Book of Grudges

The Great Book of Grudges (Dammaz Kron in Khazalid) is a sacred item to the Dwarfen folk.

Da Rules *WHAM* DA GRUDGES YA UMGI FOOL

In essence, it's pretty much the place where they record everyone and everything that ever "extremely" wronged them. The book itself came into being since the time when the Dwarfs came into being, and was since then passed down from High King to High King, with the current one being Thorgrim Grudgebearer. Whenever someone did something really horrible, like hiring them to build a palace then refusing to pay them, or attacking a trade cart killing dozens if not hundreds of Dwarfs for no reason other than you didn't like them (and not stealing a keg of beer for example, something ignored in Total War: Warhammer where 'shortchanging them for a palace by two coppers' counts), then that person's name/group's name/army's name/or even race's name would go into the book with the description of the grudge-worthy act, written in the High King's own blood.

However Dwarfs being Dwarfs if you did do something 'petty' like steal a keg of beer then that deed would very likely go into some dwarf's own personal book of grudges. An example of such a personal book can be found in Vermintide where Bardin's Book of Personal Grudges is a trinket in the game. So be aware then any slight you do against a dwarf is likely not to be forgotten for a long, long, long time.

The good old Dwarven tradition is to settle these grudges the old fashioned way. And by old fashioned, we mean AN AXE TO THE FACE. Alternatively, since Thorgrim is not fucking stupid like most of the other Dwarf kings before him THAT'S GOING IN THE BOOK YOU WAZZOK, he lets the act go if they make up for it, like actually getting paid for that palace they didn't get paid to build, even if it is very late in coming. According to Total War: Warhammer they are not above declaring grudges against mountains, literally, for a landslide or something that killed some dwarfs (then again it's the same series where the Orcs are mentioned as collecting Teef and that also doesn't happen in Fantasy). Such a grudge would be settled by strip mining the shit out of the place until nothing useful is left. Other times, the Book is used as a means for the population to petition the Longbeards to aid them with something such as a Khazrak Karak (Khazrak being the Beastman who got Toddy's eye) being poorly defended and helping with the public order or to provide material aid to alleviate a crisis.

When a grudge is settled, it is crossed out. Of course this being Dwarfs, until Thorgrim came along grudges were rarely crossed out even after they were avenged because most Dwarfs consider it more fun to reminisce about the vengeance. In addition, more grudges appear than are settled as each battle means dead Dwarfs or injured equipment, which means more grudges as a cycle of revenge. Due to what's going on in the Old World, these grudges will dramatically grow in numbers.

It is also said that the more of these grudges fill the book, then the Dwarven race is more probable to die out...unless they actually overcome their stubbornness.

Surprisingly, despite all these grudges, you never hear about a Dwarf Book of Grudges running out of pages. Lore implies that at least the High King's book magically either has an endless number of pages or generates more when needed; it's confirmed that the magic allows it to remain the same size and weight no matter how many pages it has.

There was however one situation when a grudge was not written down. When the Dwarfs under Thorgrim Grudgebearer's command met with Tyrion in order to save the High Queen's daughter from Mannfred von Carstein, but the vampire still escaped with her, Tyrion blamed the Dwarfs for it and insulted them so offensively it was as if he physically struck them. After this the bearded powderkegs urged Thorgrim to write what Tyrion did into the book, yet the High King chose not to, probably seeing it that they might have screwed up. He also didn't want to perpetuate the vicious cycle of vindictiveness. This also shows that Grudgebearer is actually cool-headed for a Dwarf.

List of notable "Extraordinary" individuals recorded in the book

Skarsnik - The one mention having the most entries in the book. A cunning goblin as well as the warlord of the Eight Peaks. Congrats, you filthy grobi, hope Grimnir feasts on your dirty greenskin blood, you little shit.

Grimgor Ironhide - Committed several acts of dawi-slaughter with his magic axe Gitsnik, as well as cooking captured Dawi alive inside their armor.

Gorfang Rotgut - Written in for innumerable offences, but most infamously breaking into Karak Azul, looting many treasures and killing many dwarfs, alongside shaming King Kazador's son Kazrik by shaving his beard (which drove Kazrik insane from trauma). Finally stricken from the Book after being slain in single combat by Thorgrim Grudgebearer. Good fucking riddance.

