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Mengil Manhide's Manflayers

2021-02-20T08:51:43Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Career Change */

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[[File:Darkelven MengilManhide.jpg|thumb|"Nothing personal, kid."]]
{{Topquote|You misunderstand. I don't do it for the money. I do it because I enjoy it.|Mengil himself}}

'''Mengil Manhide's Manflayers''' are one of the [[Regiments of Renown]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. They are a Dark Elf mercenary band, consisting of guerilla style warriors led by the noble turned mercenary captain, who in later editions would be retconned into a cruel fiend even by Druchii standards.

==Fluff==
===First Edition lore===
The first edition lore was a bit scant. During the spring of his last year, a forest-dwelling Dark Elf leader named Kraal the Hearteater - an elf version of Charles Manson, gathered all the young men of his immediate family. Spells were cast, sacrifices were made, and these elves were initiated into their family cult. At the completion of the ceremony, Kraal carried out a family tradition; expelling the newly initiated men from the forest and forbidding them from returning until each had slain a human warrior or died in the attempt.

Mengil, Kraal's son, quickly acclimatized to his new social role despite never having left his forested home before. He found a huge Norse champion, killed him, skinned him and fashioned the skin into a cloak. Mengil found that he liked the marauding life so much that he decided against returning to his father's people, and set out on a life of banditry and mayhem.

He founded a company of Dark Elves and modelled their style after his, establishing both the dress code of flayed skin over armor for of his followers and his full new name - Mengil Manhide. The company was further strengthened when Mengil joined forces with the Dark Elf renegade Champion, Ean Hawkbane, who had a large trained owl which served both in combat and as a scout.

===Fifth Edition lore===
Numerous changes were made, greatly expanding on their lore and this is where Mengil got really [[Edgy|edgy]].

====Origins====
Here, Kraal the Hearteater was instead a powerful and cruel lord from Clar Karond who set his sons grueling tests to see who was worthy to carry on the bloodline; the "worthy" succeeded, the "unworthy" failed. Mengil's test was to hunt down an armed slave, a powerful Norseman, that Kraal had released into the forest around Clar Karond; Mengil wouldn't be allowed back into the city until he killed the Norseman and returned with proof of the deed.

Mengil tracked down and killed his quarry, and when he overcame his foe he rejoiced in the thrill of the kill. Now here's where he starts to get edgy. Mengil smeared blood across his face and drank deeply from the Norseman's heart before skinning the Norseman and eating his flesh. Mengil wore the bloodied skin as a cloak. Unlike First Edition lore, Mengil returned to his old man, wearing the cloak of flayed skin as he walked back into Clar Karond, earning him the respect of his father and the honorific title 'Manhide'.

Mengil became Kraal's favorite son, which made his brothers try to go all "Cain and Abel" on him. Mengil killed two of his murderous siblings in one night, skinned them and had their bloodied, skinless corpses delivered to his one remaining brother as a warning.

====Rise to Power====
When he was old enough, Mengil joined the ranks of the Corsairs of Clar Karond, his rapid rise was only tarnished by his increasing viciousness (coming from Dark Elves, that's saying something) and unpredictability. His superiors had him conduct lightning raids, slaughtering any defenders and retreating with what captives he could before a counter-attack could be formed. But Mengil would more often stubbornly refuse to retreat and strike at the larger defensive force.

While his skill, ferocity and leadership often ensured he was victorious, he generally returned with few slaves, for Mengil took perverse pleasure in killing. Not only did he slay even those who surrendered, he'd continuing to hack and cut up their bodies long after life was gone. He continued his practice of skinning, and at times eating, his defeated foes, and his father's halls in Clar Karond were bedecked with savage trophies reaped from all over the world. He also had a cannibalistic taste for Dark Elves who got on his bad side, which made his comrades and subordinates even more afraid of him.

Within half a century, Mengil led the majority of raids launched from the Black Ark known as the Citadel of Spite. Over the next two decades, the Citadel of Spite became hated by the High Elves, synonymous with despair and grief as it raided Ulthuan's coast and shipping lanes, along with those of Norsca, Bretonnia, Araby and Estalia. Though the Black Ark did not often return with living slaves once Mengil was done with them, his superiors were satisfied with the terror sown by his brutal raids.

====Career Change====
For a time, the Citadel of Spite controlled the entrance to the Tilean Sea, preying on merchants, smugglers and pirates, as well as routinely slaughtering villages around Remas and Sartosa. However, during one such raid, the Black Ark was attacked by High Elf warships and forced to retreat back to deeper water, leaving many of its warriors, including Mengil, trapped ashore. The Black Ark's captain, who'd seen three predecessors of his murdered in a mad rage by Mengil, chose not to return for the vicious warrior, claiming instead that he was dead.

Stranded in Tilea, Mengil and his men made their way inland under the cover of darkness, moving through the forests and then into the southern Apuccini Mountains. After a season of preying indiscriminately on passing merchants and their hired guards, Mengil was approached by a wealthy warrior-merchant from Verezzo. The pair struck a deal, and thus began the Dark Elf's new career as a paid killer.

Throughout the lands of the Old World, Mengil plied his trade, and he and the band of Dark Elf warriors who follow him, known as the Manflayers, are rightly feared. They are employed as assassins and murderers, and are often used to eliminate rivals. He is often used by those who wish to make an example of the target, for Mengil takes savage pleasure in skinning his foes, often leaving the skinless bodies of his victims hanging from the trees or impaled on spikes in the ground. Mengil even returned to Naggaroth several times, where Dark Elf lords readily employed him to eliminate their rivals. On one such occasion, Mengil repaid the Citadel of Spite's captain for abandoning him, his gruesome fate becoming a cautionary tale against double-crossing the Manflayer. On occasion, Mengil's Manflayers will take to the battlefield, employed to infiltrate deep into enemy territory to spread terror and confusion.

The Manflayers go into battle armed with greatswords, repeater crossbows and festooned with an array of knives and various other blades. They prefer to maim and cripple rather than outright kill, for they will often stop in the heat of battle to acquire new trophies, flaying the dead and the dying they leave in their wake. They march to war under the Banner of Kalad, named for the Dark Elf whose skin the banner is made from; Kalad was one of Mengil's brothers who Mengil killed for practicing sorcery in defiance of the Witch King's decree forbidding any but his appointed Sorceresses from doing so. The banner is enchanted, creating a nimbus of shadow around Mengil and his warriors, making them even more difficult to spot and able to approach their prey even more closely before they strike.

Like the previous version, Mengil met a Dark Elf champion named Ean Hawkbane who became his right-hand man. Unlike the previous version, this arrangement ended after several years when Mengil [[Grimdark|gutted, skinned and ate him after a disagreement]].

[[Category:Regiments of Renown]]
[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Morathi

2021-02-20T08:42:51Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Broken Realms */

[[File:Morathi.jpg|500px|thumb|right|"Don't you wish your mother was hot like me?"]]
{{Topquote|A scratch from an envenomed dagger, a sip from a poisoned chalice, a slight to a proud warrior's honour... In time these things may do far more grievous harm than the broadsword or the axe, my love...|Morathi}}
{{Topquote|Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.|Groucho Marx}}

'''Morathi''' is the Queen of the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Druchii]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]], the supreme leader of their religious faction and mother to the racial leader [[Malekith]].

She is also perverted, incestuous, so-sexy-you'll-die-for-real-lolz, and pretty much a complete bitch as she was responsible for a lot of the actions that screwed over Elfkind. Don't believe us? Read and weep oh dear reader.

Her character suffered greatly from a 7th edition retcon, further worsened in 8e until in [[End Times]] her role in history was reduced to mostly "had a baby who is really important" and scheming on the side that kills a lot of people but contributes nothing to the story. Many fans were angered by her apparent and very disappointing death in the event, although it was later revealed she survived and may in fact still regain her glory as an important character.

She is usually seen mostly naked, although sometimes she covers her breasts or uses pasties, and always rides her Dark Pegasus named Sulephet into battle. Her model is one of the raciest in the Warhammer range as she wears a metal thong and little else, her perfect tits on display for everyone to see (something she uses with magic in a Black Library novel she gets a starring role in to render an entire mixed-gender garrison of soldiers into standing mutely while riding up and down in front of their fortress on Suluphet as they get shot to pieces with her crossbow forces). The model of her even has them helpfully pushed upwards for the best possible angle. It could be she does this because her son is so lacking in sex appeal she must make up for both of them....oh the harsh duties she must do!

==The Legend==
She was originally a mere maiden, rescued by the first Phoenix King [[Aenarion]] from a [[Chaos]] slave caravan and he was so taken with her that he took her to be his new wife, having recently lost his first wife the [[Everqueen]] to a [[Daemons|Daemonic]] attack. Considering her actions later, the rumors of her being a [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] Sorceress and using her magicks to charm Aenarion were most likely true. Aenarion moved his court to [[Ulthuan|Nagarythe]] and fell into a hedonistic lifestyle while his armies battled the Daemon apocalypse raging all around. Morathi eventually gave birth to his third child, Malekith, and encouraged Aenarion to sit back and relax as everything would turn out ''juuuuuuust fine''. [[Caledor the Dragontamer]], Aenarion's old friend, hated Morathi bitterly and knew she was wreaking havoc on his already damaged mind. In a last act of desperation, Caledor gathered his Wizards and began channeling magic to create a Vortex that would suck excess magic out of the Warhammer World so Daemons would have difficulty manifesting forevermore. Morathi encouraged Aenarion to slay Caledor for his betrayal, although upon reaching the site of the ritual he instead defended his friend against the might of Chaos itself.

After the disappearance of Aenarion and the trapping of Caledor within the Vortex, Morathi planned and groomed her son to take the throne. When the actual election came however, Malekith assured the Princes of the land he was willing to accept a vote for him rather than simply claim the throne by birthright. In a retcon in [[End Times]] this turned out to be a gambit to ensure the loyalty of the Elf people and the manipulations of Chaos robbed him of his birthright; however, in original canon this was simply the only moral choice he ever made. His friend Bel Shanaar was chosen instead, and Morathi raved and ranted like a wild woman over their "treachery". Only Malekith could calm her, and assure her they had made the right choice. He then took to the sea to explore the world like his father had, being gone for many years. During his travels he encountered [[Warriors of Chaos|human Chaos worshipers]] and random undead, fighting them for control of a magical crown. Curious, he placed it on his head and saw a future where Chaos would conquer his people. He immediately rushed home.

Prior to the 7e retcon, Malekith began searching his homeland for Chaos worship and discovered the Cult of Pleasure revering Slaanesh, with his own mother Morathi as the High Priestess to Slaanesh himself having corrupted a very large chunk of the Elf race to her way of thinking. She fled to the city of Anlec where a large number of cultists resided. Malekith led an army consisting of both his own army and the supporting armies led by the princes of Ellyrion, Yvresse, Chrace and Saphery. Malekith was successful in breaching the cities defences and confronted his mother in the cities palace. Though Morathi had the upper hand with her great sorcerous powers, she was defeated. Morathi was spared from certain death by convincing her son that she would give him her full support of the cults and help him gain the Phoenix throne. She was brought before the court of the Phoenix king in the city of Tor Anroc. Though she would have been executed for her Crimes, Malekith convinced Bel Shanaar to imprison her instead (Despite Imrik of Caledor's insistence that she must die, even offering to strike the deathblow himself).

He called a meeting of the Princes of Ulthuan to reveal a discovery about the Cult. Rather than point the finger at his mother, he accused Bel Shanaar of the heresy as Bel lay dying from poison Malekith had slipped him. He then declared that he himself was the fit ruler of the Elf race, and stepped through the [[Asuryan|Flames of Asuryan]] which select who is fit to be Phoenix King. Due to his treachery and the fact the Flames are designed to root out the unworthy, his full-retard plan resulted in him burning to bacon. His followers quickly slaughtered the unarmed Princes while Morathi rushed him out and kept him alive with her magic until a priest of [[Vaul]] loyal to his family sealed him in a suit of frozen armor that would reduce the misery of his blackened body.

In the retcon, Morathi was not involved in the story at all; he returned knowing that he was the true Phoenix King as desired by Asuryan while Bel Shanaar had been shielded by magic which disqualified him from judgement, and Malekith himself was only rejected because he was immature and filled with fear. His followers killing the Princes was apparently justified somehow, and everything that happened was all the fault of the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Asur]] because reasons and grimderpness. She still helped him survive however, and if anything was cast in a more motherly role than the manipulative one.

Either way, Malekith and Morathi gathered their supporters and their culture took a turn for the dark; pre-retcon Morathi summoned Daemons which feed on Elf souls to ravage the countryside while the formerly banned worship of the war god [[Khaine]] replaced all other faiths. Eventually the bitter civil war turned against the new Dark Elf faction, and as one final "fuck you" Morathi messed with the Vortex. When that backfired she, Malekith and the other Dark Elf sorcerers/sorceresses launched huge chunks of Nagarythe away from the land like boats, causing massive death and destruction across Ulthuan. They then settled in a new land to the west, a series of landmasses split by bodies of water that are vaguely in the shape of our real world North America, populated by vicious and nasty monsters as well as Chaos humans. These lands were called Naggaroth, and after destroying the High Elf colonies and humans who dwelled here the Dark Elves settled them.

During this time, in early editions it was implied Morathi and Malekith were lovers who also constantly vied for control of their race while planning to kill each other. Dark Elves set up many batshit insane celebrations such as a night where the Cult of Pleasure and/or Cult of Khaine are allowed to take anyone they want who can't buy their own lives in huge amount of slaves and slaughter them in any way they wish ([[Gav Thorpe]] went on record in regards to Elf storytelling that numbers don't matter, High Elves can lose millions as a statistic or ten as a tragedy and either way they will be dying out, and although Dark Elves always lose massive population due to stupid reasons will always be only in jeopardy in regards to the future but not currently on the verge of extinction). Later lore did away with the incest, Slaanesh worship, and plotting; Morathi went from the ultimate hedonistic schemer and rival to her son like a cougar version of Caligula to his dear sad mother sadly stricken with a mild case of dementia as she continued to believe that she was living in the court of Nagarythe and sometimes mistook Malekith for Aenarion whom she genuinely loved rather than manipulated, all while continuing her duties as high priestess of the Elf god of pleasure [[Atharti]] (as Gav Thorpe thought Elves worshiping Slaanesh makes no sense, since he thinks of them as [[Eldar]] in rat-infested shitholes). Either way, Morathi went to great pains to keep herself youthful. She bathed constantly in blood made from screaming Elf babies, a technique learned either from Slaanesh or Khaine directly depending on pre or post retcon.

As Naggaroth grew in power, Malekith saw the Chaos worshiping Elves as a possible threat to his power. He established Khaine as the official god of the Dark Elves, although loyalty was ultimately only to himself. The Witches were nonetheless loyal only to Morathi and their gods, Khaine and (in older canon) Slaanesh with the two factions politicking against each other while hiding their true allegiance from the rest of the race (as an open secret lacking only proof of course).

Morathi found another rival in [[Hellebron]], a priestess of Khaine who was becoming dangerously powerful within Morathi's Witch Elf forces. Morathi cursed her with a hag-like appearance Elves rarely ever naturally attain, causing Hellebron to hate her more than anyone else. Ironically, after the retcon Hellebron features in history more importantly than Morathi herself.

During the Battle of Finuval Plains, one of the many battles between the High and Dark Elves, Morathi faced off in magical duel with [[Teclis]] while Malekith dueled [[Tyrion]] below. With the Dark Elves having overrun much of Ulthuan, the battle was the deciding point between the two forces; Morathi's own Daemon force lead by a powerful [[Keeper of Secrets]] named [[N'kari]] (later retconned to be just more of Malekith's assassins) had badly injured Tyrion and hunted the Everqueen Alarielle, and the burning of her forest had weakened her powers so she could not help. Morathi and Teclis were evenly matched, although after suffering great injury Malekith managed to escape into the [[Warp]] to avoid being killed, and sensing her son flee the battle Morathi herself immediately retreated leaving her army to be cut down. After the retcon, Morathi is absent from the battle and Malekith fought Teclis in a battle of magic while Tyrion fought his forces.

In the [[Defenders of Ulthuan/Sons of Ellyrion]] novels, Morathi engineers the main plot as a repeat of the invasion which involved the Finuval Plain battle, although this time using a captured Ellyrion Reaver as a Manchurian Candidate who would assassinate Teclis and Alarielle prior to the attack. She used her rank as Slaanesh's High Priestess to call upon the loyalty of Slaanesh's current champion, a Warrior of Chaos who was kept entertained with Elf slaves for him and his men to torture and defile (use your imagination) until Ulthuan was entirely destroyed, whereupon he would be allowed to do as he would with her (que both chuckling that the other Slaaneshi would not survive it). During the ongoing war, the Witch Elves and Slaaneshi spent their time raiding each other's camps and torture-killing their allies when supplies of still-living High Elves were low. Morathi's plan was partially successful, with the cursed dagger the unwitting pawn carrying consuming the body and soul of an Elf maiden he'd fallen in love with to incinerate Teclis like Malekith, then pierce Alarielle's heart. Malekith (who she feared greatly in the novel despite planning to kill him) lead his forces to assault Ulthuan from the south with their navy and slay the greatest heroes of Ulthuan while the Slaaneshi Dark Elves and Warriors attacked from west to east and meet him in the middle at Finuval Plain II. The Champion used Slaanesh's magic of pride to force High Elf commanders and champions into terrible decisions while her beguile and mind control wreaked havoc on the lesser Elf defenders. The plan began to fall apart however when their pawn sought redemption for his actions, reuniting with his brother and fiance before joining the defending army. Alarielle herself was saved by Isha, and the Everqueen entity (made up of Isha and EVERY Everqueen who ever lived) took control of her body and healed the wound before joining the battle herself. The Everqueen's magic purified the Slaaneshi Champion, burning away his blessings to reveal an ugly old man who regretted sacrificing his only love on an altar in exchange for eternal youth, and in a battle of wills between Isha and Slaanesh the Champion was turned into a [[Chaos Spawn]] that was hacked away by the Asur forces. With the loss of their commander and the [[Daemonettes]] turning to ash all around them, the Dark Elves and Warriors looked to their Queen to find her flying inland from the battle. The forces routed, and were destroyed by the triumphant heroes. Meanwhile, Morathi's true plan had been revealed; in her madness she was only using her entire race, her son, and all the humans as a distraction for her to undo the Vortex and summon Slaanesh directly into the world to prove herself as his greatest servant. The Vortex was on an island lost in time and half in and out of the Warp like magical interdimensional amber. She stabbed a Mage to death, and cackled out her monologue to Caledor the Dragontamer when he appeared before her as an emaciated long-dead skeleton of an Elf. After calmly replying that he never liked her and had always seen her as the selfish insane little girl she was, he revealed his true form within the amber as being stronger than he had ever been and as youthful as in his prime. He lashed out at her using only his knowledge of reality, searing her mind and driving her into hysteric wailing as she fled from the island with her very soul bleeding. She somehow flew Sulephet home to Naggaroth in this state, eyes wild and screaming all the way. Her son fled from his battle similarly, his dragon mortally wounded and bereft of a large chunk of his armor and gear. This story's canonicity is doubtful as ALL of the concepts the story hinges on were retconned out. Although considering Morathi's damaged mental state in End Times, it may have simply happened in a very different way and remained canon...

