucking... a lot at that. 

Since Maria was named as the Lord General-Kommandant of the Stormcast Eternals, she had far more duties than she initially wished for and on the other hand, she was even taking her position rather seriously. 

Karl Franz was satisfied with her because he thought that she would be avoiding any kind of public responsibility, but fortune enough, the post of the Lord-General Kommandant of the Stormcast Eternals suited Maria almost perfectly.

Even her mother, Annalise, was very satisfied with this kind of outcome because she found it disgraceful that at her age, Maria was still just hunting for the Beasts and creatures but didn't have any official position within the establishment.

For the Vilebloods of the Cainhurst, who were very developed in their duties and responsibilities, it was indeed a stain on their family honor and something that she tried to remedy for many decades.

However, it was always without any result because Maria was too stubborn, sometimes too much for her own good. She was always the tomboy in their family and behaved like a boy, causing her mother to worry about her daughter's future. 

"Shut up, you were like a beast... I am still feeling sore. How long till we finally arrive at the Dwarrowdelfs?"

She asked as we had been en route to the Khazad-dûm for some time already, and Maria was rather impatient because she was a person of action. Sitting in the closed space was something akin to torture for the poor women. 

Alas, there was nothing that they could do about it because traversing through the Norsca Peninsula during the winter was especially hard. Even the dwarves refrained from doing so, and they were using the Thaig Network exclusively for transportation.

Thaig Network, or the Deep Roads, is a grand network of enormous underground tunnels that once belonged to the Ancient Dwarven Empire many millennia ago, spanning the majority of the Lands of the Ancient Lords and Dark Lands. Basically, almost the entire continent of the Lordran is connected to by the Deep Roads and the underground network.

The Deep Roads once in the past linked the Thaigs with one another and to the surface.

These subterranean highways were works of unparalleled artisan achievement, with centuries of planning and engineering demonstrated in the geometry of their walls. Statues of the Paragons watched over passing travelers, and channels carried a flow of magma that kept the Deep Roads lit and warm.

When the Dwarves joined the Holy Arcadia Empire, the Empire was investing a lot of resources and manpower to help them reclaim the Deep Roads and secure the Thaigs, which was the name of the Dwarven settlement. 

Even now, they haven't recovered all the Thaigs, and the Imperial Military is still waging extremely brutal wars against everything within the Deep Roads to reclaim the long-lost glory for the dwarves and for the Empire as well.

Karl Franz didn't know what the reason was, but one day, the ancient dwarven nation just collapsed overnight, and most of the Thaigs and Deep Roads felt to the Skaven, Daemons, and those in the Dark Lands were under the control of the Chaos Dwarves or how they were called in their naive tongue Dawi-Zharr.

Only the Norsca Peninsula managed to survive, as it was the heart of the ancient Empire, but they were hit very hard, and many of their grand cities and settlements fell to the Daemons or Skavenblight.

Countless pieces of history and ancient technologies were lost due to the Daemonic Incursions in the depths of the underground and the rats that were infesting the Deep Roads like a plague.

Still, the Holy Arcadia Empire, managed to get rather stunning results in their underground war against the Daemons and Skaven, who were infesting what wasn't theirs. Even the Khazad-dûm was reclaimed by the combined forces of Dwarves, Gnomes, and Men of the Holy Arcadia Empire after the League of Khaz-Modan became part of the Empire.

"Give it another week or so; we are already pretty close to the Khazad-dûm, but due to the frequent snowstorms moving around with the G-1 Mobile Base and the War Wagons, it is rather problematic."

He answered his beloved fianceé and fortunately enough, both Cirilla and Cersei were content with the slow-paced journey and everything around it.

Both of them could observe the environment and places around the Empire, even though Karl Franz could see that Cirilla was already becoming a bit restless, thus he decided to take her out on the outing and hunt for some Ice Trolls.

If he should name another two problematic races that were giving trouble to the Norscans, it would be the Ice Trolls and Troggs.

"Ts... can I join you on the hunt?"

Maria asked with the exception of being able to leave, only for him to smash those hopes away with a single sentence. He knew that she would be giving him the cold shoulder for the rest of the journey, most probably, and no martial activities for them, but alas, someone was needed to remain here and guard the base in case something happened.

"No, one of us needs to remain here and protect the delegation. Only two of us are at Level 6, so if the convoy is attacked by something on Level 6; it would be problematic for the Stormcasts to take care of it without some losses."

While Karl Franz was very confident that the combat capabilities of the Stormcast Eternals and new that Shield Company consisting of 24 Level 4 Professionals plus one Level 5 Professional show as the Shield-Captain should be able to defeat the Level 6 Creature or Beast, it wouldn't be without heavy loses.

Considering the fact that every single Stormcast Eternal was very precious to the Holy Arcadia Empire because they were the backbone of the entire Empire, he couldn't afford to lose them pointlessly.

Especially right now, after the Great Resurgence of the Magic, when it became much easier of the Daemons to manifest in the Material Plane from the Realms of Chaos, for the Danger Beast to advance to a higher Grade, in the age where the Beastmen's connection to their Dark Gods grew stronger than ever and in turn, the Beastmen themselves became more powerful.

