Ulric
Ulric is the god of winter, battle, and wolves in the Warhammer Fantasy world. He is the second most popular god in the Empire (just behind Sigmar), and is mainly worshiped in the northern provinces of the Empire (that is, Nordland, Ostland and Middenland). He is part of the Cult of the Old Gods.
Originally, Ulric was the most important of the gods of the pre-unification. At least every Imperial tribe worshiped Ulric in some aspect, with the Teutogens being his most ardent followers (a trend which continues to this day, as the descendants of the Teutogens now rule Middenland and the office of Ar-Ulric is open only to those of pure Teutogen ancestry). Sigmar himself was perhaps the most deeply devout of Ulric's mortal followers. Hence, it goes without saying, that if he were alive to see how the Cult of Ulric has been marginalized and ridiculed by the Sigmarites, he would likely launch into an apocalyptic blood rage that would wipe out the Old World and impress Khorne Himself. Assuming they didn't actually become the same being for the good of Order. One might say Sigmar was basically a Warrior-Priest of Ulric.
Commandments
Bravery, self-reliance and strength are the greatest virtues. Underhandedness of any kind is dishonorable and at odds with Ulric's nature of directness and honor. Obey your military superiors and never refuse an order unless doing so would break another of Ulric's tenets. Never refuse a direct challenge. Modern weapons, such as gunpowder weapons, artillery, crossbows and fire-bombs, because they do not rely any physical strength are shunned. Followers of Ulric must never allow one of the fires of a shrine or temple to go out. Oppose Chaos wherever you see it. Never flee a fight unless facing overwhelming odds and the greater good would be served by such a flight.
His portfolio is very similar to Sigmar's (though the Ulrican doctrines focus more on the physical aspects of battle than Sigmarite ideals, which tend to encompass the spiritual and mental portions of warriorhood), and so the churches do have various disputes, especially over the election of a new Emperor; the main sticking point is that the cult of Ulric only has one vote compared to the cult of Sigmar's three.
Given the Ulrican slant towards forthrightness in battle and life and disdain for cowardice, followers of Ulric distrust the followers of Ranald, the god of thievery and luck.
In Kislev, there exists much suspicion between the followers of the Winter Wolf and those who place their faith in the Sun God Dazh. This is primarily due to the fact that Kislev gets the worst winters in the world, second only to Norsca, and they don't need some silly southerners telling them how nice that is. FUCK. Of course, embracing Ulric would solve that problem for Kislev, but since this has "Warhammer" in the name, common sense can go fuck itself. If anyone suggested worshipping the god of winter for protection from winter’s danger, they’d be in deep shit for not being a moron.
The End Times
Ulric is fighting the chaos gods during the end times, holding them back so that Archaon and his chaos forces can't take Middenheim. Unfortunately, Teclis being the typical selfish-elf-dick-archetype stole his flame to power up/revive his bro and thus killed Ulric (because risking Chaos winning is totally worth giving your brother a little longer to live and, by the way, risking Chaos getting said brother's soul if Chaos wins). With Ulric's absence and Boris Todbringer murdered by a bunch of stupid Beastmen, whom Boris decided to take some quick vengeance on, Middenheim finally fell. Although Ulric was able to buff the new supreme patriarch Gregor Martak with the power to kill Malagor the Dark Omen, he still gets slammed and then uses his remaining power to possess a knight named Wendel Volker. Ulric knew Teclis was the one that stole his flame and confronts him later on with Wendel's body and the Emperor on his side, which Teclis responded to by saying he would steal his flame even a thousand times if he were able to travel back in time because the age of the gods is over and it is time for the incarnate of winds to take charge. Well fuck you Teclis, you pointy-eared piece of shit, you are no better an elf than Malekith or your brother. It can be inferred Teclis believed Chaos would be beaten back by said incarnates instead of relying on the, y'know, guarantee that the gods actually holding back Chaos would...hold back Chaos. He just wanted an excuse to resurrect his brother and use wishful thinking (spoiler: he was wrong). To say nothing of the fact he believed the incarnates would hold back Chaos after he just witnessed a city fall specifically because of his reliance on incarnates.
Like all elves outside of Tolkien, the fucktard thought he could have his cake (his brother) and eat it (stop Chaos from full victory). And like all elves, he didn’t care how many people died or worse because of it even if he had succeeded (he failed miserably). Even though a lot of those were his own people.
Then again, if the gods couldn’t protect themselves from a mortal...
Interestingly, it was discovered by Archaon that the flame of Ulric was housed on top of a device of the Old Ones, and just like every Old One artifact, it is warp-related machinery that has the power to create a chaos rift if properly tended. This might have raised some interesting question about Ulric's origin.
Another notable feature about Ulric is that when he possessed people like Gregor Martak and Wendel Volker, it made their turn white and their eyes become the color of amber, like wolves. Both of them also gained the ability to cast ice related magic, having omnipresence to their surroundings as well as lower the surrounding temperature like a true wolf-god of winter. Also, he technically isn't really dead, otherwise he couldn't possess anyone. His body is kaput but he's a god, he can fix that or make a new one and since the gods exist in the Warp which is only as real as you believe...exactly. Teclis isn't quite smart enough to realize he pissed off the strongest gods in the setting. Or that humans might decide that killing off his species in retribution sounds fair.
Crossover
Does Ulric's portfolio of beliefs sound kinda familiar?
...No, really, does it? *BLAM!*
See Also
| The Gods of the Empire |
|---|
| Manann - Morr - Myrmidia - Ranald - Rhya - Shallya - Sigmar - Taal - Ulric - Verena |