In [[Storm of Chaos]], Morathi brought the Cult of Slaanesh back and allied them with Warriors of Chaos before flaunting themselves openly in Naggaroth. This was implied to put Naggaroth in a civil/religious war between the Temple of Khaine and the Cult of Slaanesh, but Games Workshop retconned Storm of Chaos out of existence so now this never happened.

===The End Times===
In an effort to reboot Warhammer Fantasy, as it had been neglected for so long in favor of yet another Space Marine Chapter update, Games Workshop thrust the End Times upon the Warhammer world, where the slow slide into destruction becomes a non-stop express train. In the canon Naggaroth had become overrun with the legions of Khorne, with Karond Kar and Clar Karond destroyed. Ghrond was surrounded by an impenetrable thicket of magic thorns when Malekith and his army arrived fresh from liberating Naggarond. No longer able to coddle his spiteful but addled mother, Malekith left her alone in a tower there after destroying the entire Chaos invasion force and destroying everything of value from fortresses to slaves to silk handkerchiefs and anything else the enemy could claim, then gathered the entire Dark Elf race barring her guards to go claim his "rightful place as Phoenix King".

She left the tower however, disguising herself as one of her own followers who had been enlisted in Malekith's army, and tried to make Tyrion into Aenarion 2.0. Once Alarielle confirmed Malekith's legitimacy by marrying him (you know, her great great great great great great great great uncle) Tyrion and Morathi were wed, him drawing the [[Widowmaker]] like his ancestor and becoming Khaine's avatar (as well as her greatest lover). She was revealed to actually be the mortal incarnation of the goddess Hekarti.

After Tyrion was killed on the Isle of the Dead, Teclis undid the Vortex in order to bind the [[Warhammer Magic|Winds of Magic]] to mortals in an attempt to combat Chaos. She rushed to stop the whole thing, and broke down sobbing and shrieking when she saw Tyrion and Malekith die (though the latter was alive, but only just). In a fit, she killed all the mages in magic amber except Caledor the Dragontamer. Her actions created a breach that temporarily enabled Slaanesh himself/herself to partially manifest in the material world, forcing one of his/her arms through the rift to grab as many elves as he/she could. Realizing she'd fucked up worse than ever before in every sense of the term, Morathi tried to flee but Caledor held her down and both were taken by Slaanesh into the Warp.

Fans of Morathi, already unhappy with her increasing retcons rendering her useless, '''[[RAGE]]D'''. Her hatedom and High Elf fans cheered that Morathi was getting her just desserts (given Slaanesh's hunger for elf souls it could be literal). A small few continually insisted that it was just how she was going to be returned to Slaanesh's side, reincarnated as a Daemon Princess while others quickly bought her models thinking she would be removed from canon.

===Age of Sigmar===
In [[Age of Sigmar]], Morathi really did make a return. During the Age of Myth, [[Malekith]] awoke alone within the Realm of Shadow without any memories. He took on the name Malerion and attempted to find others of his kind. Eventually he found Morathi, who had escaped up from Slaanesh's belly and out her mouth while he was in a food coma digesting all the aelf souls she had consumed. But Morathi was "changed" by the experience. She now had two forms: The first is her normal aelf form, whilst the winged, coiling, serpentine Grecian Medusa is her true form (which she transforms into by her own will or whenever she loses her cool). As she regained her memories, Morathi formed beings of pure shadow who celebrated around her. She met up with her son Malerion, and though there was a lot of bad blood between them, they worked together to find more aelves.

[[Sigmar]] eventually found them, and they joined his pantheon made from an assembly of gods and other powers of the Mortal Realms. Morathi stayed with Sigmar and rest of the pantheon, trying to feel Sigmar's "Stormhammer" outside of battle. When Sigmar proved immune to her charms, she moved on to [[Nagash]]. With a cry of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FL_eXQb4C0|"BEGONE THOT!"] Nagash struck Morathi, hurting and upsetting her enough that her true serpentine form was revealed (say what you will about Nagash, he keeps his pimp hand strong). Humiliated, Morathi fled. During this time [[Tyrion]], [[Teclis]] and Malerion learned that [[Slaanesh]] had the aelf souls and sought to trap him. They approached Morathi and, with the promise of the share of the bounty, they used her as bait and managed to capture and imprison [[Slaanesh]] somewhere between the realms of Hysh and Ulgu, siphoning souls from him in increments (too many at once would draw the attention of Slaanesh's followers or fellow Chaos Gods, or allow Slaanesh to break free). Morathi took her share of the aelven souls Slaanesh had consumed and made aelves from them who would go on to become the [[Daughters of Khaine]].

She claims to be the Oracle of [[Khaine]] on account of having recovered his heart and leads the Daughters of Khaine, but in truth she is siphoning the prayer-power meant for the war god (stopping his potential rebirth in the process) in the hope of becoming a goddess herself- after that she plans to exact revenge on everyone who ever wronged her. Her war against the forces of Chaos and her bringing civilization to the Mortal Realms is mentioned, suggesting that she heavily influenced the Mortal Realms before the Age of Chaos.She has also since had another falling out with Malekith/Malerion and is said to be working as a part of Order only because she finds the other three Grand Alliances even less appealing to her tastes; she has become a sworn enemy to the forces of Chaos, the forces of Destruction are too uncivilized for her liking and the forces of Death too static and unappealing to someone whose people were nearly extinct (she probably also remembers the taste of Nagash's pimp hand).

As part of her transformation, she has not only bound the Bloodwrack Medusae to her will as her high priests, but also created two new species of [[monstergirls|monstrous yet beautiful female elf-kin]]; the [[lamia]]-like [[Medusa|Melusai]], and the Khinerai, who resemble either bat-winged [[Avariel]] or a less-monstrous take on the [[Harpy|Harpies]] of old Warhammer.

Ironically, Morathi's new fluff as having mutated into a [[lamia]]-like form as a result of exposure to the [[daemon]]ic powers of [[Slaanesh]] makes her kind of similar to the now-lost Slaaneshi champion, [[Dechala]] (that said, Slaanesh maybe holding her back to release later when its time for escapemurderfuckeatrevenge).

==== Broken Realms ====

Soon she was ready for the final stages of her gambit to ascend to godhood. First she had to steal an artifact from the [[Idoneth Deepkin]], the Ocarian Lantern; an object made by Teclis to retrieve elven souls from Slaanesh's belly, stolen by the Idoneth who feared Teclis would use it to track them down. Naturally, this was kept under heavy guard. So, sixty Khainites went into <s>the water</s> the temple. One Khainite came out, the <s>sharks</s> Idoneth took the rest. That one Khainite, although left blind and half-mad by the ordeal, had the lantern.

Then, Morathi had to secure some of the realmstone of the [[Warcry|Eightpoints, called Varanite]], having learned about it during the Age of Sigmar. She convinced Sigmar and [[Alarielle]] of the coming threat (please ignore the plot hole of Alarielle trusting Morathi given their history in the World-That-Was), getting Stormcast reinforcements from the former and getting the later to re-open the Genesis Gate and sweep aside the forces of Chaos guarding it. Morathi even sent a secret delegation to [[Katakros]], providing tonnes of bones imbued with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper assault on Archaon's holdings. After acquiring the Varanite, Morathi and her Daughters of Khaine left their Stormcast allies to die.

This culminated in the ultimate ritual. Combining various sources of power, Morathi opened [[/d/#Vore|a portal directly into Slaanesh's belly]]. While she carried out this ritual, her capital city was attacked by both a massive Idoneth army led by [[Volturnos]] seeking to retrieve the lantern, and the followers of Slaanesh following a prophecy that could lead to the freeing of their deity. Once in the Chaos God's guts, using her weapon and the lantern as a guide, Morathi found the souls of the Cythai and the souls of the Phoenix Kings from the World-Thas-Was. She trapped the Cythai souls and consumed the Phoenix King souls until she reached the strongest - her former husband [[Aenarion]] (yes, THE Aenarion, sucks that after everything he did he got consumed by Slaanesh). She hesitated to absorb him, reluctant to erase what was the only man she ever genuinely loved. Enraged by Morathi's actions, Aenarion used this moment of weakness to launch a counterattack that split her soul and left her with two bodies - the elegant Morathi-Khaine (formerly the High Oracle) and the monstrous Shadow Queen.

But her ambition might come back to haunt her in the form of the Newborn - the offspring of Slaanesh spawned from his/her drool (yes, really) when Morathi's ritual gave Slaanesh a seizure. The Newborn followed her back into the Mortal Realms then flew away, the light of its passage making the followers of Slaanesh immediately break off the attack and seek it out. It eventually landed and coalesced into a beautiful and terrifying form that spoke to the assembled Hedonites, who now guard it while it gains in strength.

Back to Morathi. She returned from Slaanesh's prison and, fused with the essence of Khaine, became a goddess and declared herself Morathi-Khaine, bringing her plan to fruition. From here, she quickly subdued Volturnos and made a bargain with him, giving the stolen lantern and the souls of the other Cythai to him in exchange for a binding alliance with the Idoneth. From there Morathi led her forces to [[Cities of Sigmar#Notable Cities|Anvilgard]] and - aided by an insurgent syndicate - conquered the city of Anvilgard, renamed it '''Har Kuron''' and marking the end of her alliance with Sigmar. To that end the Stormcast were imprisoned rather than killed so they can't return to Azyr and warn him.

Morathi's plan didn't go off without a few hitches. Apart from the aforementioned Newborn of Slaanesh, a resistance movement of men and elves still loyal to Sigmar remains in the city, and one of the captive Stormcast was freed by a winged shadowy figure implied to have ties with Malerion. As a result Sigmar learned of Morathi's treachery and sent an army of Stormcast to take the city back. The Stormcast were winning until Morathi arrived at the head of an Idoneth army... until the Celestant-Prime intervened. To the surprise of all, he called for a ceasefire and parley, which Morathi accepted. They parleyed for a whole night, with no one knowing what was said but them. The next day, the Celestant-Prime ordered the Stormcast to withdraw, ceding the city to Morathi. Morathi had to give something to them in return, but what it was isn't stated (maybe the release of the captured Stormcast Eternals).

==On The Tabletop==
In her first incarnation, Morathi had two forms. Her basic form, High Oracle of Khaine, is a caster of absurd power, and not a slouch in close combat either. She can cast three spells per turn (and Unbind twice), her unique spell which is basically Arcane Bolt on steroids, adds 1 to her casting rolls and doubling the range of her spells, as well as her Command Ability that lets her choose 2 Daughters of Khaine units within 14 inches and have them either shoot or pile in immediately. She also has 6 attacks with her bladed wings and 3 attacks with her spear Heartrender, which is better than a lot of combat characters get. On defense, she has a 4+ Armor, a 6+ Ward (from her Daughters of Khaine allegiance), a -1 to hit from how gorgeous she is AND she can only take 3 wounds per turn.

But that's not all. Either when you choose or when you roll under the number of wounds Morathi has taken, she can get super angry and turn into her giant <s>Snake Mom</s> Shadow Queen form. In this form she loses a lot of her trickier abilities (all of her casting bonuses, -1 to hit, command ability, although she keeps her max of 3 wounds per turn) and instead turns into one of the most brutal beatsticks in the entire game, capable of going head to head with Nagash or Archaon and coming out on top. She gains a shooting attack that allows you to instant kill a model if roll over its number of wounds, between 6 and 2 attacks with Heartrender (which now does a flat 3 wounds as opposed to D3 in her Oracle form), 5 attacks with her Crown of Serpents, and 1 with her tail that does between 6 and D3 damage. That's a max of 29 wounds when she's at full health, enough to wreck anyone's day. Unfortunately, any wounds she takes as Oracle are double in Shadow Queen, so you're better off letting her transform, than waiting for her to take damage. All of this will cost you 480 points, so best make sure you're getting your points worth. It helps that she's one of the best models in the game (in a faction that already has a lot of the best models in the game).

===Broken Realms===
Due to Morathi's new condition, she now costs 600 points but has both of her models active at the same time. Because of their "One Soul, Two Bodies" rule (which also incorporates the effects of the Iron Heart), her two models functionally share a single wound pool. Between that and the Shadow Queen's buffed attacks, she's now able to support her army and get stuck in at the same time, and opponents will have no choice but to deal with the Shadow Queen if they want to stop Morathi-Khaine from casting and buffing.

==Total War: Warhammer==
To the surprise of very few Morathi, alongside her son, got to appear in [[Total War: Warhammer II]] as one of the starting legendary lords for the Dark Elves. She even got to narrate the Dark Elf faction trailer, with her voice actress sounding fittingly manipulative and conniving. More surprisingly, Creative Assembly chose to bring back her secret worship of Slaanesh and possibly the other Chaos Gods too, as shown by her faction's unique mechanics. Characters spread Chaos corruption, her provinces benefit from said corruption rather than suffering and Morathi enjoys diplomacy boosts with Chaos factions like Norsca. Given that she can also be heard referring to, or beseeching various Cytharai gods like Khaine and Atharti, the likelihood is that she is willing to lie down with any god or goddess that'll have her, [[PROMOTIONS|in every sense of that phrase]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Morathi Model.jpg|The offical [['Eavy Metal]] paintjob.
Image:Morathi Mini.JPG|Morathi's miniature. Despite being older, and GW's well-known issues with female sculpts, its one of the better ones they've made.
Image:Morathi Original.jpg|Morathi's original model. It was noticeably more conservative in dress.
Image:Old Morathi.jpg|Morathi's earlier look in artwork. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])
Image:Morathi MMO.jpg|Rita Repulsa wishes she was this awesome.
Image:Morathi And Teclis.jpg|Morathi and Teclis duel at Finuval Plains. In the narrative it was on opposite sides of a large valley, but whatever.
Image:Morathi Regal Fanart.png
Image:Morathi Kung Fu.jpg
Image:Morathi Doesn't Like It When You Look Over Her Shoulder.jpg
Image:Morathi Color.jpg
File:The Sundering Malekith and Morathi.jpg
File:Morathi 8th Edition.png
Image:Morathi And Alarielle Diplomacy.jpg|Its her pleasure...
Image:Morathi Fanart.jpg
Image:Morathi Malekith Comic.jpg|Morathi and Malekith from the [[Warhammer Online]] comic.
File:Morathi Total War.jpg|If you don't conquer Ulthuan this time Malekith, you're grounded!
File:Morathi AOS Elf Form.jpg|Morathi's new look, now Morathi-Khaine.
File:Morathi Snek.jpg|Morathi's other new look, the Shadow Queen.
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Dark Elves]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]][[Category:Daughters of Khaine]]

Morathi

2021-02-20T08:42:01Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Broken Realms */

[[File:Morathi.jpg|500px|thumb|right|"Don't you wish your mother was hot like me?"]]
{{Topquote|A scratch from an envenomed dagger, a sip from a poisoned chalice, a slight to a proud warrior's honour... In time these things may do far more grievous harm than the broadsword or the axe, my love...|Morathi}}
{{Topquote|Man does not control his own fate. The women in his life do that for him.|Groucho Marx}}

'''Morathi''' is the Queen of the [[Dark Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Druchii]] from [[Warhammer Fantasy]], the supreme leader of their religious faction and mother to the racial leader [[Malekith]].

She is also perverted, incestuous, so-sexy-you'll-die-for-real-lolz, and pretty much a complete bitch as she was responsible for a lot of the actions that screwed over Elfkind. Don't believe us? Read and weep oh dear reader.

Her character suffered greatly from a 7th edition retcon, further worsened in 8e until in [[End Times]] her role in history was reduced to mostly "had a baby who is really important" and scheming on the side that kills a lot of people but contributes nothing to the story. Many fans were angered by her apparent and very disappointing death in the event, although it was later revealed she survived and may in fact still regain her glory as an important character.

She is usually seen mostly naked, although sometimes she covers her breasts or uses pasties, and always rides her Dark Pegasus named Sulephet into battle. Her model is one of the raciest in the Warhammer range as she wears a metal thong and little else, her perfect tits on display for everyone to see (something she uses with magic in a Black Library novel she gets a starring role in to render an entire mixed-gender garrison of soldiers into standing mutely while riding up and down in front of their fortress on Suluphet as they get shot to pieces with her crossbow forces). The model of her even has them helpfully pushed upwards for the best possible angle. It could be she does this because her son is so lacking in sex appeal she must make up for both of them....oh the harsh duties she must do!

==The Legend==
She was originally a mere maiden, rescued by the first Phoenix King [[Aenarion]] from a [[Chaos]] slave caravan and he was so taken with her that he took her to be his new wife, having recently lost his first wife the [[Everqueen]] to a [[Daemons|Daemonic]] attack. Considering her actions later, the rumors of her being a [[Slaanesh|Slaaneshi]] Sorceress and using her magicks to charm Aenarion were most likely true. Aenarion moved his court to [[Ulthuan|Nagarythe]] and fell into a hedonistic lifestyle while his armies battled the Daemon apocalypse raging all around. Morathi eventually gave birth to his third child, Malekith, and encouraged Aenarion to sit back and relax as everything would turn out ''juuuuuuust fine''. [[Caledor the Dragontamer]], Aenarion's old friend, hated Morathi bitterly and knew she was wreaking havoc on his already damaged mind. In a last act of desperation, Caledor gathered his Wizards and began channeling magic to create a Vortex that would suck excess magic out of the Warhammer World so Daemons would have difficulty manifesting forevermore. Morathi encouraged Aenarion to slay Caledor for his betrayal, although upon reaching the site of the ritual he instead defended his friend against the might of Chaos itself.

