Editing Warhammer: Age of Sigmar (section)

====[[Kharadron Overlords]]====
Another new addition to the Age of Sigmar are these guys. You see, back during the early days of the Age of Chaos these Duardin fought against the invaders just as everyone else did. Realizing victory was impossible, they started to think of ways to escape the shitshow the Mortal Realms was about to become, and took the unusual step of turning their backs on the old traditions. Using a substance called "aether-gold" they were able to power their technology to incredible heights and bugger off to safety. With the return of Sigmar to the Realms they've decided it's high time to set their airships aloft and do some good old-fashioned adventuring!

Aesthetically they have a far more scientifically-advanced look than anyone else in the game. Their look has many people citing Warmachine and its steampunk style as an influence. Each of these Duardin is clad head-to-toe with gear and armour which protects them from adverse effects of the local environment. This means that whatever else you can say about them, they possess far more common sense than most - these Duardin are exploring hostile, unknown lands and treat them as such!

The Kharadron live in meritocracies in huge, Laputa-style flying cities and send out expeditions to find aether-gold, a substance that they both covet like all dwarves covet gold, but it also the literal fuel source that powers all their technology, and without it their massive flying strongholds, called Baraks, would lose power and fall out of the sky. Being a merit-based system, only the most kickass and profitable duardin can become Admirals or governors, and should they repeatedly fail to prove themselves are demoted back into the regular rank and file, where they could prove themselves again or stay in obscurity.

Aether-Gold is a notoriously fickle substance, and even the most learned of alchemists can hardly find it, let alone make anything with the stuff. However, the Aether-Khemists of the Kharadron can smell (yes, smell, it's an actual skill taught in Khemist colleges) Aether-Gold and can refine it into all sorts of useful materials, almost like 40k's Promethium. Unfortunately, it also attracts monsters, who subconsciously flock to veins of the stuff to roost. Har-Krakens (flying krakens), chimerae, manticores, and dragons are all noted to love building nests and lairs in clouds harboring Aether-Gold. This makes collecting and harvesting Aether-Gold extremely dangerous, so every Kharadron skyvessel serves a dual purpose: they must be able to collect, refine, and haul Aether-Gold, as well as be super-defensive battleships against any foe. This means that a Kharadron Frigate is less of a war machine and more of a big oil tanker with a machine gun stapled on top, and the mighty Ironclad is just a freight train with rocket launchers.

The Kharadron are, much like the Fyreslayers, only on the side of Order because Order tends to backstab you the least. Long ago, when the ancestors of the Kharadron were struggling to stay safe in the Age of Chaos, the other Order factions abandoned them as a lost cause like a bunch of shitty assholes. [[Grungni]], the last living Dorf god, similarly left them behind, thinking that they would fare well without his help while paying no consideration about the consequences of such an act. The Duardin remembered this, and now refuse to help others unless offered something in exchange (almost universally Aether-Gold, or maps to Aether-Gold veins). That being said, if the Kharadron have useful trading partners that are threatened, the Kharadron will jump in to help, but not out of sentimentality, but instead out of pure pragmatism. After all, a living ally is more profitable than a dead one. This means that although they're mercenary assholes who will fight for anyone for the right price (even Chaos), they're smarter than the Fyreslayers who abandon or betray allies at the first glint of Ur-Gold.