The Empire was surrounded by enemies on all sides, and they needed every power they could get to survive, thrive, and become a dominant force even in the new Era that awaited them.

"Guess you are right, but when we reach the Khazad-dûm, I want to go to hunt for Troggs or Frost Trolls, maybe take some nest or two down; that could be fun."

Ice Trolls and Troggs...

Two long-time enemies of the dwarves since immemorial, and nowadays, thorns in the ass of the Empire because they were constantly creating more and more problems, even though they were not really any kind of military threat to the Holy Arcadia Empire. 

Not better than bandits and marauders. 

Troggs are a race of brutish, cave-dwelling humanoids that were known for their low intelligence and primitive society, yet they had high numbers and often came into conflict with the dwarven settlements and were locked in the long-time conflict with the dwarves since the fall of the Ancient Dwarven Empire.

Even though Troggs were beyond stupid creatures that barely could think of anything advanced than how to walk, they were very skillful at digging underground tunnels and moving under the ground.

They also had a very innate connection to the Earth, and thus, they were very troublesome to deal with, considering that they were living mainly under the ground. 

But it were the Ice Trolls or the Frost Trolls that were the most problematic species that lived in the Norsca. They could be found only in the Norsca and around fifteen thousand years ago, even before the Age of Fire, they were the rulers of the entire Norsca Peninsula and also the regions of today's Grand Province of Klandor. 

Apparently, according to the ancient scriptures, the Frost Trolls had a large Empire spanning these regions named the Drakkari Empire, but that was in the ancient past. Now, everything that remained was just a few scattered tribes that were hiding across the mountains and ruined cities.

Unforutnly for the Frost Trolls, soon enough, they would be hunted down to extinction because they refused to bend their knee to the Empire, and thus, Karl Franz was forced to comply with the requests of the Dwarves for extermination.

Which was rather a shame, because originally, he wanted to recruit the Frost Trolls or at least some of their tribes into the Empie. The Frost Trolls were unmatched in the art of Shamanism and Druidism, and they also had an especially high affinity for the Frost Magic.

They would have been very useful assets to the Empire, but the Frost Trolls were too proud of that and still lived in the delusions of their own grandeur. 

"As you wish, my fair lady. However, I still want to convince some of the Frost Trolls Tribes to bend their knees to the Empire. It would be rather a shame if they ended up exterminated because, with the addition of the Hextech Weaponry, the Dwarves would finally have enough firepower to blast them apart."

Karl Franz knew that hunting down the Frost Troll Tribes was very problematic because they knew the terrain of the Norsca as well as the Fenrisians or the Dwarves and Gnomes. They were masters in hiding and ambushes, so it was especially hard to annihilate them even after many centuries completely.

Yet, in the end, that won't matter that much longer once the Empire finishes construction of the very first Hextech Airship that would rain hell on the Ice Troll hideouts and bombard them to death until nothing aside from ashes remained from them.

And unforcedly for the Ice Trolls, with the current development speed of the Hextech and the overall technological and magical capabilities of the Empire, such a moment was very close. 

"Ts... you are still keen on recruiting those barbaric creatures. I told you, only good Ice Troll is dead one."

Maria often scoffed at his ideas of recruiting some of the Ice Trolls was ludicrous for her, but alas, he was the Holy Imperator, so she only voiced her opinion on the matter.

"You still cannot deny the usefulness of the Ice Trolls. Not to mention, they have an extremely long history of Shamanism and Druidism, something that the Empire is rather lagging behind them. And their affinity for the Frost Magic is second to none, my beloved huntress."

Karl Fraz stated neutrally because he really wished to preserve some of the Frost Trolls before the dwarves, Fenrisians, and Imperial Army exterminated their species.

It was a rather sad fate, but they were already causing a lot of problems when they were raiding the dwarven surface settlements, and in Fenris, they were slaughtering entire villages from time to time. 

And the pressure on him as the Holy Imperator from his subjects to solve the Ice Troll's menace from the citizens of the Grand Province of Fenris and League of Khaz-Modan was getting stronger and stronger with each passing year.

Karl Franz predicted that once the research into the Hextech was finished and they would start mass-producing Hextech weapons, everything from the Hex Swords to Hex Airships, he wouldn't be able to stall the topic of resolving the Ice Trolls.

"Nevertheless, I will support you, but If you allow, I would like to give you advice on the matter of the Frost Trolls."

He looked at his fianceé in surprise because she rarely showed some interest in politics or anything, so it was a rare occasion when she wanted to give him advice on these matters, something that he gladly welcomed.

"I have studied a bit about the Ice Trolls Tribes and noticed that recruiting any of them naturally is impossible. Most of them are too heavily invested in their traditions and past, not to mention that it would require them to live in co-existence with the dwarves, gnomes, and humans, which is hardly possible right now. But, there is one Tribe that could be perhaps recruited by the Empire under the right circumstances."