After the disappearance of Aenarion and the trapping of Caledor within the Vortex, Morathi planned and groomed her son to take the throne. When the actual election came however, Malekith assured the Princes of the land he was willing to accept a vote for him rather than simply claim the throne by birthright. In a retcon in [[End Times]] this turned out to be a gambit to ensure the loyalty of the Elf people and the manipulations of Chaos robbed him of his birthright; however, in original canon this was simply the only moral choice he ever made. His friend Bel Shanaar was chosen instead, and Morathi raved and ranted like a wild woman over their "treachery". Only Malekith could calm her, and assure her they had made the right choice. He then took to the sea to explore the world like his father had, being gone for many years. During his travels he encountered [[Warriors of Chaos|human Chaos worshipers]] and random undead, fighting them for control of a magical crown. Curious, he placed it on his head and saw a future where Chaos would conquer his people. He immediately rushed home.

Prior to the 7e retcon, Malekith began searching his homeland for Chaos worship and discovered the Cult of Pleasure revering Slaanesh, with his own mother Morathi as the High Priestess to Slaanesh himself having corrupted a very large chunk of the Elf race to her way of thinking. She fled to the city of Anlec where a large number of cultists resided. Malekith led an army consisting of both his own army and the supporting armies led by the princes of Ellyrion, Yvresse, Chrace and Saphery. Malekith was successful in breaching the cities defences and confronted his mother in the cities palace. Though Morathi had the upper hand with her great sorcerous powers, she was defeated. Morathi was spared from certain death by convincing her son that she would give him her full support of the cults and help him gain the Phoenix throne. She was brought before the court of the Phoenix king in the city of Tor Anroc. Though she would have been executed for her Crimes, Malekith convinced Bel Shanaar to imprison her instead (Despite Imrik of Caledor's insistence that she must die, even offering to strike the deathblow himself).

He called a meeting of the Princes of Ulthuan to reveal a discovery about the Cult. Rather than point the finger at his mother, he accused Bel Shanaar of the heresy as Bel lay dying from poison Malekith had slipped him. He then declared that he himself was the fit ruler of the Elf race, and stepped through the [[Asuryan|Flames of Asuryan]] which select who is fit to be Phoenix King. Due to his treachery and the fact the Flames are designed to root out the unworthy, his full-retard plan resulted in him burning to bacon. His followers quickly slaughtered the unarmed Princes while Morathi rushed him out and kept him alive with her magic until a priest of [[Vaul]] loyal to his family sealed him in a suit of frozen armor that would reduce the misery of his blackened body.

In the retcon, Morathi was not involved in the story at all; he returned knowing that he was the true Phoenix King as desired by Asuryan while Bel Shanaar had been shielded by magic which disqualified him from judgement, and Malekith himself was only rejected because he was immature and filled with fear. His followers killing the Princes was apparently justified somehow, and everything that happened was all the fault of the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Asur]] because reasons and grimderpness. She still helped him survive however, and if anything was cast in a more motherly role than the manipulative one.

Either way, Malekith and Morathi gathered their supporters and their culture took a turn for the dark; pre-retcon Morathi summoned Daemons which feed on Elf souls to ravage the countryside while the formerly banned worship of the war god [[Khaine]] replaced all other faiths. Eventually the bitter civil war turned against the new Dark Elf faction, and as one final "fuck you" Morathi messed with the Vortex. When that backfired she, Malekith and the other Dark Elf sorcerers/sorceresses launched huge chunks of Nagarythe away from the land like boats, causing massive death and destruction across Ulthuan. They then settled in a new land to the west, a series of landmasses split by bodies of water that are vaguely in the shape of our real world North America, populated by vicious and nasty monsters as well as Chaos humans. These lands were called Naggaroth, and after destroying the High Elf colonies and humans who dwelled here the Dark Elves settled them.

During this time, in early editions it was implied Morathi and Malekith were lovers who also constantly vied for control of their race while planning to kill each other. Dark Elves set up many batshit insane celebrations such as a night where the Cult of Pleasure and/or Cult of Khaine are allowed to take anyone they want who can't buy their own lives in huge amount of slaves and slaughter them in any way they wish ([[Gav Thorpe]] went on record in regards to Elf storytelling that numbers don't matter, High Elves can lose millions as a statistic or ten as a tragedy and either way they will be dying out, and although Dark Elves always lose massive population due to stupid reasons will always be only in jeopardy in regards to the future but not currently on the verge of extinction). Later lore did away with the incest, Slaanesh worship, and plotting; Morathi went from the ultimate hedonistic schemer and rival to her son like a cougar version of Caligula to his dear sad mother sadly stricken with a mild case of dementia as she continued to believe that she was living in the court of Nagarythe and sometimes mistook Malekith for Aenarion whom she genuinely loved rather than manipulated, all while continuing her duties as high priestess of the Elf god of pleasure [[Atharti]] (as Gav Thorpe thought Elves worshiping Slaanesh makes no sense, since he thinks of them as [[Eldar]] in rat-infested shitholes). Either way, Morathi went to great pains to keep herself youthful. She bathed constantly in blood made from screaming Elf babies, a technique learned either from Slaanesh or Khaine directly depending on pre or post retcon.

As Naggaroth grew in power, Malekith saw the Chaos worshiping Elves as a possible threat to his power. He established Khaine as the official god of the Dark Elves, although loyalty was ultimately only to himself. The Witches were nonetheless loyal only to Morathi and their gods, Khaine and (in older canon) Slaanesh with the two factions politicking against each other while hiding their true allegiance from the rest of the race (as an open secret lacking only proof of course).

Morathi found another rival in [[Hellebron]], a priestess of Khaine who was becoming dangerously powerful within Morathi's Witch Elf forces. Morathi cursed her with a hag-like appearance Elves rarely ever naturally attain, causing Hellebron to hate her more than anyone else. Ironically, after the retcon Hellebron features in history more importantly than Morathi herself.

During the Battle of Finuval Plains, one of the many battles between the High and Dark Elves, Morathi faced off in magical duel with [[Teclis]] while Malekith dueled [[Tyrion]] below. With the Dark Elves having overrun much of Ulthuan, the battle was the deciding point between the two forces; Morathi's own Daemon force lead by a powerful [[Keeper of Secrets]] named [[N'kari]] (later retconned to be just more of Malekith's assassins) had badly injured Tyrion and hunted the Everqueen Alarielle, and the burning of her forest had weakened her powers so she could not help. Morathi and Teclis were evenly matched, although after suffering great injury Malekith managed to escape into the [[Warp]] to avoid being killed, and sensing her son flee the battle Morathi herself immediately retreated leaving her army to be cut down. After the retcon, Morathi is absent from the battle and Malekith fought Teclis in a battle of magic while Tyrion fought his forces.

In the [[Defenders of Ulthuan/Sons of Ellyrion]] novels, Morathi engineers the main plot as a repeat of the invasion which involved the Finuval Plain battle, although this time using a captured Ellyrion Reaver as a Manchurian Candidate who would assassinate Teclis and Alarielle prior to the attack. She used her rank as Slaanesh's High Priestess to call upon the loyalty of Slaanesh's current champion, a Warrior of Chaos who was kept entertained with Elf slaves for him and his men to torture and defile (use your imagination) until Ulthuan was entirely destroyed, whereupon he would be allowed to do as he would with her (que both chuckling that the other Slaaneshi would not survive it). During the ongoing war, the Witch Elves and Slaaneshi spent their time raiding each other's camps and torture-killing their allies when supplies of still-living High Elves were low. Morathi's plan was partially successful, with the cursed dagger the unwitting pawn carrying consuming the body and soul of an Elf maiden he'd fallen in love with to incinerate Teclis like Malekith, then pierce Alarielle's heart. Malekith (who she feared greatly in the novel despite planning to kill him) lead his forces to assault Ulthuan from the south with their navy and slay the greatest heroes of Ulthuan while the Slaaneshi Dark Elves and Warriors attacked from west to east and meet him in the middle at Finuval Plain II. The Champion used Slaanesh's magic of pride to force High Elf commanders and champions into terrible decisions while her beguile and mind control wreaked havoc on the lesser Elf defenders. The plan began to fall apart however when their pawn sought redemption for his actions, reuniting with his brother and fiance before joining the defending army. Alarielle herself was saved by Isha, and the Everqueen entity (made up of Isha and EVERY Everqueen who ever lived) took control of her body and healed the wound before joining the battle herself. The Everqueen's magic purified the Slaaneshi Champion, burning away his blessings to reveal an ugly old man who regretted sacrificing his only love on an altar in exchange for eternal youth, and in a battle of wills between Isha and Slaanesh the Champion was turned into a [[Chaos Spawn]] that was hacked away by the Asur forces. With the loss of their commander and the [[Daemonettes]] turning to ash all around them, the Dark Elves and Warriors looked to their Queen to find her flying inland from the battle. The forces routed, and were destroyed by the triumphant heroes. Meanwhile, Morathi's true plan had been revealed; in her madness she was only using her entire race, her son, and all the humans as a distraction for her to undo the Vortex and summon Slaanesh directly into the world to prove herself as his greatest servant. The Vortex was on an island lost in time and half in and out of the Warp like magical interdimensional amber. She stabbed a Mage to death, and cackled out her monologue to Caledor the Dragontamer when he appeared before her as an emaciated long-dead skeleton of an Elf. After calmly replying that he never liked her and had always seen her as the selfish insane little girl she was, he revealed his true form within the amber as being stronger than he had ever been and as youthful as in his prime. He lashed out at her using only his knowledge of reality, searing her mind and driving her into hysteric wailing as she fled from the island with her very soul bleeding. She somehow flew Sulephet home to Naggaroth in this state, eyes wild and screaming all the way. Her son fled from his battle similarly, his dragon mortally wounded and bereft of a large chunk of his armor and gear. This story's canonicity is doubtful as ALL of the concepts the story hinges on were retconned out. Although considering Morathi's damaged mental state in End Times, it may have simply happened in a very different way and remained canon...

In [[Storm of Chaos]], Morathi brought the Cult of Slaanesh back and allied them with Warriors of Chaos before flaunting themselves openly in Naggaroth. This was implied to put Naggaroth in a civil/religious war between the Temple of Khaine and the Cult of Slaanesh, but Games Workshop retconned Storm of Chaos out of existence so now this never happened.

===The End Times===
In an effort to reboot Warhammer Fantasy, as it had been neglected for so long in favor of yet another Space Marine Chapter update, Games Workshop thrust the End Times upon the Warhammer world, where the slow slide into destruction becomes a non-stop express train. In the canon Naggaroth had become overrun with the legions of Khorne, with Karond Kar and Clar Karond destroyed. Ghrond was surrounded by an impenetrable thicket of magic thorns when Malekith and his army arrived fresh from liberating Naggarond. No longer able to coddle his spiteful but addled mother, Malekith left her alone in a tower there after destroying the entire Chaos invasion force and destroying everything of value from fortresses to slaves to silk handkerchiefs and anything else the enemy could claim, then gathered the entire Dark Elf race barring her guards to go claim his "rightful place as Phoenix King".

She left the tower however, disguising herself as one of her own followers who had been enlisted in Malekith's army, and tried to make Tyrion into Aenarion 2.0. Once Alarielle confirmed Malekith's legitimacy by marrying him (you know, her great great great great great great great great uncle) Tyrion and Morathi were wed, him drawing the [[Widowmaker]] like his ancestor and becoming Khaine's avatar (as well as her greatest lover). She was revealed to actually be the mortal incarnation of the goddess Hekarti.

After Tyrion was killed on the Isle of the Dead, Teclis undid the Vortex in order to bind the [[Warhammer Magic|Winds of Magic]] to mortals in an attempt to combat Chaos. She rushed to stop the whole thing, and broke down sobbing and shrieking when she saw Tyrion and Malekith die (though the latter was alive, but only just). In a fit, she killed all the mages in magic amber except Caledor the Dragontamer. Her actions created a breach that temporarily enabled Slaanesh himself/herself to partially manifest in the material world, forcing one of his/her arms through the rift to grab as many elves as he/she could. Realizing she'd fucked up worse than ever before in every sense of the term, Morathi tried to flee but Caledor held her down and both were taken by Slaanesh into the Warp.

Fans of Morathi, already unhappy with her increasing retcons rendering her useless, '''[[RAGE]]D'''. Her hatedom and High Elf fans cheered that Morathi was getting her just desserts (given Slaanesh's hunger for elf souls it could be literal). A small few continually insisted that it was just how she was going to be returned to Slaanesh's side, reincarnated as a Daemon Princess while others quickly bought her models thinking she would be removed from canon.

===Age of Sigmar===
In [[Age of Sigmar]], Morathi really did make a return. During the Age of Myth, [[Malekith]] awoke alone within the Realm of Shadow without any memories. He took on the name Malerion and attempted to find others of his kind. Eventually he found Morathi, who had escaped up from Slaanesh's belly and out her mouth while he was in a food coma digesting all the aelf souls she had consumed. But Morathi was "changed" by the experience. She now had two forms: The first is her normal aelf form, whilst the winged, coiling, serpentine Grecian Medusa is her true form (which she transforms into by her own will or whenever she loses her cool). As she regained her memories, Morathi formed beings of pure shadow who celebrated around her. She met up with her son Malerion, and though there was a lot of bad blood between them, they worked together to find more aelves.

[[Sigmar]] eventually found them, and they joined his pantheon made from an assembly of gods and other powers of the Mortal Realms. Morathi stayed with Sigmar and rest of the pantheon, trying to feel Sigmar's "Stormhammer" outside of battle. When Sigmar proved immune to her charms, she moved on to [[Nagash]]. With a cry of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FL_eXQb4C0|"BEGONE THOT!"] Nagash struck Morathi, hurting and upsetting her enough that her true serpentine form was revealed (say what you will about Nagash, he keeps his pimp hand strong). Humiliated, Morathi fled. During this time [[Tyrion]], [[Teclis]] and Malerion learned that [[Slaanesh]] had the aelf souls and sought to trap him. They approached Morathi and, with the promise of the share of the bounty, they used her as bait and managed to capture and imprison [[Slaanesh]] somewhere between the realms of Hysh and Ulgu, siphoning souls from him in increments (too many at once would draw the attention of Slaanesh's followers or fellow Chaos Gods, or allow Slaanesh to break free). Morathi took her share of the aelven souls Slaanesh had consumed and made aelves from them who would go on to become the [[Daughters of Khaine]].

She claims to be the Oracle of [[Khaine]] on account of having recovered his heart and leads the Daughters of Khaine, but in truth she is siphoning the prayer-power meant for the war god (stopping his potential rebirth in the process) in the hope of becoming a goddess herself- after that she plans to exact revenge on everyone who ever wronged her. Her war against the forces of Chaos and her bringing civilization to the Mortal Realms is mentioned, suggesting that she heavily influenced the Mortal Realms before the Age of Chaos.She has also since had another falling out with Malekith/Malerion and is said to be working as a part of Order only because she finds the other three Grand Alliances even less appealing to her tastes; she has become a sworn enemy to the forces of Chaos, the forces of Destruction are too uncivilized for her liking and the forces of Death too static and unappealing to someone whose people were nearly extinct (she probably also remembers the taste of Nagash's pimp hand).

As part of her transformation, she has not only bound the Bloodwrack Medusae to her will as her high priests, but also created two new species of [[monstergirls|monstrous yet beautiful female elf-kin]]; the [[lamia]]-like [[Medusa|Melusai]], and the Khinerai, who resemble either bat-winged [[Avariel]] or a less-monstrous take on the [[Harpy|Harpies]] of old Warhammer.

Ironically, Morathi's new fluff as having mutated into a [[lamia]]-like form as a result of exposure to the [[daemon]]ic powers of [[Slaanesh]] makes her kind of similar to the now-lost Slaaneshi champion, [[Dechala]] (that said, Slaanesh maybe holding her back to release later when its time for escapemurderfuckeatrevenge).

==== Broken Realms ====

Soon she was ready for the final stages of her gambit to ascend to godhood. First she had to steal an artifact from the [[Idoneth Deepkin]], the Ocarian Lantern; an object made by Teclis to retrieve elven souls from Slaanesh's belly, stolen by the Idoneth who feared Teclis would use it to track them down. Naturally, this was kept under heavy guard. So, sixty Khainites went into <s>the water</s> the temple. One Khainite came out, the <s>sharks</s> Idoneth took the rest. That one Khainite, although left blind and half-mad by the ordeal, had the lantern.

Then, Morathi had to secure some of the realmstone of the [[Warcry|Eightpoints, called Varanite]], having learned about it during the Age of Sigmar. She convinced Sigmar and [[Alarielle]] of the coming threat (please ignore the plot hole of Alarielle trusting Morathi given their history in the World-That-Was), getting Stormcast reinforcements from the former and getting the later to re-open the Genesis Gate and sweep aside the forces of Chaos guarding it. Morathi even sent a secret delegation to [[Katakros]], providing tonnes of bones imbued with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper assault on Archaon's holdings. After acquiring the Varanite, Morathi and her Daughters of Khaine left their Stormcast allies to die.

This culminated in the ultimate ritual. Combining various sources of power, Morathi opened [[/d/#Vore|a portal directly into Slaanesh's belly]]. While she carried out this ritual, her capital city was attacked by both a massive Idoneth army led by [[Volturnos]] seeking to retrieve the lantern, and the followers of Slaanesh following a prophecy that could lead to the freeing of their deity. Once in the Chaos God's guts, using her weapon and the lantern as a guide, Morathi found the souls of the Cythai and the souls of the Phoenix Kings from the World-Thas-Was. She trapped the Cythai souls and consumed the Phoenix King souls until she reached the strongest - her former husband [[Aenarion]] (yes, THE Aenarion, sucks that after everything he did he got consumed by Slaanesh). She hesitated to absorb him, reluctant to erase what was the only man she ever genuinely loved. Enraged by Morathi's actions, Aenarion used this moment of weakness to launch a counterattack that split her soul and left her with two bodies - the elegant Morathi-Khaine (formerly the High Oracle) and the monstrous Shadow Queen.

But her ambition might come back to haunt her in the form of the Newborn - the offspring of Slaanesh spawned from his/her drool (yes, really) when Morathi's ritual gave Slaanesh a seizure. The Newborn followed her back into the Mortal Realms then flew away, the light of its passage making the followers of Slaanesh immediately break off the attack and seek it out. It eventually landed and coalesced into a beautiful and terrifying form that spoke to the assembled Hedonites, who now guard it while it gains in strength.