Ushoran - Filthy two faced oathbreaker who invaded Silver Pinnacle with Neferata. He is called an Oathbreaker because he once ruled the city of Mourkain, primitive but effective trading ground for the Dawi and appeared to be a pretty cool guy. He shown his true nature after he went mad with the power of Nagash's crown and going on an ape shit killing frenzy against the Dawi, eventually went to siege the silver pinnacle with another no good "queen of evil" Neferata (see below). No bad deed goes unpunished of course, for his empire was later attacked by Neferata and the orcs; he has since gone insane, devolving into the filthy, flea-ridden monster he has always been. FUCK. HIM.

Neferata - The first recorded Uzkular (Undead) grudge. She was fine in the eyes of the Dawi at first, administrating the trading between Karaz Bryn and the city of Mourkain, and even fought greenskins together. Their alliance eventually broke when Razek Silverfoot discovered their undead secret and was slain. Although she did invade the Silver Pinnacle with the forces of Mourkain, she offered peaceful surrender terms to the king Borri Silverfoot and his civilians, only for the civilians to be killed by Khaled al Muntasir and other Strigoi Vampires shortly after - albeit against Neferata's wishes. The king and other surviving Dwarfs took Slayer oaths in shame and sorrow, and thus began the Dawi hatred for undead. Though Ushoran was the first undead recorded, the concept of necromancy was not well known at the time so he was recorded as a Zangunaz (blood drinker). After Neferata however, it became the Dawi's word for vampires (and one of the titles of dishonor they gave Neferata was "Queen of Evil").

Khaled al Muntasir - Began his Dawi slaughtering career at the Silver Pinnacle (see above), then joined Nagash to torment the Dawi's best friend: Sigmar and his Empire. Fled like the bitch coward he was after he lost against Sigmar at a staring contest and mocked him about the Empire's hard times. Although he is supposed to be Mannfred Von Carstein, the Dawi probably view them as two different persons and record their grudges separately.

Malekith - Broke Snorri Whitebeard's promises and caused massive devastation on both elves and dwarfs after he disguised his agents as high elves to assault a dwarf caravan. Apparently has so many grudges against him that the complete record outside the Great Book of Grudges fills libraries (yet apparently still not as many as Skarsnik the aforementioned goblin, who gained more grudges in decades than Malekith got in millennia). Fuck you Malekith, you Elgi'drazh piece of shit!

Caledor II - This arrogant Phoenix king is the second reason why the War of the Beard WAR OF VENGEANCE started. He insulted the Dwarfs when they came to compensate for their lost caravan and even go as far to shave the beard of Forek Grimbok, the Dwarfs emissary that was sent to negotiate. This led Grimbok to become a slayer out of humiliation and Gotrek Starbreaker, the high king at the time to swear a mighty oath to get the compensation in either gold or blood from the Elves or else he'd shave his own beard. Such terrifying oaths and tragedies has led Caledor II to have 437 separate grudges against him, along with many insults the Dwarfs created to demean and ridicule him (see below). As of now, this grudge has been avenged with the elf king's death and the high king got the Phoenix Crown in compensation. Still, many grudges against the Elven race as a whole remain and the war will forever be remembered as proof that the elves are untrustworthy. He's also acknowledged by both races as CALEDOR THE IDIOT for what he did.

Queek Head-Taker - Killed many Dwarves during his fight for the Karak Eight Peaks as well as wasted an entire armory of expensive, powerful runic weaponry at Karak Azul in a pitch battle where he tricked the Orc of Black Crag to fight with the Dwarves of Karak Azul. His grudge got written off in the End Times where High King Thorgrim publicly declared his crimes, choked him, then beheaded the overgrown rat with his axe during the Skaven siege on Karaz-a-Karak.

Krell - A powerful Khornate champion who had killed many Dwarves in life and death. His grudge is a notable one since it began in ancient time before the time of Sigmar, where he sided with the despicable Night Goblins to assault the Dwarf strongholds of Karak Ungor and Karak Varn. Fortunately, a Dwarf hero named Grimbul Ironhelm killed him during the assault on Karak Kadrin where his grudge was redeemed (or the dwarfs thought at that time). He made a return after 1500 years, raised as an undead wight under the control of the dreaded necromancer Nagash. Even after Krell and Nagash were defeated by Sigmar himself, he made ANOTHER return centuries later, raised by a necromancer named Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster, who now has him as his thrall (until the retcon). So yeah, Krell is a badass and the only individual on this book that had their entry appear more than once for every time the grudge was redeemed as he died three times (six times if you count The End Times - getting his head snipped off by a Tomb Scorpion in the Battle of Khemri, swallowed whole by a Greater Daemon of Nurgle in the Battle for the Black Pyramid and finally when he got killed by Sigvald in Middenheim).