The Holy Imperator listened attentively to his finaceé as he was always open to suggestions from his closest advisors. Like, they said, more heads, more brains...

Or at least it worked most of the time.

"Right now, the Winterfang Tribe is undergoing internal strife because of two factions. One, under the Chieftain Shakor, is essentially loyal to the Drakkari, but the second faction, under the leadership of Chietain's cousin, Champion Kril, is calling for separation from the Darkkarim because they are saying that the Drakkari is exploring them and suppressing they're grown. This, after decades, has resulted in a huge internal civil war in the Winerfang Tribe, which is the second strongest Ice Troll Tribe in the entire Norsca Peninsula."

Karl Franz pondered over Maria's insight into the matter because if he wanted to conquer some of the Ice Trolls, then this would be indeed a good method. He was too aware that there was some discontent between some Ice Troll Tribes that were envious and hated the Drakkari Tribe who lorded over them.

"Hmm... this is rather a feasible method, but we would need to establish some communications with the Kril and his faction and hope that their hatred and jealousy towards the Drakkari is stronger than their hatred for the dwarves and the Empire."

The Ice Trolls were not the Children of Bul-Khatos that needed to be exterminated at any cost and as fast as possible, so the possibility of declaring a Holy Crusade on the Ice Trolls was actually pretty low.

While the Frost Trolls were indeed problematic and had deep grudges against the Empie, at the same time, they were not really that prone to the corruption of the Ruinious Powers and thus were not any time-ticking bombs.

The Barbarians living in the Badlands were often prone to the corruption of the Chaos and more often had unclear connections to the Realms of Chaos. For that, Karl Franz couldn't let them live because if the Chaos managed to corrupt all of the Children of Bul-Khatos, it would be a catastrophic situation for the Empire.

It was rather an ironic end because their ancestor, the first Immortal King Bul-Khatos, was one of the greatest champions of the Lordran who fought against the Forces of Ruin and killed one Daemon Prince after another.

"We could play on the emotional card and also bribe them. They should also be aware that the dwarves are strongly insisting on exterminating their species, and if not for the other threats to the Empire, then there would be no threat anymore."

When he thought over it, he decided to go with the Maria's suggestion and order the Officio Assassinorum and Office of the Imperial Military Intelligence to handle the matter. He really believed that this could be a successful plan if correctly executed; thus, he left it to the professionals who could deal with it. 

Hopefully, it will come to fruition because the expertise of the Frost Trolls in Shamanism and Druidism, as well as their Frost Magic, will strengthen the Holy Arcadia Empire on a whole level.

Right now, Shamanism and Druidism were severely undeveloped within the Empire. I was one of the areas of the Magical Arts that were not really properly developed, mainly due to the lack of people with an innate talent for Shamanism and Druidism compared to the other disciplines of Magic.

***

Outside of the G-1 Mobile Base, somewhere in the southern area of the League of Khaz-Modan

Karl Franz had already donned his armor as he waited for Cirilla to finish changing, and he took note that the environment was even more severe than he thought. The freezing cold was really something; it seemed that winter was even harsher than he had anticipated. 

Runic Armors were formerly crafted with the resistance towards various kinds of environments, and even without it, he would be alright because, as Level 6 Professional, he was far above this meager freezing cold.

Even though he had to admit that it was rather uncomfortable being in place for a longer time. 

Finally, after some time, Cirilal exited the G-1 Mobile Base. She had adjusted her short, white-silvery hair and looked around with an excited expression on her face. She wore an ornamental piece of armor that was intricately decorated with gold patterns, and the shoulder piece featured a lion's head, adding a regal and fierce touch.

The breastplate and greaves were heavily detailed because this armor was forged for her by famous dwarven Forge Masters on Karl Franz's requirements as he wanted to give her some proper Runic Armor.

The armor had attached a rich blue sash or cloth that flowed over her armor, adorned with gold embroidery, giving a touch of elegance to her battle-ready appearance. The cloak draped over her shoulder adds a layer of sophistication and authority and is lined with a fur collar for added distinction.

Karl Franz also ordered for a custom-made sword to be made for her according to her specifications. It was an elaborately designed sword with a guard shaped like a lion's head, hinting at her heritage of Princess of Cintra, whose national symbol was the Lion. 

"You look pretty good in that armor."

He complimented her looks because she indeed looked very beautiful and regal, wearing the armor that was created by the top dwarven Forge Masters in the entire Holy Arcadia Empire and was on the part with the armor and weapons used by the Stormcast Eternals.

"I can't even thank you properly for the peace... it's perfect in every sense, and even the sword is one if not the one best weapon that I have ever seen."

In fact, she was amazed that he had just gifted her something that had not been seen in her own world or in many worlds that she had visited before. The quality of the armor and sword that Karl Franz gifted her was really out of the standard.

Any standards.

On top of that, it was the Runic Armor and Runic Sword, meaning it was inscribed with the Runes and made from the hardest and most durable materials possible, infused with the untold amount of Magic, making it ultimate offense and defense.