Back to Morathi. She returned from Slaanesh's prison and, fused with the essence of Khaine, became a goddess and declared herself Morathi-Khaine, bringing her plan to fruition. From here, she quickly subdued Volturnos and made a bargain with him, giving the stolen lantern and the souls of the other Cythai to him in exchange for a binding alliance with the Idoneth. From there Morathi led her forces to [[Cities of Sigmar#Notable Cities|Anvilgard]] and - aided by an insurgent syndicate - conquered the city of Anvilgard, renamed it '''Har Kuron''' and marking the end of her alliance with Sigmar. To that end the Stormcast were imprisoned rather than killed so they can't return to Azyr and warn him.

Morathi's plan didn't go off without a few hitches. Apart from the aforementioned Newborn of Slaanesh, a resistance movement of men and elves still loyal to Sigmar remains in the city, and one of the captive Stormcast was freed by a winged shadowy figure implied to have ties with Malerion. As a result Sigmar learned of Morathi's treachery and sent an army of Stormcast to take the city back. The Stormcast were winning until Morathi arrived at the head of an Idoneth army... until the Celestant-Prime intervened. To the surprise of all, he called for a ceasefire and parley, which Morathi accepted. They parleyed for a whole night, with no one knowing what was said but them. The next day, the Celestant-Prime ordered the Stormcast to withdraw, ceding the city to Morathi. Morathi had to give something to them in return, but what it was isn't stated (maybe the release of the captured Stormcast).

==On The Tabletop==
In her first incarnation, Morathi had two forms. Her basic form, High Oracle of Khaine, is a caster of absurd power, and not a slouch in close combat either. She can cast three spells per turn (and Unbind twice), her unique spell which is basically Arcane Bolt on steroids, adds 1 to her casting rolls and doubling the range of her spells, as well as her Command Ability that lets her choose 2 Daughters of Khaine units within 14 inches and have them either shoot or pile in immediately. She also has 6 attacks with her bladed wings and 3 attacks with her spear Heartrender, which is better than a lot of combat characters get. On defense, she has a 4+ Armor, a 6+ Ward (from her Daughters of Khaine allegiance), a -1 to hit from how gorgeous she is AND she can only take 3 wounds per turn.

But that's not all. Either when you choose or when you roll under the number of wounds Morathi has taken, she can get super angry and turn into her giant <s>Snake Mom</s> Shadow Queen form. In this form she loses a lot of her trickier abilities (all of her casting bonuses, -1 to hit, command ability, although she keeps her max of 3 wounds per turn) and instead turns into one of the most brutal beatsticks in the entire game, capable of going head to head with Nagash or Archaon and coming out on top. She gains a shooting attack that allows you to instant kill a model if roll over its number of wounds, between 6 and 2 attacks with Heartrender (which now does a flat 3 wounds as opposed to D3 in her Oracle form), 5 attacks with her Crown of Serpents, and 1 with her tail that does between 6 and D3 damage. That's a max of 29 wounds when she's at full health, enough to wreck anyone's day. Unfortunately, any wounds she takes as Oracle are double in Shadow Queen, so you're better off letting her transform, than waiting for her to take damage. All of this will cost you 480 points, so best make sure you're getting your points worth. It helps that she's one of the best models in the game (in a faction that already has a lot of the best models in the game).

===Broken Realms===
Due to Morathi's new condition, she now costs 600 points but has both of her models active at the same time. Because of their "One Soul, Two Bodies" rule (which also incorporates the effects of the Iron Heart), her two models functionally share a single wound pool. Between that and the Shadow Queen's buffed attacks, she's now able to support her army and get stuck in at the same time, and opponents will have no choice but to deal with the Shadow Queen if they want to stop Morathi-Khaine from casting and buffing.

==Total War: Warhammer==
To the surprise of very few Morathi, alongside her son, got to appear in [[Total War: Warhammer II]] as one of the starting legendary lords for the Dark Elves. She even got to narrate the Dark Elf faction trailer, with her voice actress sounding fittingly manipulative and conniving. More surprisingly, Creative Assembly chose to bring back her secret worship of Slaanesh and possibly the other Chaos Gods too, as shown by her faction's unique mechanics. Characters spread Chaos corruption, her provinces benefit from said corruption rather than suffering and Morathi enjoys diplomacy boosts with Chaos factions like Norsca. Given that she can also be heard referring to, or beseeching various Cytharai gods like Khaine and Atharti, the likelihood is that she is willing to lie down with any god or goddess that'll have her, [[PROMOTIONS|in every sense of that phrase]].

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Morathi Model.jpg|The offical [['Eavy Metal]] paintjob.
Image:Morathi Mini.JPG|Morathi's miniature. Despite being older, and GW's well-known issues with female sculpts, its one of the better ones they've made.
Image:Morathi Original.jpg|Morathi's original model. It was noticeably more conservative in dress.
Image:Old Morathi.jpg|Morathi's earlier look in artwork. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])
Image:Morathi MMO.jpg|Rita Repulsa wishes she was this awesome.
Image:Morathi And Teclis.jpg|Morathi and Teclis duel at Finuval Plains. In the narrative it was on opposite sides of a large valley, but whatever.
Image:Morathi Regal Fanart.png
Image:Morathi Kung Fu.jpg
Image:Morathi Doesn't Like It When You Look Over Her Shoulder.jpg
Image:Morathi Color.jpg
File:The Sundering Malekith and Morathi.jpg
File:Morathi 8th Edition.png
Image:Morathi And Alarielle Diplomacy.jpg|Its her pleasure...
Image:Morathi Fanart.jpg
Image:Morathi Malekith Comic.jpg|Morathi and Malekith from the [[Warhammer Online]] comic.
File:Morathi Total War.jpg|If you don't conquer Ulthuan this time Malekith, you're grounded!
File:Morathi AOS Elf Form.jpg|Morathi's new look, now Morathi-Khaine.
File:Morathi Snek.jpg|Morathi's other new look, the Shadow Queen.
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Dark Elves]][[Category:Age of Sigmar]][[Category:40k and Fantasy Gods]][[Category:Daughters of Khaine]]

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Cities of Sigmar

2021-02-20T08:38:24Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* City Allegiance: {{color|MediumPurple|Anvilgard}} (Aqshy) */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Cities of Sigmar|Logo=Empire.jpg|Alliance=Order|Motto=For the <s>Empire</s> God-King!}}
The cities from the Firestorm campaign have finally gotten a 2nd edition battle tome. Humans, Aelves and Duardin join forces to be a bulwark against those who would tear down everything they have built.

==Why Play Cities of Sigmar==
===Pros===
*If you complained about all the needless separations and divisions of old Empire/Dwarf/Elf models, then this faction fixes all that.
*[[AWESOME|Over 30 potential choices for Battleline, including Kharybdiss, Hydras and STEAM TANKS!]]
*Low to average to hit rolls but Lots of ways to add +1 to hit.
*Many ways to generate CP.
*The synergies of the sub-factions can be united. Ever wonder what happens if you take the range power of Free Peoples, surviving skills of Dwarfs and the monsters of the Dark Elves? Now's your chance to find it out!
*One of the best ways to make a mixed Order List without needing allies. With additional synergies with Kharadron Overlords, Sylvaneth, and Stormcast Eternals, you can take some as part of your city.
*Battleshock won't be an issue. While the bravery of many units is average or bad, many cities (Hallowheart, Anvilgard, Hammeral and Tempest's Eye) have ways to avoid it with command ability, traits and artifacts.
*Plenty of opportunities for conversions and kitbashing.

===Cons===
*Came at the cost of mass squatting, particularly of old [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|High Elves]] [[Lumineth Realm Lords|(<s>no longer an issue</s> still no more dragons, lions, eagles, and a long etc.)]].
*A lot of remaining factions lost their units, like the Devoted of Sigmar losing Warrior-Priests, Witch Hunters, and the War-Altar.
*Locked into City allegiance and their associated realms of Aqshy or Ghyran. Must "Counts As" if your units aren't up to code and tough luck if you wanted Realm artefacts from elsewhere.
*All models that aren't included in any set box (Start Collecting, battle boxes, ...) can only be bought on the GW online store. That means you won't get the 10%-20% discount on your purchases that many other (online) stores provide.
*There are a ton of options that (over 50 warscrolls), for experienced players look as opportunities, but for new players can seem very daunting. New players will have a hard time getting started with this army.
*A lot of units can feel like repeats on paper compared to their previous iteration (many abilities are now +1 to hit, and some abilities were reappropriated by the cities), only set apart by their synergy with other models.
**Freeguild lost their Anti-charge support abilities, as well as their unique allegiance abilities from GHB2019, as [[FAIL|they are currently unable to interact with them due to the change in keywords from "Free Peoples" to "Freeguild"]]
**Darkling Coven units can't gain size bonus when near bigger units.
**Dispossessed lost anti-magic banners and Relentless, as well as any long-range gunlines beyond the Irondrakes.
**Wanderers can't Retreat and shoot or use the board edge for movement. As well as losing their Iconic glade archers, despite recently being given round bases.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Cities of Sigmar|points=[https://www.warhammer-community.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/5lv2Q42hrIDrrqNi.pdf Cities of Sigmar Errata]}}

==Allegiance Abilities==
===Universal Allegiance Abilities===

'''Strongholds of Order:''' [[FAIL|You '''must''' choose a city]]. You currently have 9 choices. Go wild.
*For your chosen city, you gain all the ''Battle Traits''. Your general gets one of the ''Command Traits''; one hero, plus one hero per battalion, each chooses a unique ''Artefact Of Power''; each wizard knows a spell from the ''Spell Lore''.

'''Amplified Sorceries:''' If you cast an {{AOSKeyword|Endless Spell}}, it's always the empowered version, regardless of what realm you're playing in.

'''Warriors of the Realms:''' If you're using '''Malign Sorcery''' rules, your army must be from the realm your city hails from.

'''Honoured Retinue:''' If your {{AOSKeyword|general}} has a wound characteristic of 6 or less, you can pick a retinue (any unit of 5-20 models). If your general is within 3" of the retinue, each time your general takes a wound, on a 4+ the retinue takes it instead.

'''The General's Adjutant:''' If your {{AOSKeyword|general}} has a wound characteristic of 6 or less, you can pick a friendly hero to be their adjutant. The adjutant must have a wound characteristic of 6 or less. If your {{AOSKeyword|general}} is within 3" of the adjutant at the start of your hero phase, roll a die. On a 4+, you get a CP.

'''Stormkeeps:''' 1 in 4 units in your army can be {{AOSKeyword|[[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Stormcast_Eternals#Warscrolls|Stormcast]]}}. They gain the City keyword in place of their normal Stormhost keyword.

'''Equipment:'''
almost every unit has a Standard Bearer and a Musician for every 10 models.
*'''Standard Bearer:''' gains +1 bravery if the unit has one.
*'''Musician:''' Add 1 to charge rolls and also often run rolls if the unit has a Musician.

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===City Allegiance: {{color|DarkCyan|Hammerhal}} (Aqshy or Ghyran)===
The flagship twin city with named Stormcast Characters.
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<big>'''{{color|DarkCyan|Battle Traits}}'''</big>
*'''City of Two Realms''': Hammerhal armies must be from Aqshy or Ghyran.

*'''Banners Held High''': [[Imperial Guard|At the start of your hero phase, roll for each unit that contains at least one banner or standard-bearer. For each 6, you get a CP.]]

*'''Master of Hammerhal''': If [[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Stormcast_Eternals#Named_Leaders|Aventis Firestrike]] is your general, you get an extra CP at the start of your first hero phase.

*'''The Pride of Hammerhal''': While wholly within your territory, your units ignore battleshock.

*'''Command Ability: Righteous Purpose:''' You use this in the combat phase on a friendly {{AOSKeyword|HAMMERHAL}} unit that is wholly within enemy territory, wholly within 12" of a friendly {{AOSKeyword|HAMMERHAL HERO}} and within 3" of an enemy unit. It gets to pile in and attack again.

<big>'''{{color|DarkCyan|Command Traits}}'''</big>
#'''Academiate Prodigy''': Add 1 to attack characteristic of melee weapons. Also start the game with an extra command point.
#'''Blood of the twelve''': Reroll wound rolls of 1 for melee attacks made by friendly units wholly within 12" of the general.
#'''Aggressive General''': Add 1 to hit for melee attacks made by friendly units wholly within 12" of the general if this general made a charge move in the same turn. Since it doesn't say round, it's only ''your player turn'': YOU are aggressive.

<big>'''{{color|DarkCyan|Artefacts Of Power}}'''</big>
#'''Armor of Malice''': Add 1 to save rolls of the bearer.
#'''Saint's Blade''': Pick 1 melee weapon of the bearer, improve its rend by 1. While the bearer is within 6" of an objective marker, add 1 to damage inflicted by the weapon.
#*Those high-number-of-attacks but low rend or damage 1 attacks on your characters? They've just become really good on your mobile griffon general or dragon-riding dark elf. It makes me want to take 5 attack sword or 4 attacks lance instead of 3 attacks great weapon in order to double down on the damage potential.
#'''Twin Stones''': You can activate this artefact in each of your hero phases, if you do so, chose which aspect you want to use.
#*Aqshy Aspect, Add 1 to hit for melee attacks made by friendly units wholly within 12" of the bearer.
#*Ghyran aspect, roll a d6 for every unit wholly within 12" of the bearer, on a 4+ you can heal d3 wounds that were previously allocated to that unit.

<big>'''{{color|DarkCyan|Spell Lore}}'''</big>
#'''Wings of Fire''': Thermal Rider cloak was not enough for you? Have some wings of fire: cast on a 6, if successful pick 1 friendly unit that is visible to the caster, add 1 to run and charge rolls and that unit can fly until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''Cinder Cloud''': Cast on a 7, until the start of your next hero phase, subtract 1 from attacks that target friendly units wholly within 9 of the caster. Combine with a Mystifying Miasma battlemage to give targeted penalties to compound the debuff.
#'''Twin Tailed Comet''': Cast on a 7, <s>you kickstart the events of Total Warhammer II</s> pick one enemy unit within 18" of the caster that is visible, they take d3 mortal wounds (or if they had 10 or more models, they take d6 mortal wounds instead).

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===City Allegiance: {{color|MediumPurple|Anvilgard}} (Aqshy)===
The Tortuga of the Mortal Realms. Currently conquered and renamed Har Kuron but remains playable, as you either play the city in a time before Morathi's coup or take on the role of the resistance movement of Sigmar loyalists.
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<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Battle Traits}}'''</big>

*'''Illicit Dealings:''' Choose one of the following:
#''Black Market Bounty'': 1 extra {{AOSKeyword|ANVILGARD}} Artefact of Power
#''Dabblings in Sorcery'': 1 additional {{AOSKeyword|ANVILGARD}} Dragon/Kharibdyss/War Hydra can have a Drakeblood Curse
#''Hidden Agenda'': D3 extra command points

*'''Command Ability: Make an Example of the Weak:''' At the start of your Battleshock Phase, pick 1 friendly '''ANVILGARD''' unit wholly within 12" of an {{AOSKeyword|ANVILGARD}} hero. One model is slain, but all {{AOSKeyword|ANVILGARD}} units wholly within 18" of the targeted unit ignore Battleshock.

*'''Drakeblood Curses:''' One Dragon/Kharibdyss/War Hydra, plus one per Battalion, can have a Drakeblood Curse. No model may have more than one curse, and no curse may be taken more than once.
# '''Acidic Blood''': Roll a dice each time the unit is allocated a wound in melee that wasn't negated. On a 4+, the damaging unit takes 1 mortal wound. Annoy your enemies who try to take down your War Hydra!
#'''Jutting Bones''': After the model makes a charge, pick an enemy unit within 1". On a 2+, target takes D3 mortal wounds.
#'''Felgaze''': 12" -2 bravery bubble. When stacked with the Kharibdyss’ already existing aura, you got the perfect anti-horde monster that can chew through Grots and Skaven like Thanksgiving dinner.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Command Traits}}'''</big>
#'''Blackfang Crimelord''': Pick 2 Illicit Dealings instead of 1.
#'''Slayer of Monsters''': +1 to hit and wound rolls if you target a '''MONSTER'''.
#'''Secretive Warlock''': If the general is a wizard, they know all the spells in the Anvilgard lore. If not, they know one.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Artefacts Of Power}}'''</big>
#'''Drakescale Cloak''': 5+ FNP, something you would want on your monster riding heroes.
#'''Venomfang Blade''': Pick 1 weapon. If the wound roll of the attack is an unmodified 6, it deals D3 mortal wounds in addition to any normal damage. Stack with the assassin’s Venom ability for hilarity to ensue.
#'''Asphyxia Censer''': At the end of the combat phase, each enemy unit within 3" of the bearer on a 4+ takes D3 mortal wounds.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Spell Lore}}'''</big>
#'''Sap Strength''': CV6. Pick a visible enemy unit within 18". They get -1 to hit until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''Shadow Daggers''': CV7. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 9". They take D6 mortal wounds.
#'''Vitrioc Spray''': CV8. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 6". Until the start of your next hero phase, they have a save characteristic of "-". Use your sorceress's sacrificial dagger to make sure it goes through!

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===City Allegiance: {{color|MediumPurple|Har Kuron}} (Aqshy)===
Formally Anvilgard, it has turned into New Dark Aelf City thanks to [[Morathi]]. Revolves solely on Darkling Covens, Scourge Privateers and Order Serpentis, with support from the Daughters of Khaine.
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<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Battle Traits}}'''</big>

*'''Har Kuron:''' Forget all the other Cities of Sigmar sub factions, you can only use {{AOSKeyword|Darkling Covens}}, {{AOSKeyword|Order Serpentis}}, {{AOSKeyword|Scourge Privateers}}, and {{AOSKeyword|Shadowblades}} from the battletome. You're also restricted from using the universal Ways of the Free Peoples, so no more General's Adjundants, wound-shielding retinues or bolstered Endless Spells if you wish to become Druchii, once more.

*'''Temple of Khaine:'''
**One in four units can be taken from the {{AOSKeyword|Daughters of Khaine}}.
**Each of your hero phase, 1 {{AOSKeyword|Daughters of Khaine Priest}} can attempt to recite an exclusive prayer.
***''Incitement of Murder'': A {{AOSKeyword|Har Kuron}} unit wholly within 12" inficts exploding double hits on hit rolls of 6. Terrifying on Bleakswords as they already do that, so every 6 turn into 3 successful strike. Also brutal on Dreadspears as 6s will provide double hits that BOTH result as Rend -1. Mortek Guard have just left the chat.