Nagash - A very ancient and powerful necromancer who is really, REALLY fucking evil to everyone (even chaos) that not even the book of grudges can ignore him, and he has about as many entries as Malekith. Nagash is responsible for personally destroying at least one Dwarf hold, creating vampires (aka Zangunaz) plus the concept of undeath in general, as well as two other extraordinary individuals on this list: Krell and Neferata. He even tried to kill Sigmar, the Dwarfs' best friend, but failed. He probably had a grudge for every time a random necromancer cast a spell on a Dawi OR raised a Dawi into living death. It is also because of him the Tomb Kings (aka Uzkuli'gorl) were created and now haunt every Dawi who had their jewelry as the kings' heirloom, or included some of the stolen gold from the kings' in their heirlooms.

Deathmaster Snikch - A particular individual who is so deadly that its art of killing is completely incomprehensible. Most notable of its actions include: killing Belegar's brother Dromgar inside a highly secured hold and making his head disappear, wiping out Thorgrim's descendants as well as many other Dawi in one killing spree at a highly secured Karak-a-Karak, as well as destroying Dwarf Engineer Thornik Thorson's Iron Cog-dragon on the eve of the Battle of the Bitter Peak. Just WHO could managed to pull such a feat? Certainly not a cowardly beast like the Skavens. Heard it could even wield three glowing green knives. THREE!? and GREEN? It has even been sighted in many areas of the Empire, where it has created countless murders that made them manling's mind boggled, such as the case where a manling wizard was flayed in a highly secured and locked chamber. Do noted the most frightening thing was that the Dwarfs do not even knew the name of this assassin rat; they had to gave him an alias, "Murder Demon of Darkness," in the book's entry.

Age of Sigmar

Grudges are carried over into all of the Age of Sigmar Duardin factions, though this element is generally downplayed compared to fantasy.

Back when the Dispossessed had their own army rules and weren't just part of Cities of Sigmar soup, they had game mechanics based around assigning Grudges to their opponents similar to the old Ancestral Grudge rule from Fantasy.

The Kharadron Overlords still use grudges, although they see it as an antiquated system and only Barak-Thryng, the most conservative of the Skyports, still makes heavy use of it. Those pursuing a grudge are given the Rune of Mark, which gives the bearer special exemptions from the Kharadron Code, and great rewards are given to the skyfarers who slay the foe whose name is written on it. At the centre of Barak-Thryng is the Grudgehall, where every offence against the city is written down on a rune-slate and put into a library that covers an entire district. The warriors of Barak-Thyring often take these rune-slates into battle to remind themselves of the most grievous insults their enemies have delivered to them. The book "The Arkanaut's Oath" also mentions a Kharadron Book of Grudges called the Skarenoffri Damakronn.

Fyreslayers are also known to hold grudges, which are recorded alongside the rest of the Lodge's lore by the Battlesmiths. The Gelvagd Lodge of Azyr in particular are infamous for their grudge-bearing, and hold a practice of chiseling their grudges onto metal tablets which they melt down once the grudge is settled.

Warhammer 40k

While the 40k had their own dwarf, they do not have such grudge keeping culture. But it was mentioned that White Scars has this "scroll of vengeance" which they used to record any enemies who had managed escape from their ridiculously speedy bike. These enemies will then be killed by the Master of the Hunt (a particular space marine of the White Scars who is obviously a strong member of the chapter with a high standing such as a captain) during the Great Hunt, its head decapitated, its skull masked in silver and staked along the road that leads through the Khum Karta mountains towards the Palace of Quan Zhou, White Scar's greatest fortress-monastery. Every enemies and their misdeeds on the scrolls is then recited at every quarter of the century by a chaplain during the Rites of Howling with the Chapter Master decided the next target for the great hunt. There is one mentioned the scroll was used by Kor'sarro Khan, where after the events of Escape from Cano'var, he wrote down the name of the necron who killed and imprisoned his battle brothers: Nemesor Zahndrekh and Vargard Obyron.

With the introduction of the Leagues of Votann, leaked datacards imply they have grudges of their own, with references to a "Judgement Token" system that allows you to allocate enemies your forces have grudges against and gain bonuses against them. This also plays into several of their psyker's abilities, as they channel the hatred of their ancestors to set those with grudges against them on fire.

Gallery

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  Caledor II, the Elven Settra of INSULTED.