*'''Command Ability: Make an Example of the Weak:''' At the start of your Battleshock Phase, pick 1 friendly {{AOSKeyword|Har Kuron}} unit wholly within 12" of an {{AOSKeyword|Har Kuron hero}}. One model is slain, but all {{AOSKeyword|Har Kuron}} units wholly within 18" of the targeted unit ignore Battleshock.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Command Traits}}'''</big>
#'''Bathed in Blood''': Gains +1 wound and heals 1 each of you Hero phases
#'''Murderous Zealot''': May attempt to use ''Incitement of Murder'' like a priest, or can attempt ''Incitement of Murder'' twice if they already can.
#'''Dark Adept''': If the general is a Wizard, they can cast a extra spell. If not, they become a Wizard.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Artefacts Of Power}}'''</big>
#'''Lifetaker:''' During shooting phase pick enemy within 36", take 1MW on 3+ or D3 on 6 roll.
#'''Traitor's Banner:''' Friendly units wholly within 12" are -1 to hit by missile weapons.
#'''Nullstone Vizard:''' Each of your Hero phases while on the field, gain CP on 5+.

<big>'''{{color|MediumPurple|Spell Lore}}'''</big>
#'''Sap Strength''': CV6. Pick a visible enemy unit within 18". They get -1 to hit until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''The Withering''': CV6. Pick a visible enemy unit within 18". they are +1 to wound until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''Vitriolic Spray''': CV8. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 6". Until the start of your next hero phase, they have a save characteristic of "-". Use your sorceress's sacrificial dagger to make sure it goes through!
#'''Steed of Shadows:''' CV6. Caster gains a M16" and Fly until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''Pit of Shades:''' CV7. Back again to ruin the lives of slow units like Ogres and Seraphon. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 18". Roll 2D6 and they take MW equal to the Different between Movement and roll.
#'''Shadow Daggers''': CV7. If cast, pick a visible enemy unit within 9". They take D6 mortal wounds.

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===City Allegiance: <span style="color:MediumBlue;">Tempest's Eye</span> (Aqshy)===
Mountain trading port that touches the sky. The Alpha Strike option, with access to Kharadron Overlords units.
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<big>'''<span style="color:MediumBlue;">Battle Traits</span>'''</big>
*'''Atop Titanspear Mountain:''' Tempest's Eye armies must be from Aqshy.

*'''Alert and Forewarned:''' Add 3" to movement and 1 to saves for Tempest Eye units until the end of the 1st battle round.

*'''Outrunners of the Realms:''' Add 1 to run rolls.

*'''Standing Contracts:''' 1 in 4 units can be {{AOSKeyword|[[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Kharadron Overlords#Warscrolls|Kharadron Overlords]]}}. They gain the Cities of Sigmar and Tempest's Eye keywords.
**Observe a 90 point unit of Bleakswords: high bravery 4+ save battleline that may score 1 or 2 extra hits in melee and compare them with Arkanauts: high bravery 4+ save battleline that has the same melee profile but they can shoot reliably at short and medium ranges! You obviously ''will'' take the special weapons for every 10, which means that you can actually get two melee rend -1 and d3 damage attacks with a skypike; the excellent rend -2, d3 damage and 18" range of the skyhook and the 6 shot bullet spam at 12" range of the volley gun. That's on top of a +1 to hit if your unit is wholly within 9" of an objective. You can obviously combo that with a Celestial Hurricanum to get hits on 2+. Oh and I forgot to mention, on top of the juicy special weapons above, every other guy gets a two shot pistol!

*'''Command Ability: Rapid Redeploy''': In the shooting phase, pick a {{AOSKeyword|Tempest's Eye}} unit wholly within 12" of hero. That unit can shoot even if it ran in the same turn.

<big>'''<span style="color:MediumBlue;">Command Traits</span>'''</big>

#'''Aether Guard Captain''': Add 1 to charge rolls for friendly Tempest's Eye units that are wholly within 12" of the general.
#'''Hawk Eyed''': Add 1 to wound rolls for missile attacks made by friendly Tempest's Eye units wholly within 12" of the general.
#'''Swift as the Wind''': Can run and charge. Hero and mount fight at the start of the combat phase.

<big>'''<span style="color:MediumBlue;">Artefacts Of Power</span>'''</big>
#'''Patrician's Helm''': Do not take battleshock for friendly Tempest's Eye units wholly within 12" of the bearer.
#'''Seerstone Amulet''': If bearer is on the battlefield at the start of your hero phase roll a dice, on a 4+ get an extra CP.
#'''Zephyrite Banner''': Reroll charge rolls for friendly Tempest's Eye units that are wholly within 12" of the bearer.

<big>'''<span style="color:MediumBlue;">Spell Lore</span>'''</big>
#'''Aura of Glory''': Cast on a 7, add 1 to the attack characteristic of melee weapons for friendly Tempest's Eye units that are wholly within 12" of the caster. Damn! Stack this on your aether-chestmisted Balloon dudes to triple their melee output!
#'''Strike of Eagles''': Cast on a 7, pick one enemy unit within 30" of the caster (and visible). Roll 6 dice, for every 4+ they take a mortal wound. Awesome range!
#'''Celestial Visions''': Cast on a 7, get a CP.

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===City Allegiance: <span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Hallowheart</span> (Aqshy)===
The city of magic. If you want to always cast a spell and have your opponent watch as they can't unbind them, here's your place.
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<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Battle Traits</span>'''</big>
*'''Eldritch Attunement''': If a unit is affected by a spell or endless spell, you can choose to roll a die. On a 5+, ignore the spell's effects.

*'''Mage of the Whitefire Council''': Your wizards can cast an extra spell. They select TWO spells from the spell list instead of 1.

*'''Command Ability: Arcane Channeling''': Start of the hero phase. Pick 1 friendly hero wizard and roll a die. 1) that unit suffers that many mortal wounds. 2) for each mortal wound dealt and not negated by any means, your wizards within 12" get that roll's result as a bonus to cast until the start of your next hero phase. Remember, in order to be able to measure to the model, ''it must not be dead''! Works better on units with lots of wounds, such as celestial hurricanums and luminarks of hysh. Consider casting sear wounds (with + a lot to cast) to heal it right back off!

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Command Traits</span>'''</big>
#'''Veteran of the Blazing Crusade''': Do not take battleshock tests for friendly units wholly within 18" of the general.
#'''Warden of the Flame''': Start of your hero phase, on a 4+ you get an extra CP. If you were going to use your CPs for battleshock immunity, why not use the previous command trait instead?
#'''Famed Spell Hunter''': If your general is a wizard, add 3 to attempts to dispell endless spells. Otherwise, they can dispell endless spells.

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Artefacts Of Power</span>'''</big>
#'''Agloraxi Prism''': Subtract 1 from missile attacks that target the bearer.
#'''Pauldrons of Living Flame''': End of the combat phase, roll a die for each enemy unit within 3" of the bearer, on a 4+ they take d3 mortal wounds.
#'''Whitefire Tome''': If bearer is a wizard, they know all the spells from the Lore instead of 2. Otherwise, they know one spell and can cast it.

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Spell Lore</span>'''</big>
The masters of magic get 6 spells instead of the usual 3! Not just that - each of your wizards gets 2 of them on top of their normal spells, leading to unparalleled choice when it comes to casting.

#'''Roaming Wildfire''': Cast on a 6, pick enemy unit within 18" and visible, it suffers d3 mortal wounds. Roll a d6 for each enemy unit within 6", on a 4+ those units also take d3 mortal wounds.
#'''Sear Wounds''': Cast on a 6, pick a friendly unit within 18" of the caster that is visible. Heal d6 wounds allocated to that unit.
#'''Elemental Cyclone''': Cast on a 6, pick one enemy unit within 12" that is visible and roll a die per model unit that is within 12" of the caster, on a 4+ they take a mortal wound.
#'''Warding Brand''': Cast on a 6, target a friendly unit wholly within 18" and visible. Until start of next hero phase, roll a dice each time a wound was dealt by a melee weapon and was not negated. On a 4+ the attacking unit suffers a mortal wound.
#'''Crystal Aegis''': Cast on a 5, until the start of your next hero phase, add 1 to the rolls for '''Eldritch Attunement''' trait for friendly units wholly within 12" of the caster. You can now ignore spells and endless spells on a 4+!
#'''Ignite Weapons''': Cast on a 6, pick a friendly unit wholly within 18" of the caster that is visible to them. Add 1 to wound rolls made by that unit until the start of your next hero phase.
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===City Allegiance: <span style="color:DarkGreen;">The Living City</span> (Ghyran)===
The Symbol of the alliance between Sigmar and Alarielle. The ambush and flanking shenanigans city, with access to extra healing and Sylvaneth units.
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<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGreen;">Battle Traits</span>'''</big>
*'''Living Wargroves:''' 1 in 4 units can include {{AOSKeyword|[[Age_of_Sigmar/Tactics/Order/Sylvaneth#Warscrolls|Sylvaneth]]}} units while adding the keywords {{AOSKeyword|Cities of Sigmar}} and {{AOSKeyword|Living City}}.

*'''Hunters of the Hidden Paths''': Similar to Sylvaneth (but more restricted), instead of setting up a {{AOSKeyword|Living City}} unit on the battlefield, you can say that it is set up in the hidden paths. You can set up a unit in reserve for each {{AOSKeyword|Living City}} unit you have on the battlefield (therefore this excludes potential allied units from the count). At the end of the movement phase, you can set them up wholly within 6" of the battlefield edge more than 9" from any enemy units. Make sure to deploy them at that latest on turn 3, because at the start of turn 4 any units that are still in the hidden paths are destroyed.

*'''Attuned to Nature''': In your hero phase, heal 1 wound allocated to every {{AOSKeyword|Living City}} unit.
**great on units with Damage charts, Hyrdas are harder to kill. Also, weirdly, this does not exclude Steam tanks which gives those units much greater survivability without needing a cogsmith for repairs.

*'''Command Ability: Strike and Melt Away''': end of shooting phase, pick one friendly {{AOSKeyword|Living City}} unit ''that shot that phase'', is more than 9" from enemy units and wholly within 18" of a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Living City hero}}. That unit can move, it cannot run.
**This is INSANE for units that want to go into combat and combos perfectly with the Hidden Paths: you can deep strike your unit 9" away (say, into cover), shoot stuff with your shadow warriors getting the bonus to cover, then move them 6" (because you also deep struck a support hero nearby in order to use command abilities). Your charge now became a 3" charge. With other types of units, you can position them however you need, and then fade off in the distance: this is good for shooty and melee stuff like corsairs with crossbows and sisters of the watch, but for highly mobile shooting units it is extremely potent: try it with units such as dark riders, outriders, luminarks of hysh line of mortal wounds, Drycha, artillery pieces, scourge runner chariots, FREAKING STEAM TANKS, Durthu, any stormcast with a >9" shooting attack, drakesworn templar, any of the non-hero dracoth units, palladors, etc etc etc etc etc

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGreen;">Command Traits</span>'''</big>
#'''Iron Oak Artisan''': Add 1 to saves and on to-wound rolls for this general.
#'''Farstrider''': Can run and charge. Friendly units are not affected by the Deadly Scenery rule if they are wholly within 12".
#'''Druid of the Ever Spring Circle ''': If your general is a wizard, they know all of the spells of the Lore of Leaves. If they are not a wizard they know one spell and can cast it.

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGreen;">Artefacts Of Power</span>'''</big>
#'''Spear of the Hunt''': Pick one melee weapon of the bearer, improve its rend by 1. Bearer and their mount fights at the start of the combat phase if they made a charge this turn.
#'''Deepmire Cloak''': If the bearer has a wounds characteristic of 6 or less, they cannot be chosen as the target of a missile attack if they are in cover. If they have 7 or more wounds, they inflict -1 to missile weapons that target the bearer if they are in cover.
#'''Wardroth Horn''': Once per battle in your hero phase you can sound the horn: add 1 to attacks of friendly {{AOSKeyword|Living City Sylvaneth}} units until the start of your next hero phase.

<big>'''<span style="color:DarkGreen;">Spell Lore</span>'''</big>
#'''Life Surge''': Cast on a 6, pick 1 friendly model within 18" of the caster. You can heal d6 wounds that were allocated to the model.
#'''Cage of Thorns''': Cast on a 7, pick 1 enemy unit that's within 18" of the caster and that is visible, halve the move characteristic of that unit until the start of your next hero phase. Also, until the start of your next hero phase, the first time that unit moves it takes d6 mortal wounds.
#'''Iron Oak Skin''': Cast on a 6, pick 1 friendly wholly within 18" of the caster and visible, subtract 1 from wound rolls that target that unit until the start of your next hero phase.

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===City Allegiance: <span style="color:SteelBlue;">Greywater Fastness</span> (Ghyran)===
The polluted, industrial gunpowder city in the Realm of Life. Your superior firepower city, with emphasis on artillery and ranged units.

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<big>'''<span style="color:SteelBlue;">Battle Traits</span>'''</big>
*'''Amidst the Ghoul Mere:''' Greywater Fastness is from Ghyran.

*'''Runelord:''' In your hero phase, ONE {{AOSKeyword|Greywater Fastness Runelord}} can chant the following prayer as well as one from their warscroll.
**''Rune of Unfaltering Aim:'' On a 2+, select a friendly {{AOSKeyword|Greywater Fastness Ironweld Arsenal war machine}} within 3", until the start of your next hero phase it gets +1 to hit with its missile weapon attacks.

*'''Home of the Great Ironweld Guilds:''' Friendly {{AOSKeyword|Greywater Fastness Ironweld Arsenal}} missile attacks have their maximum range increased by 3". In a pitched battle, you can include an additional artillery unit.

*'''Command Ability:Salvo Fire''': Use this in your shooting phase. Pick 1 friendly {{AOSKeyword|Greywater Fastness}} Freeguild Handgunners or Irondrakes unit wholly within 12" of a hero. Add 1 to hit rolls for missile attacks made by that unit until the end of the phase. Doesn't stack.

<big>'''<span style="color:SteelBlue;">Command Traits</span>'''</big>
#'''Seat on the Council''': If this general is on the battlefield, roll a dice in your hero phase. On a 4+ you gain a CP.
#'''Drillmaster''': Reroll hit rolls of 1 for friendly missile weapon attacks made by units wholly within 12" of this general as long as the general is more than 3" away from any enemy units.
#'''Ghoul Mere Ranger''': Friendly units wholly within 12" of the general can run and still shoot later in the same turn.

<big>'''<span style="color:SteelBlue;">Artefacts Of Power</span>'''</big>
#'''Steam Piston Plate Mail''': Add 1 to save rolls for the bearer. If the bearer does not have a mount, add 1 to its move.
#'''Runic Munitions''': Pick 1 of the bearer's missile weapons, add 1 to its damage characteristic.
#'''Magnificient Macroscope''': Start the game with 1 extra CP, and add 1 to hit for missile attacks made by the bearer.

<big>'''<span style="color:SteelBlue;">Spell Lore</span>'''</big>
#'''Descending Ash Cloud''': Cast on a 6, pick an enemy unit within 18" that is visible to the caster, subtract 1 from hit rolls made by that unit until the start of your next hero phase.
#'''Eroding Blast''': Cast on a 6, pick a terrain feature wholly within 18" and visible to the caster. Roll a die for every model within 1" of the feature. On a 5+ they suffer a mortal wound. In addition until your next hero phase that terrain gains the Deadly Scenery Rule.
#'''Choking Fumes''': Cast on a 6, pick 1 enemy unit within 15" that is visible to them, roll a die for every model that is within 15". For each 5+ that unit suffers a mortal wound. Combine with balewind vortex to get a bit more range.

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===City Allegiance: <span style="color:FireBrick;">The Phoenicium</span> (Ghyran)===
The Phoenix city resurrected from amber
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<big>'''<span style="color:FireBrick;">Battle Traits</span>'''</big>

*'''Vengeful Revenants:''' Add 1 to hit and wound rolls for melee weapon attacks if any friendly {{AOSKeyword|Phoenicium}} units have been destroyed in the same phase.
**Read as "this army is for MSU and chaff users".

*'''Blood of the Phoenix:''' Both types of phoenixes get an extra wound.

*'''Command Ability: Living Idol''': Use in the combat phase, pick a {{AOSKeyword|Phoenix Hero}} unit. If a {{AOSKeyword|Phoenicium}} model is slain within 12" of it, the destroyed model can fight before it's removed.
**This is more guaranteed to happen if you set it up than the Skaven's death frenzy spells, which can fail to be cast or be dispelled. If building Phoenicium lists, I would try to build around this ability.

<big>'''<span style="color:FireBrick;">Command Traits</span>'''</big>
#'''Seeker of Vengeance''': Add 1 to the attack characteristic of the general's melee weapons if a friendly model has been slain this phase, add 3 instead if 5 or more models were slain. Use this on a tanky hero, because you're waiting until your opponent kills a model somewhere before hitting with your hero. I recommend a frost phoenix.
#'''One with Fire and Ice''': If your general is a wizard, they know all spells from the Lore of the Phoenixes. Otherwise, they can cast one spell from that lore.
#'''Aura of Senerity''': Do not take battleshock tests for friendly units wholly within 12" inches of the general. With the amount of stuff you are trying to get killed just to proc your bonuses, maybe this is a good idea, maybe it's a bad one?

<big>'''<span style="color:FireBrick;">Artefacts Of Power</span>'''</big>
#'''Amber Armor''': If the attack that targets the bearer has a rend characteristic of -1, change it to "-".
#'''Phoenix Pinion''': Bearer can fly as well as run and charge.
#'''Pyre Ashes''': If you roll a natural 6 when saving for the bearer, you can heal 1 wound allocated to the bearer. Troll the shit out of your opponents with this item on a fucking frost phoenix.

<big>'''<span style="color:FireBrick;">Spell Lore</span>'''</big>
#'''Amber Tide''': Cast on a 6, pick enemy unit within 18" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, halve their movement. Not as good as living city bramble/thorn cage, which inflicts mortal wounds if they move!
#'''Phoenix Cries''': Cast on a 5, until the start of your next hero phase, subtract 1 from the bravery characteristic of enemy units while they are within 18" of the caster.
#'''Golden Mist''': This is the one you're taking. Cast on a 6, heal d3 wounds to each friendly {{AOSKeyword|Phoenicium}} unit within 12" and visible. Because you're not resilient enough. Combo this with emerald lifeswarm to troll the fuck out of your opponents some more!

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===City Allegiance: {{color|DarkMagenta|Misthåvn}} (Ulgu)===
The City of Scoundrels, wracked with drug trafficking and corruption.
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<big>'''{{color|DarkMagenta|Battle Traits}}'''</big>
*'''The Shadow Port''': Misthåvn armies must be from Ulgu.

*'''Underhanded Tactics''': A restrictive form of deepstrike. For every {{AOSKeyword|Darkling Coven}}, {{AOSKeyword|Freeguild}}, and {{AOSKeyword|Duardin}} (including allied Fyreslayers and Kharadron) you deploy on the battlefield, you can set up 1 unit of {{AOSKeyword|Order Serpentis}}, {{AOSKeyword|Shadowblades}}, or {{AOSKeyword|Scourge Privateers}} in reserve. These units must contain no more than 10 models. You can bring them in anywhere more than 9" away from enemies at the end of any of your movement phases. Deepstriking dragons, anyone?

*'''Misthåvn Narcotics''': Give your heroes magical drugs! 1 hero per army, +1 per warscroll battalion, can pick a narcotic, which are all one time use affects you activate in your hero phase. No duplicates or multiples on a single hero (but they can still take relics). Has no affects on mounts.

*'''Command Ability: Shadowstrike:''' You can use this when a unit of yours deepstrikes onto the field within 12" of a friendly hero. That unit can move d6" (it cannot run). Helps get that charge off.

<big>'''{{color|DarkMagenta|Command Traits}}'''</big>
#'''Shadowlord''': Once per battleround, the general can use the Shadowstrike Command ability for free. make sure you get them in a good position.
#'''Wily Foe''': 6+ roll to ignore wounds and mortal wounds.
#'''Shade Warlock''': The general knows Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield and can cast 1 spell a turn. If its already a WIZARD, it gets 1 extra cast.

<big>'''{{color|DarkMagenta|Artefacts Of Power}}'''</big>
#'''Gloom Bell''': Once per battle, at the start of the enemy shooting phase, you can ring the bell to make a 12" bubble of -1 to hit for the phase. Take that Skaven! We have bells too!
#'''Strangler-Kelp Noose''': Once per battle, at the start of the a combat phase, pick 1 model within 3" of the bearer and roll a die. If the roll is less than the model's Wound characteristic, or the roll is a 6, that model can't fight. That's a 5/6 chance to stop a 5-wound hero from attacking, and it is actually guaranteed against anything bigger. Hand this to a duelist or monster hunter and go strait for the biggest thing on the board. This does sound a bit werid though, so we might be expecting an FAQ.
#'''Shadowsilk Armor''': +1 to saves.

<big>'''{{color|DarkMagenta|Misthåvn Narcotics}}'''</big>
#'''Synesthalcum''': +1 to hit rolls until your next hero phase.
#'''Witch-mist''': Become a ghost for a round, and the hero ignores save modifiers till the next hero phase.
#'''Skiffer's Salve''': the user heals d6 wounds, but gets a bit too high and can't run or charge. Use when your already stuck in.
#'''Float''': Get so high you can fly. Seriously, it lets the hero fly till your next hero phase. Can't be used if the hero has a mount.
#'''Sawfang Dust''': each time the user fights, pick 1 unit afterwards within 1". On a roll of 4+, it suffers d3 mortal wounds.
#'''Glatch Ink''': +1 to casting, unbinding, and dispelling rolls until your next hero phase.
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==Warscrolls==

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===<span style="font-size:150%">{{color|red|Human}}</span>===

This encompasses the {{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}}, assorted wizards in dresses and magical scenery; the <span style="color:DarkRed;">Devoted of Sigmar</span>, aka Flagellants; and all <span style="color:Crimson;">Freeguild</span>, what remains of the Empire list. It turns out that thousands of years later, in a totally different place in time and space, men and women still dress in exactly the same silly feathered hats and pantaloons.

The overall best army of the Cities and the one with more units. Hero are good at support and damage dealers, great blocks of specialized infantry, two fantastic units of shooters and fast, hard hitting cavalry. Their weak points are generally bad bravery, the fact that you have to not move for using them at their best and being quite frail against -rend units, because the average saves run around 5+/4+. They are at the center of tons of armies lists, being easily supported by others races.

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

<big>'''Leaders'''</big>
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildgeneral_eng.pdf Freeguild General]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, 100p): An anchor for human lines, Giving Freeguild +1 bravery and a CA that grants 3 units +1 hit & wound if they don't move or charge. Pop this on units that don't need to move like handguns, and/or on Freeguild Guard so they hit hard during the opponents turn. They are what make Human Guns so much more Dangerous, and makes stealing important objectives from Spears so much harder. Also, while being somehow squishy with a 4+ save and 5 wounds, he can pull out some really good damage with his FUCKhuge sword, with a stat of 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/D3, also a extra mortal wounds on six to hit rolls. Not a character killer, yes, but don't underestimate him.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildgeneralongriffon_eng.pdf Freeguild General on Griffon]'''({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, 320pts): A more capable use of the griffon, though you are certainly paying for the cost. Your loadout is actually quite flexible between the flurry of attacks from your sword, your few but deadly hammer hits, and the mid-point lance, followed by the option for either a shield to boost your save from 4+ to 3+ or leave it for +1 to run and charge rolls. Whatever you pick, your get a CA that still capitalizes on charging with a 12" aura of +1 to charge rolls and hit rolls so you can make the most of that charge.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_battlemage_eng.pdf Battlemage]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}}, 110pts): Your go-to wizard, able to pick which Realm they specialized in which gives them: A unique spell and Casting bonus while in that realm. Despite how it initially looks, Azyr wizards are better against elite armies than horde ones, aim for the support, ideally the ones with the aura abilities and know you're likely going to be hitting one or two elite squads around them. If you want something better against hordes then you want Aqshy, fireball scales in damage with however many models are in the target unit so large squads with high saves are ideal. Ulgu wizards are a pretty good warning against anybody threatening a vulnerable squad and gives them at least a chance to run away, while Shyish wizards could be the thing you need to turn around a contested battle or wipe out a unit with Battleshock before they can break away. If you want a protective ability then you need to go with Hysh to drop -1 to hit for enemy units targeting a unit, which is very good since it works on everything, especially when you use it on something that can already take a beating like a unit of Phoenix Guard. Ghyran ends up being somewhat pointless, since if you want charge protection you'll be taking Cage of Thorns instead to halve their movement and deal Mortal Wounds, and even Chamon is better for that. Speaking of which, Chamon is pretty good if you're going missile-heavy and want to focus down something elite while avoiding combat with them. In general it's a must-have if you're up against Stormcast Eternals or Kharadron Overlords. Finally, Ghur is a great spell if you're going melee-focused or you want to abuse the easy charges you can get from the Living City or the tempest's eye command trait and artifact, who give +1 to charge and re-roll them automatically.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_battlemageongriffon_eng.pdf Battlemage on Griffon]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}} 300pts): You get a flying Ghur wizard with a capable but quite squishy beast. The two-headed griffon can at least throw out some blows with its bite (Doubling hits for each 6 to hit) and claws (though those drop with damage). Your wizard, on the other hand, is more capable at shooting, with his special spells being Wildform (see above) and Amber Spear, a pretty effective beam of damage with few hangups.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_celestialhurricanum_eng.pdf Celestial Hurricanum with Celestial Battlemage]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}} 280pts): Slapping a wizard onto this doesn't do much besides making a bigger target. What it does provide, though, is the absolutely sick Comet of Cassandora spell, now always able to deal damage, though it's best suited for slow, plodding fools (or just get a Metal Wizard to slow them first and then smash 'em).

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_luminarkofhysh_eng.pdf Luminark of Hysh with White Battlemage]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}} 270pts): The aura of protection makes putting a Hysh wizard less of a gamble, though you're still a visible target. You also get the Burning Gaze spell, which is the final word on eradicating mobs.

<big>'''Battleline/Conditional Battleline'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildguard_eng.pdf Freeguild Guard]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Battleline: 80/280pts, min 10, max 40): These guys are as good as ever. They lost the possibility of having shields with every other weapon and the militia equipment, gaining instead generally better equipment and ability. Halberds are quite terrifying now, with a 3+ for wound and -1 rend. Better save with shield and swords and a really nasty ability with the spear. Always take in large crowds and take the best weapon for the occasion. (Spears get in more attacks and charging them a nightmare, Sword & board grants durability, and halberds helps smake up tougher units when you can't have the numbers advantage)

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildcrossbowmen_eng.pdf Freeguild Crossbowmen]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Battleline, 100pts, min 10, max 30): Your long-range shooting. Basically for having them at their best you have to don't move them and have 10+ models, as they gain +1 attack with their Crossbow.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildhandgunners_eng.pdf Freeguild Handgunners]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Battleline, 100pts, min 10, max 30): Trade range for rending on their shots and Quantity for consistency. These guys get a nice nerfed, going from "terrifyingly op" to "nice normal shooter" [Wrong, there was no nerf - both +1 requirements were put into one rule granting a single extra +1 and they just got their base hit improved by 1 to a 4+: considering the unit size requirement for the bonus went down to 10, this is objectively a buff, making it easier to take MSU for long rifles while keeping +1's to hit]. Basically for having them at their best you have to don't move them and have 10+ models, as they gain +1 to with their guns, but their low range makes them not that dangerous and almost vulnerable to fast units. Now it's only their ability to shoot at charging units, use it wisely. The units' MARKSMAN can take a Repeater Handgun for more shot or Long Rifle which is a 30" D2 gun that ignores Look Out, Sir! for picking out weak support heroes.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildgreatswords_eng.pdf Freeguild Greatswords]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Crimson|Freeguild}} General, 140/360pts, min 10, max 30): Elite infantry without question. Though with a rather weak 6 Bravery, you get some pretty effective weapons that deal mortal wounds on unmodified 6's to hit. They're especially effective as a retinue, as they'll get an additional +1 to hit for being in range of any {{AOSKeyword|Freeguild Hero}}.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_demigryphknights_eng.pdf Demigryph Knights]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Crimson|Freeguild}} General, 180pts, min 3, max 12): Tough guys with some good mobility. Though your loadout's either stuck between the lance's charge bonus or the all-rounder halberd, you always get your menacing mount's attacks for the chance to pop some mortal wounds.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildoutriders_eng.pdf Freeguild Outriders]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumBlue|Tempest's Eye}}, 100pts, min 5, max 20): Your mobile Gunners, able to Retreat and/or Run, and still shoot. Repeater Handgun can deal a lot of inaccurate shoots, especially if they're not near an enemy for D3+1 attacks.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_freeguildpistoliers_eng.pdf Freeguild Pistoliers]''' ({{color|Crimson|Freeguild}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumBlue|Tempest's Eye}}, 100pts, min 5, max 20): short-ranged guns, and can re-roll run and charge rolls. They do bring Rend and a lot of attacks, especially since they get to shoot again when they charge. With all this attacking, they are likely to deal many wounds before that target gets their swing.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_flagellants_eng.pdf Flagellants]''' ({{color|DarkRed|Devoted of Sigmar}}, Conditional Battleline: Human General, 80/280pts, min 10, max 40): That cheap unit that likes dying. Also, they keep devoted of Sigmar keyword, so you CAN ally warrior priest to power them and intentionally kill them with endless spells for more attacks. A perfect fit for The Phoenicium Battleines.

<big>'''Behemoths'''</big>
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_celestialhurricanum_eng.pdf Celestial Hurricanum]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}} 220pts): This is purely made to support your forces, provided its own killer shooting and auras for supporting your entire army. Your men will love the +1 to hit while within range of it, though that requires that they protect it to ensure the range, while Wizards of any realm can benefit with a +1 to all casting from it. In all cases, keep it away from any means of battle. Also, it's weapon is one of the best mortal wounds dealers in the game, being capable of doing a best 3D3 mortal wounds on any target, basically killing any less hero stupid enough to get too close.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_luminarkofhysh_eng.pdf Luminark of Hysh]''' ({{color|DeepPink|Collegiate Arcane}}, 210pts): The more protective of the giant casty-engines. This one's got auras of wound-negating (range limited by damage) and grants nearby wizards +1 to unbind. While the Hurricanom operates its weapon based on a burst of shots, this one fires a singular laser beam of doom, its effectiveness restrained only by damage. A stupidly good combination with flagellants, giving you the possibility of kill them (extra attacks) and give them a (weak-but-better-then-nothing) defense.
</div></div>

<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

===<span style="font-size:150%">{{color|SteelBlue|Duardin}}</span>===
This encompasses the {{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, or Dwarfs if you're still holding a grudge and are rather grumpy about it. Do remember that any conditional Battleline that requires a Duardin general (such as Irondrakes, or any others GW might change in the future) will also be met if your General is a Cogsmith, despite them not being Dispossessed, this also works for Kharadron generals when hailing from Tempest's Eye.

Heavy infantry with a really high survival rate, dispossessed are hard as a rock, hits like trucks and have a pair of gromril balls. They are really good at war of attrition, being generally invulnerable against battleshock, with a save roll generally over the average of others races and don't really needs wizards thanks to their runelords. Unfortunately, they are slow, can't use magic in anyway, with just one (fucking wonderful yes, but still one) shooting unit and with a really high points (and money) cost for units. Except to be easily outnumber by others armies. Gain great support by faster units, artillery and mages.

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

<big>'''Leaders'''</big>
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_wardenking_eng.pdf Warden King]''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, 110pts): A Powerful Lynchpin for the DISPOSSESSED bunker as he can grant a Battleshock immunity aura for not moving, and a CA that let's him pick an enemy unit within 18" of him. Any DISPOSSESSED unit attacking the selected enemy in melee get +1 attack. When paired with other Allegiance abilities he makes Ironbreakers and Hammerers a force to be reckoned with.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_runelord_eng.pdf Runelord]:''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, 90pts): One of the best Anti magic Heros in the game, worth taking even if you don't have other DUARDIN. They can unbind magic and have a +2 when they make the roll. They also support with a DISPOSSESSED Prayer that either gives a DISPOSSESSED within 16" a Feel no pain on a six or give their weapons -1 more rend. Put a luminark together with this guy and get a double feel no pain against mortal wounds!

<big>'''Battleline/Conditional Battleline'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_longbeards_eng.pdf Longbeards]''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, Battleline, 110/270pts, min 10, max 30): The old grumblers are back... And they are even more unsatisfied! They support other Duarden with their complaints. Unfortunately, shields aren't that overpower now, and you can't get shields and big weapons anymore. Better weapons or better defense are up to you, but their ability to being incredibly annoying is even more powerful. You can decide to give 1 plus bravery to dispossessed units (for when you expect to be on the receiving end of a devastating charge and you aren't in range of a Warden King's battleshock immunity bubble), make dispossessed units (wholly within 12") re-roll wounds rolls of 1 and with the last one you can even try to DISPEL ONE ENDLESS SPELL IN THE HERO PHASE! That's right, even mindless spells can't stand the continuous grumbling of this guys. Good to mix in one with other dispossessed units for their support.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_ironbreakers_eng.pdf Ironbreakers]''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, Battleline, 130/330pts, min 10, max 30): They get twice as many swings, their saves are one better then Longbeards. These are your Smachy anvils. They never ever fucking die and can dish out surprising amounts of hurt. Wound-per-Wound, they leave most infantry in the dust. Their leader can also opt to swap out his ax and shield for a pistol and bomb or a brace of pistols. Remember: These dorfs can beat the enemy with their anvillyness, but you also have Strong hammers from other factions. Worth noting that the pistol and bomb combination provides 4 attacks instead of 3, two of which rend and hit at range, and the ability to dish out d3 nigh-guaranteed mortal wounds per game. All at the expense of losing 1 to hit on your Mailed Fist attacks. Food for thought.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_irondrakes_eng.pdf Irondrakes]''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|SteelBlue|Duardin}} General, 150pts, min 10, max 30): If Ironbreakers are anvil and tongs, Irondrakes are the hammers. Any unit held in place by Ironbreakers (or any dorf infantry, for that matter) is already dead and only too stupid to realize it if you have Irondrakes nearby. Why? They get a pretty good missile weapon, being pretty much exactly a Judicator with Bow, only with 16" range. If there's no enemy within 3" and they didn't move, they add get 1+ Attack more shooting! So, wound per wound, they shoot four times as well as Judicators. Yikes. Their champion can take a Trollhammer Torpedo, which has better Rend and deals D3 damage (D6 if the target's a monster), and now you can fire that twice, so it's a no brainer to use it.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_hammerers_eng.pdf Hammerers]''' ({{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|SteelBlue|Dispossessed}} General, 140/360, min 10, max 30): There is nothing subtle about Hammerers and you wouldn't want them any other way. They swing a big Hammer, which has two swings at 3+/3+/-1/1, a rather nice profile that inflicts additional Mortal wounds on unmodified wound rolls of 6, they have a 4+ save and don't take Battleshock if there's a Dorf Hero whooly within 12". Have a Runelord put their -1 Rend ability on them, with your Warden King's +1 attack.. and you have a single unit doing 30 hits at a 3+/3+/-2/1 with chances for mortal wounds. You can hammer down most foes with them. Consider the following: If you really want to be an asshole to your opponent, try running these guys in Tempest's Eye as a block of 30 under a Warden King with Aether Guard Captain as his warlord trait and Zephyrite Banner as his artifact. Top it off with a Runelord, a set of Longbeards, a Celestial Hurricanum with Aura of Glory and a baytlemage coming from ghur. You now have 1 wound infantry clocking 360 points that for the first turn move 7", run d6+4", charge 2d6+4" rerolling, is covered under a 3+ save thanks to Alert and Forewarned that craps out 4 attacks per head at 2+/3+ reroll 1/-2/1. A full strength unit is burying a target in 121 swings averaging 20 mortal wounds as icing on the cake. We're talking enough mortal wounds to send Nagash right back to the grave, nevermind the other 121 swings. For days when you want to settle the entire Dammaz Kron in one sitting.
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===<span style="font-size:150%">{{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}</span>===
A bunch of Human and Duardin engineers came together and compared notes. This encompasses your artillery, tanks, and helicopters. The mechanized forces of the order, ironweld arsenal is a stand-alone group of war machines and hero, ranging from artillery support to unstoppable tanks. This faction isn't a jolly, but more of a list of units that can be filled and complete other armies (gyrocopters for dispossessed, artillery for everyone who lacks long-range units while the steam tank can simply fit everywhere without being an annoyance).

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

<big>'''Leaders'''</big>
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_steamtank_eng.pdf Steam Tank with Commander]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 230pts): The key to Steam Tank battleline and smashing that max behemoth limit (as per core FAQ Dec 2019, battleline units do not count towards behemoth limits). Adding him onto the heaving tank gives you two nice guns and a decidedly shite melee weapon. He's also the tank's sole means of healing (so long as you don't use "More Pressure!") His CA lets you mark a single target so all your nearby tankbros can blast the shit outta that target a little faster.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_cogsmith_eng.pdf Cogsmith]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 60pts): The poor man's HQ. Don’t let that fool you though; this guy is arguably more useful than the Steam Tank Commander. While always equipped with some pistols he can slap within melee, the rest of his loadout is what impacts his usefulness. Taking the Grudge-Raker gives him a shotgun, while dropping it adds +1 to his melee attacks, while the Cog Axe gives him a bundle of attacks or a +1 to hit with the shooting. In any case, he lacks a Command Ability, instead of using the Hero Phase to let heal a nearby {{AOSKeyword|Ironweld Arsenal War Machine}}, indeed your only way to preserve those precious steamtanks.

<big>'''Battleline/Conditional Battleline'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_steamtank_eng.pdf Steam Tank]:''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, Behemoth or Conditional Battleline: {{color|SlateGray|Steam Tank}} General, 180pts): This incredible beast got a nerf but is still scarier for your enemy, especially now that you can have it as a BATTLELINE! basically an artillery platform with a weapon for every situation can deal with crowds and lesser monsters alike (just don't send it against Archaon please. You'll make Sigmar cry). The mobility is quite problematic, being a roll of dice impacted by damage, but this can be fixed with his ability, "More Pressure!" - roll 2d6 and if the result is less than the tank's current wounds, add 2 to both the attacks of the steam gun and movement. But, if you fail the roll you get D3 wounds. Always take a Lord Ordinator, a Celestial Hurricanum or the Commander for making their attacks more powerful. (the steam tank is resembling the old empire quality: fine against everything, but good against nothing.)

<big>'''Artillery'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_helstormrocketbattery_eng.pdf Helstorm Rocket Battery]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 130pts): Got a devastating nerf (someone would call it "make units more balanced" and they are probably right but still...). The damage of the missiles now d3 instead of d6. For the rest, they are better than before, with the ability to re-roll hits rolls of one with an engineer close. Get 4 of them with the battalion, a lord ordinator and see your adversary get desperate because you are killing everything he has from 36" of distance (39" for Greywater Fastness).

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_helblastervolleygun_eng.pdf Helblaster Volley Gun]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 120pts): Let's get this straight, this artillery is practically useless compared to the rocket batteries. Basically, you can decide to roll 1, 2 or 3d6 for the attacks made by this weapon, but when you roll 2 dice or more and you get a double, the machine would jam, don't shoot and get one mortal wound. Yeah, that's right. This means that you would NEVER have more attacks than 15 (6+5+4) and many other results are blocked! Compared this piece of junk to the helstorm (only 10 points more care) and you can easily understand what is the right choice to do.
** for ten points less a celestar ballista can easily fit the role that this rusty piece of iron should fit, close-range fire suppression, thanks to many heroes that can give a plus 1 to hit rolls, without the risk of jamming, have the best results blocked and with better rend and save. They will eat your Stormcast allowance.

<big>'''Other Units'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_gyrobombers_eng.pdf Gyrobomber]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 80/210pts, min 1, max 3): Dedicated Flying bombers. You can pick an enemy unit that this unit passes over, for each gyrobomber that flew over that enemy, deal D3 mortal wounds on a 2+ roll. with running and not dying, you can make about 3 bombing runs before the end of the game.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_gyrocopters_eng.pdf Gyrocopter]''' ({{color|SlateGray|Ironweld Arsenal}}, 70/180pts, min 1, max 3): Smaller, faster Gyrobomber with a better gun. They can only drop one bomb per game but are better at shooting. You have a pick of a normal Brimstone Gun or the short-range Steam Gun which can clear blocks. The Brimstone Gun will on average do the same damage as the Gyrobomber's Clattergun with a shorter range, but you'll probably be keeping fairly close anyway so you can drop your bombs. When taken with Greywater Fastness the 11" steam gun on top of the 16" inch move is an incredibly effective massed infantry clearer.
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<div class="toccolours mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="100%">

===<span style="font-size:150%">{{color|RebeccaPurple|Aelf}}</span>===
This encompasses the various Elves you have available to you, mostly comprised of old Dark Elf models. Included within are the {{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Covens}}, Aelven sorceresses (and occasional sorcerer) that didn't agree with the rules of the Eldritch Council and went to do their own thing. There is the {{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, a group of silent warriors who are some of the hardest to kill in the entire game. There is the {{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}}, aelves who have a hardon for anything with scales, as well as the {{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}}, the setting's non-furry sneaky assassin bois, and finally there are the {{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}}, your pirates and monster hunters, as well as the {{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderers}}, the non-squatted remnants of the Wood Elves.

<div class="mw-collapsible-content">

<big>'''Leaders'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_sorceress_eng.pdf Sorceress]''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, 90pts): Your Coven leaders and non-collage wizard. They do a lot of things, for a magic side like Sacrificing another Darkling(Ideally the cheaper ones) to gain +2 to cast and know a damage spell that also lowers the enemy's hits by 1. When Paired with other casting buffs, they can reliably cast High-level spells and not be worried that your opponent will unbind your linchpins. Their Command ability lets one Darkling Run, Shoot, and/or charge, allowing a footslogger to cover more ground.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_sorceressonblackdragon_eng.pdf Sorceress on Black Dragon]''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, 300pts): Sorceress + Dragon + another weapon + different spell + another command ability. Not a true fighter like Dreadlords, but can clear skaven hoards with Noxious Breath and Bladewind. Also, have a decent CA Inspire Hatred which rerolls wounds of 1 for a Darkling Coven unit. They are also a decent target for Command Underlings with their 14" move so they can grab objectives and be close enough to decimate a unit.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_anointed_eng.pdf Anointed]''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, 100pts): Same brutal save as Phoenix Guard, cheap way to make them not take Battleshock tests, unbinds one spell or endless spell per turn like a wizard and is decent at combat. He has a command ability that allows PHOENIX TEMPLE units wholly within 12" inches to re-roll failed wound rolls, making him an excellent force multiplier since your army only knows how to get stuck in to close combat. Unless you really need to fill out Hero slots in your army, or you explicitly want to be able to unbind enemy spells then your first choice should always be to take an Anointed on a Phoenix of one form or another. If you have the GW model for the Anointed then you will have a Phoenix anyway, since they both came in the same box.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_flamespyrephoenix_eng.pdf Anointed on Flamespyre Phoenix]''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, 300pts): Providing an Anointed grants the Phoenix a fully consistent set of strong melee attacks and the badass Command Ability.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_frostheartphoenix_eng.pdf Anointed on Frostheart Phoenix]''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, 320pts): There's a second perk to putting an Anointed to this phoenix besides the simple wedding of a dead 'ard hero and a defensive bird - a 4+ FNP. This can be taken against Mortal Wounds as well, so you can definitely match up against the Flamespyre in terms of durability, though it's far from infinite and you will need to watch your health.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_dreadlordonblackdragon_eng.pdf Dreadlord on Black Dragon]''' ({{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}}, 300pts): A heartless elf mounted on an (as always) very fast and powerful Dragon, and he's no slouch in combat himself. You can give him paired weapons or lance to deal more damage, or a crossbow to be shooty, but usually, the best option is the shield to make him live longer and use his Command Ability again and again. Because he gives all Order Serpentis unit wholly within 18" +1 to wound rolls, which can be awesome, especially combined with his great mobility. He's an awesome hero, no matter how you use him.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_assassin_eng.pdf Assassin]''' ({{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}}, 80pts): Assassin are Assassins, Cheap killers that are placed in reserve, and then they jump out of any Cities unit with 1 wound and 5+ models (no Calvary but from Flanknig, vangarding, or unconventionally fast units). A strong fighter with 6 attacks and deals d3 mortal wounds if they roll a 6 to wound. Giving him Artifacts to help kill bigger things better, provide deepstriking support or Mobility to get to the next kill.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_blackarkfleetmaster_eng.pdf Black Ark Fleetmaster]''' ({{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}}, 60pts): One of the cheapest heroes in-game. They are ok fighters but their true Power is their Command Ability At Them, You Curs!, which gives a Scourge Privateers unit +1 attacks on all their melee weapons (and Privateers have a lot of weapons).

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_nomadprince_eng.pdf Nomad Prince]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, 120pts): Another support hero for their faction, with a falcon that causes an enemy hero to be worse at magic and hitting things and a command aura ability that grants Wanderers +1 to hit. Mounted are too fast but your foot units will be near for the buff.

<big>'''Battleline/Conditional Battleline'''</big>

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_dreadspears_eng.pdf Dreadspears]''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, Battleline, 90/320pts, min 10, max 40): Rank and file Aelfs with 2" spears. Taken in units of 10+ they gain +1 to hit which pairs well with their 2" reach. They also gain -1 rend if they roll an unmodified 6 to hit. They have the least stipulations on them, so feel free to use a Sorceress to get a 40 Aelf blob that runs and changes 3d6 + 8".

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_bleakswords_eng.pdf Bleakswords]'''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, Battleline, 90/320pts, min 10, max 40): The Swordsmen version of Dreadspears, Shorter reach but inflict 2 hits on an unmodified 6 to hit instead of rending, better in smaller sizes while dealing with hordes.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_darkshards_eng.pdf Darkshards]''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, Battleline, 100pts, min 10, max 40): Aelf Crossbow, Shooting 2 shot at 16". They get the standard Darkling Coven +1 to hit when they have 10+ models. They have a shorter range and have less synergy then Freeguild Crossbow but are more mobile and don't need to give up mobility for firepower. Want cost-effective and mobile dakka for your CoS? These are ya bois.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_blackguard_eng.pdf Black Guard]''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}} General, 140pts, min 10, max 30): Elite Bodyguards SpearMen, with 2 attacks hitting and wounding on 3+ with rend -1. Gain +1 to hit when near a Darkling Coven hero. Taken for Quality over Quantity. They could be seen as 20pts cheaper Phoenix Guard that trade their revered durability so they could cover more ground with a CP.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_executioners_eng.pdf Executioners]'''' ({{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|DarkViolet|Darkling Coven}} General, 130/300pts, min 10, max 30): Elite Swordsmen, 2 attacks hitting and wounding on 3+, with unmodified hit rolls of 6 dealing a mortal wound instead of normal damage. With their recent points drop for taking a max-sized squad, it's both viable and outright filth to target 30 of these boys with a Sorceress' CA. 61 attacks that can run and charge 3D6+8" that does straight MW on a 6? See that Stardrake? Now you don't. (Take them with Har Kuron and have a Priest put their specific prayer on them for an extra attack on top of the MW on a 6, if you feel like playing the ultimate asshole.)

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_phoenixguard_eng.pdf Phoenix Guard]''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}} General, 160/420pts, min 10, max 30): Elves that have been revealed how and when will they die, so if today is not the day they don't have a reason to flee, and if today is the day they don't have a reason to flee. That makes them so serious they don't talk, EVER. This right here is, wound-per-wound, one of the most powerful (if not the most) infantry of the game: 4+ save, 7 Bravery, and ridiculously good halberds, with the range of a spear (2"), the wounding power and rend of a hammer (3+), the number of attacks of paired hand weapons (2), and all at 3+ to hit, because the Phoenix Guard is also frickin' skillful. But the thing that makes them broken is their save-after-the-save of 4+ against wounds/mortal wounds. So, against things without Rend, they will suffer 1/4 of the wounds the enemy manages to inflict upon them. And this secondary save is a "ward", meaning Rend doesn't do a thing to it, so even against the most powerful Monsters or Heroes, they'll only take half damage. Also, while the Guard remains wholly within 12" of a Phoenix Guard hero they don't even have to take battleshock tests. To sum it all, they hit like a truck, they're gods on the defense, they win any attrition fights, and they laugh at shooting/artillery/magic. They'll excel at whatever task you use them for: holding the line, spearheading the offense, killing Monster/Heroes, protecting vulnerable areas, they do it all. The ultimate all-rounders. Their only real drawback is they are relatively expensive compared to some other battleline options in the book but this is more than made up for by their inherent awesomeness.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_drakespawnknights_eng.pdf Drakespawn Knights]''' ({{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}} General, 130pt, min 5, max 20): Your Scaly Aelf M:10" Calvary with a 3+Sv. They can act as a Tarpit on mobile legs while still delivering DPS. Their mounts fight better than horses, and lances' rend and Damage increase to 2 when they charge. They are ideal if going for a Cavalry rush build that will hold on to the objectives. Points drop in FAQ, at the loss of a hoard discount. The ability to deepstrike in and move d6" to improve the charge in Misthåvn is great for taking out key targets like Karadron Ironclads.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_drakespawnchariots_eng.pdf Drakespawn Chariot]''' ({{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}} General, 80/210pt, min 1, max 3): The dinosaur chariot. Not as impressive at fighting as Knights but when they finish a charge, they will often deal d3 mortal to one unit within 1", Ideally picking on monsters and those melees that are too close to the bubble wrap.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_warhydra_eng.pdf War Hydra]''' ({{color|MediumTurquoise|Order Serpentis}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumPurple|Anvilgard/Har Kuron}}, 170pts): A more Ranged Balance Version of the Kharibdyss, with 9" firebreathing and granted the d3 regeneration rather than having to eat someone in melee.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_darkriders_eng.pdf Dark Riders]''' ({{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}} General, 110/260pts, min 5, max 20): Aelf Fast Skirmish cavalry, 14" Movement, with Repeater crossbows and spears. enemies subtract -1 bravery when 12" of a Rider. Makes the quick objective grabbers and provide supporting damage to your damage dealers like Griffins to scare off more enemy models

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_shadowwarriors_eng.pdf Shadow Warriors]''' ({{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Indigo|Shadowblades}} General, 110pts, min 10, max 30): Stealth archers and ok fighters, they can Deepstrike. Put them near the enemy's terrain and shoot up their wizards and Warmachines.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_blackarkcorsairs_eng.pdf Black Ark Corsairs]''' ({{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}} General, 80/240pts, min 10, max 40): Hoards of pirates, resistant to arrows, more accurate when taken in hoards. They can be taken with a crossbow or a secondary weapon but you want the weapon if you have a Fleetmaster too double their attacks to four. Crossbows may get uses when in smaller numbers when a Fleetmaster is not around.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_scourgerunnerchariots_eng.pdf Scourgerunner Chariot]:''' ({{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}} General, 60/150pts, min 1, max 3): A mobile harpoon launcher with some Crossbow. The harpoon can hurt some monsters with unmodified hit rolls of 6s dealing d3 mortal wounds.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_kharibdyss_eng.pdf Kharibdyss]''' ({{color|Fuchsia|Scourge Privateers}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumPurple|Anvilgard/Har Kuron}}, 170pts): Wound-per-Wound the Kharibdyss is by far one of the strongest units in this list, with a bunch of terrifying attacks, the potential self-healing, and Bravery-lowering skill to make more chumps run away screaming once it tears into them. It is also slightly faster than your Corsairs, though comparatively slow for a monster, so it can still be out-maneuvered if you aren't careful. Wound-per-Wound, the Kharibdyss is also the most efficient target for the Fleetmasters' At them, you Curs Command. Unfortunately, since Corsairs tend to be fielded in units of more than 12, they are still the most logical choice for the Command ability. On the other hand, the Kharibdyss is already plenty scary without it. Also, damage degrades its abilities noticeably quicker than you might expect. Note that a block of 20 corsairs has more wounds, does more damage and gets significantly more benefit from Fleetmaster buff. Kharibdyss is more survivable with better save and heals, so pick your poison.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_eternalguard_eng.pdf Eternal Guard]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, Battleline, 130/330pts, min 10, max 30): More Elite Spearmen than DARKLING COVEN Dread Spears costing 40 more points, having 7 Bravery, two attacks, and gain +1 to hit, +1 to wound and +1 to Sv rolls if they don't move.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_wildwoodrangers_eng.pdf Wildwood Rangers]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}} General, 130pts, min 10, max 30): Rangers hunt monster with their 2 attack axes that deal 2 damage against them. Find a way to move them close and then hack a dragon to pieces.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_sistersofthethorn_eng.pdf Sisters of the Thorn]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}} General, 130/520pts, min 5, max 20): A Wizard conclave riding Stags. They have attacks and Javelins but you take them as relatively cheap mobile wizards that cast spells at point-blank. As long as they have at least two models they can cast Arcane Bolt, Mystic Shield, and a spell that grants a Wanderer unit cover and reflects 6s to saves during melee as mortal wounds, but more importantly is getting a pick from their City's lore and Endless Spells. For Example, Anvilguard's Vitrioc Spray is a short-range spell that removes the target's saves.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_sistersofthewatch_eng.pdf Sisters of the Watch]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}} General, 160pts, min 10, max 30): What's left of the Wood elf Archers, Getting 1+ attacks when they don't move, can fire overwatch when charge, and deal Additional Mortal wounds on Unmodified 6s to wound. you have cheaper Sources of Arrows, but the Mortal wounds could get past some high armour units.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_wildriders_eng.pdf Wild Riders]''' ({{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}}, Conditional Battleline: {{color|MediumSeaGreen|Wanderer}} General, 130pts, min 5, max 20): Your Fast Aelf Cavalry, with Riders getting 2 spear attacks that deal -2 rend and 2 damage when they charge. More offensive than defensive than Drakespawn Knights. Became battleline in the FAQ.

<big>'''Behemoths'''</big>
Do note that some of your Behemoths are conditionally also a Battleline. If this is the case they will be listed above under the Conditional Battleline section instead of this section.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_flamespyrephoenix_eng.pdf Flamespyre Phoenix]:''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, 200pts) An annoying bird that comes back to life once per game. It's discounted when not ridden by an Anointed but you trade your 4+ save after save for this. It is what you are looking for, the Flamespyre won't disappoint all the while turning enemies to ashes and potentially coming back to life again for more punishment. The Attuned to Magic ability extends his survival by adding +1 to saves when a spell is successfully cast and not unbound within 12", this buff lasts until the players next hero phase. The rules state that this ability can never add more than 1 to the saves so while not as powerful as it once was, it's now happens every time a spell is cast rather than requiring a dice roll. The Flamespyre's real trick is not only during combat but also when it moves, since its Wall of Fire ability inflicts mortal wounds simply by flying over other units; If this bird has taken less than three wounds then we are talking about a napalm spray of consistent 5 Mortal Wounds moving 16" each turn, but decreasing as the Phoenix gets more wounds. If you are lucky, If/when a Flamespyre Phoenix first dies, you roll a dice, on a 4+ the bird comes back with ALL its wounds.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos_frostheartphoenix_eng.pdf Frostheart Phoenix]''' ({{color|MediumVioletRed|Phoenix Temple}}, 220pts): While stripped of all the flash and style of the Flamespyre, the Frostheart does have a much more singular purpose: Protection. While it still has the Attuned to Magic ability to boost wizards, its only power now is a Blizzard Aura that forces enemies to take -1 to wound when within range. It has a second ability, but it's only used when carrying your Anointed.

</div></div>

==Battalions==
Each city gets one battalion. Each unit in the battalion must belong to that city.

===<span style="color:DarkCyan;">Hammerhal:</span> Hammerhalian Lancers===
140 points (''Min: 1000pt Max: 2980pt''): 1 Freeguild General on Griffon, 3-6 units Demigryph Knights.
*+1 to hit and wound on turns where you charged and are wholly within 18" the Freeguild General in the battalion.
*At minimum, this comes to a neat 1000pts and is a small amount of cool-looking models, making it a good choice for a starting force.

===<span style="color:MediumPurple;">Anvilgard & Har Kuron:</span> Charrwind Beasthunters===
120 points (''Min: 480pt Max: 1640''): 1 Black Ark Fleetmaster, 3 units Black Ark Corsairs, 1-3 Scourgerunner Chariots, 0-1 Kharibdyss.
*+1 to wound rolls when you target a monster.
**Fluffy, though extremely situational, you’re taking this for the extra artifact, curse and less drops.

===<span style="color:MediumPurple;">Anvilgard & Har Kuron:</span> Kraeth's Shadowpact===
160 points (''Min: 650 pt Max:1030''): 1 Sorceress on Black Dragon(Unique named character Drusa Kraeth), 1 Dreadspears, 1 Darkshards.
*During hero phase if Drusa is on the field , can add +1 attack to the Dreadspears or Darkshards but -1 to saves.
*Command Trait only for Drusa: +1CP during your first Hero phase.

===<span style="color:MediumBlue;">Tempest's Eye:</span> Aetherguard Windrunners===
120 points (''Min: 740''): 1 Freeguild General on Griffon, 3-6 units Freeguild Outriders or Pistoliers, 0-2 Grundstok Gunhaulers.
*Units in this battalion can retreat and still shoot and/or charge this turn.

===<span style="color:DarkGoldenRod;">Hallowheart:</span> Whitefire Retinue===
140 points. (''Min: 320pts Max: 1340pts'') 3-6 HERO WIZARDS
*+1 to cast and unbinding rolls if they're within 6" of a friendly wizard from this battalion. So, unless you're thinking of taking ''7 or more'' wizards, then everything in your army (except Sisters of the Thorn and Evocators) is getting the +1.

===<span style="color:DarkGreen;">The Living City:</span> Viridian Pathfinders===
140 points. (''Min: 650pts Max: 1950pts'') 1 Nomad Prince, 3 units Wildwood Rangers, 0-1 unit Wild Riders.
*Add 1 to charge rolls when they set up on the battlefield using the city trait. This adds up to a roll of 2d6+2 with Musicians.
**This is not the best, as your mostly going to be 9" away at best from any enemy and they will not likely keep anything valuable near the board edge. None of the units listed for the battalion have ranged attacks, so they cannot benefit from 'Strike And fade Away' (see below).
**Use units that can shoot and are competent in melee (such as shadow warriors) and a CP to move them after the shots are done, so that you have a 3" charge instead.
**You can only bring the units listed in the batallion, none of which can shoot...

===<span style="color:SteelBlue;">Greywater Fastness:</span> Greywater Artillery Company===
120 points. (''Min: 420pts Max: 700pts'') 1 Cogsmith, 2-4 Helstorm Rocket Batteries or Helblaster Volley Guns.
*In the first battle round, during your shooting phase, friendly WAR MACHINES can shoot twice if they're within 6" of a friendly battalion hero and not within 3" of an enemy unit.
*Why would you not take this? Your Cogsmith is always gonna be planted next to his war machines so this is perfect.

===<span style="color:FireBrick;">The Phoenicium:</span> Phoenix Flight===
130 points. 1-2 FROSTHEART PHOENIX, 1-2 FLAMESPYRE PHOENIX
*Heal 1 wound to each PHOENICIUM unit wholly within 12" of ANY unit within this battalion.

==List building==
With so many unit options, the first steps are to decide what to use as a battleline (you may pick your general based on your battlelines or your battlelines on the general you want).
After that, it comes down to picking what you want. There's no restriction on thematics, there's nothing stopping you from taking only one unit from each faction. Don't let a Grudge from the world that was stop you from fielding a line of Duardin with Aelf Cavalry. '''[[Book of Grudges|THAT'S GOING IN THE BOOK]]'''

When picking, pay attention to differences as many units do the same thing but with additional niches.

Ideally, you should try to use some faction synergy, like taking heroes to boost your units' performance.

Playing duardin? Increase your rend and/or attacks with runelords and warden kings. Playing freeguild? You are favoring a static gunline around a general that wants you to hold the line. The darkling coven can run and shoot/charge with a cp, making them quite mobile. Generally collegiate arcane wizards are good with everyone and generally, you should at least take one battlemage for every army you want to build.

===City builds===
*'''Hammerhal:''' the CP Generator. Along with getting artifacts from either realm, for each unit (they will have a banner) you can gain CP. Freeguild and Covens benefit greatly for having piles of CP to burn.

*'''Anvilgard:''' gives treats to Dark elf monsters (Dragon/Kharibdyss/War Hydra). Flying wizards and Sisters of the Thorn are great at delivering their close-range spells. Black dealing lets you build have more equipment or cp. Their Unique CA also lend well to hoards as you can spend 1 cp + slay a model, preferably on a big brick of 40, to create a massive ignore battleshock aura. A noticable combo here is a Sorceress on BD with two casters with spell portal and vitrolic spray. Step 1: cast spell portal near sorceress and caster number 2. Step 2: cast vitrolic spray on anything you dont like. Step 3: cast Storm of blades from your sorceress. Conclusion: About 9 mortal wounds and a crying opponent.

*'''Tempest's Eye:''' the city for fast, hit harder bastards. Personally, an all-out cavalry list can be quite devastating with this city, thanks to his bonuses in the first round. The faster you get into melee, the better, this is also extremely easy if you get the command trait and artifact who give you the +1 at the charge and the ability to re-roll the charge rolls without command points. it's up to you which kind of cavalry you want. Dark riders and outriders are light, skirmish units good for shooting afar, demigryph and drakespawn knights can deal devastating charge, helped by the Stormcast's monsters-riders like fulminators. Technology vehicles are also good, going from gyrocopters to arkhanaut airships. You also get good spells who are perfect for a celestial hurricanum with battlemage (aura of glory just behind a band of drakespawn? Yes, please!) good monsters like black dragon or hippogryph can take out the enemy's monsters, and a band of pistolers for charge right where the enemy shows a weak point, for destroying his lines. At least, if you want a band of objective grabbers, flagellants are what you need. Just remember, outflanking and outmaneuvering are the keywords of this army.

*'''Hallowheart:''' Going Magic spam.
**Nomad Prince generals are nice for Hallowheart armies since they unlock battleline cavalry wizards and the Sisters also benefit from Hallowheart's 2 spells of your choice rule.
**Between their unique battalion, the Hurricanum, a Sorceress' ability to leech Coven units, and Hallowheart's command ability, you can stack up a casting bonus of +5-10, if you really want to get that always-empowered Endless Spell off.
**ALTERNATIVE TAKE: With innate magic resistance, Hallowheart is actually well situated to run a non-magic army. Take some dorfs and you got yourself a really tanky army that’ll take an act of the Ruinous Powers to upturn.

*'''The Living City:''' let half your army ambush, take Sylvaneth units, heals Hero's and monsters every turn.
**Surprisingly decent choice for a Steam Tank army- Iron Oak Artisan command trait gives a 2+ save to your lead tank, and having several tanks come in from the board edges can mitigate their random movement and let you place your guns exactly where you need them. Getting a wound back per turn is always welcome on models with damage tables.
**Instead of using their battalion, consider getting the use out of their unique command ability instead. Take units that have good melee/charge ability that also have a ranged attack (such as Drakespawn Chariots, dreadlords on Dragons, or various flavours of Stormcast Dracoth cavalry), set them up from ambush with a Hero, shoot, use the command ability, enjoy your 3" charge.
***However, this is tricky to do with multiple units due to it requiring a CP per unit, and your only source of additional CPs in Living City is a squishy General with an adjutant. Which means no spamming the ability with an army made solely of tanks.

*'''Greywater Fastness:''' Very supportive of Artillery and missile weapon, encouraging you to sit back and blast the enemy apart.
**a lot of abilities call for the range approach, the CA buff Freeguild Handgunners and Irondrakes. Also, Good Idea to Invest in most units that gain bonuses from Playing defensively in addition to the object grabbers, enemies will be coming for you.
**If you go Freeguild focused, take a Freeguild General with Drillmaster and Handgunner so resulting in (16" 2+/2+/-1/1) shooting, and a (30" 2+/2+/-1/2) sniper Rifle per unit.
**If you go duardin, take a Cogsmith and some cannons from Blacksmoke Battery Mercenary Companie. Then a Runelord for the city's prayer, who work on IRONWIELD ARSENAL WAR MACHINE.
**After the FAQ four Steam Tank Commanders and six Steam Tanks as battleline are 2000 points. Toot Toot!
***In any case, if you play many WAR MACHINES, just take a STORMCAST LORD-ORDINATOR, with his Arcane Engineer rule, all ORDER WAR MACHINES wholly within 9" get +1 to hit. Just to good to miss.

*'''The Phoenicium:''' It might be expensive at $45 US for a box of ten models, but you can field so much with Phoenix Guard. Take as MSU or as blocks of thirty for one of the game's better battlelines. For The Phoenicium you can take them as MSU and bring two Frostheart Phoenix and one Anointed on foot for dispels and unbinds. Use your CA to make your front unit of ten fight again before they die, and then the general gets buffed up if any models die. Screen off the map and board control with these murder Aelves.

*'''Har Kuron:''' A little bit disappointing, as the allegiance abilitys boil down to a prayer that you might not get off and 3 additional spells. Where this excells is at taking full advantage from that pray. A super buffed witch aelves unit with witchbrew and the prayer can be terrifying, although you can just do this in DoK. A 40 man unit of Black Ark Corsairs buffed by a Black Ark Fleetmaster with exploding sixes and +1 to wound is the real deal. Thats a metric ton of dice. Darkshards in the new bataillon also profit from the exploding sixes, as the prayer also works on missile attacks and a 10 man unit of Darkshards can shoot 30 shots if Drusa says so, although the dreadspears are quite a point tax. Overall you gotta abuse the prayer or you get allmost nothing in this Allegiance.

*'''Misthåvn:''' The lack of spells is pretty off-putting, but what it lacks in casting makes up for in punch. One could use Runelords to function as anti-magic and buff for objective babysitters like ironbreakers, while you hold your unit of 20 drakespawn knights, War Hydra and dreadlord on a black dragon in reserve to get a guaranteed charge on your opponent's high value targets. Strangler-Kelp Noose can let you do this safely as well.

===Transport Tactics===
many footsloggers units are strong fighters but need methods to reliably reach their prey.

*The Living City Hidden Paths: lets Half your army arrive on board

*Endless spells: you need to pay points but they can cover a lot of ground Especially since they are automatically empowered.

*Misthovan underhand tactics: One Freeguild, Duardin or Darkling Covens can appear on the board for every Order Serpentis, Shadowblades or Scourge Privateers that does the same.

===Endless Spells===
'''Magic Support:'''
*'''Umbral Spell Portal:''' can be cast anywhere on the board. Short-range but powerful spells like Anvilgard’s spell that removes saves or Hallowheart’s spell that deals mortal wounds to half the models in a unit can be cast from well outside unbind range (unless you're fighting a Slann).
*'''Chronomantic Cogs:''' you know what they do. +1 spell or +2" movement.
*'''Emerald Lifeswarm:''' always heals D6 - useful for bringing back elite units like Phoenix Guard, or for healing damage back to your Celestial Hurricanum with Battlemage after you took damage to empower your Hallowheart wizards.
*'''Prismatic Palisade:''' Deployable Line of sight blocking

'''Transports:'''
*'''The Soulscream Bridge:''' allows you to move models 24” (or really up to 30-36” if you go from the back to the front of the bridge) without them counting as having moved - excellent for getting your Irondrakes or Handgunners into range while still getting those extra shots.
*'''Lauchon the Soulseeker:''' Magic Transport. Pile in some Duardin, move them 18", then use a Lifeswarm to bring back that guy still on the boat.

'''Slowdown:'''
*'''Soulsnare Shackles:''' cover a larger area - instead of threatening up to 24” away, you can threaten up to 27” away, allowing for a turn 1 shackles onto an enemy’s front rank regardless of mission.

'''Damage:'''
*'''Geminids''' are always a good option and are made better when you can reroll the D3 mortal wounds in case you roll a 1.

===Strategies and Lists===

'''who got the guts?!'''
An army based on enemy battleshock, so better not use it against ossiarch and fyreslayer. Play a kharibdyss on anvilgard for getting the -2 bravery bubble who get together with its passive ability, going to a -3 12" bubble. Now, take an horrorgast endless spell (or a gravetide for spare points and money) adding a -2(1) together. For end all of this, a battlemage coming from shysh for his unique spell -2 to a specific unit and darks riders for shoots and -1 around them. You now have more enemy units under a sure -6(5) that can influence more units and a -2 that you can add at a enemy unit that you hate in a peculiar way. Positioning is the key of this strategy. Now you just need some good shooting (hellstorm or crossbowmen) for make inflict casualties at more units at once. Look at your enemy when he have to do a terrible battleshock test with elites units like stomcast, ogor, troll or when he know that his hordes models are going to desert in mass. (it's easy to give a dark elves theme at this army. Remember that other units, mercenaries and allies influenced bravery as well) (also wizards who would get benefits from low bravery characteristic, like a lord-exorcist on balewind vortex)

Addendum: Bravery debuffing is good, but how can we really maximize this? The Tenebrous Court mercenary company. This company lets you bring FEC units as allies. The magic trick here is Crypt Flayers, who have a shooting attack that does MWs based on a Bravery contest. At 2000 points, that's either two units of three or one unit of six. We can offset the turn 1 CP loss for bringing a mercenary company with one of the Anvilgard allegiance ability choices, giving us d3 extra CP at the start of the game. Getting all the pieces set up on the battlefield to pull this off will be the challenge, but since the Flayers are doing this in the shooting phase, your opponent can't use his own CP to protect the unit. '''As of GHB 2020, it's questionable if this is still a legal strategy. The Mercenary options were removed from the Warscroll Builder and weren't brought forward into the new GHB. However, Tenebrous Court is also in Forbidden Power, so technically the rules are still valid?'''

==Allied Armies==
CoS has a large selection of ally options - everything Order except Seraphon(poor seraphon). Some factions can be taken as non-allied - instead, they gain the city keyword but not the host keyword, and up to 1 in every 4 units in the army can be taken, gaining your faction keywords, and not subject to ally restrictions.
*'''Stormcast Eternals''': ''Taken as non-allied in any CoS army''. They act as big elite units with multiple wounds. Provide strong shooting, Skull smashing, and strong cavalry.
**Liberators or Sequitors can provide a solid anvil, especially when buffed by a Lord-Castellant. 40 wounds saving at 3+ rerolling either 1s or all could give your shooting plenty of time to deal with anything they engage.
**Paladins and Evocators provide Strong Hammers for any line.
**Dracoth mounted Evocators, and Gryph-chargers provided powerful alternatives to Gryph-knights.
**If you're playing Hammerhal allegiance, remember that Aventis Firestrike provides an extra CP *and* is thematic, being the city's magister and whatnot. Of course, you lose out on a Warlord trait, and he can't use his command ability unless you've taken any more Hammers of Sigmar named characters.
**When playing as Greywater Fastness a Lord-Ordinator or two is pretty much required, as a +1 to all your War Machines' hit rolls in a passive aura is too good to pass up.

*'''Daughters of Khaine''':

*'''Fyreslayers''':

*'''Idoneth Deepkin''':

*'''Kharadron Overlords''': ''Taken as non-allied in Tempest's Eye''. Gives Flying Dwarfs, more guns, and Airships.
**aetheric-navigator: can unbind, slow flyers and let Skyvessel reroll their run & charge dice.
**Aetheric-Khemist: Let supports a Skyfarers unit with granting more shooting attacks and discourages CCing them with threats of Attack debuffing and damaging gasses.
**Arkanaut Company: dwarfs with pistols and firepower, mostly good for being cheap objective campers.
**Grundstok Thunderers: A special weapons team. you would have an Aetheric-Khemist + all Rifles for more volume then handguns, but the special weapon combos can hurt closer ranges.
**Grundstok Gunhauler: Probably the single best unit you can ally in CoS. Cheap, shoots pretty well, and can Fly High every turn, providing a constant deepstrike threat for your opponent's objectives. Fantastic unit that will snatch wins for you if kept alive till the later half of the game.
**Arkanaut Frigate: bigger then a Gunhauler and is a Kharadron transport
**Arkanaut Ironclad: a bigger skyship

*'''Sylvaneth''': ''Taken as non-allied in Living City. Cannot be taken in Greywater Fastness''. Without their wyldwoods and Allegiance spells, the Sylvaneth are a little neutered, but can still be useful.
**'''Durthu''' is a damage monster, although he needs ghyrstrike or similar to stop him being so swingy. In a Living City army, you can deepstrike him 9" from an enemy unit, shoot them, and then have him use the allegiance command ability on himself for a free move, turning a 9" charge into 4".
**'''Drycha''' is also great, but will probably die quickly.
**'''Alarielle''' only fits in Living city. Lots of magic and healing.
**'''Treelord Ancient''' your only way to summon Wyldwoods. Can be paired with a '''Branchwraith''' to set up a Dryad factory
**'''Tree-Revenants''' can use their teleporting to take objectives and/or sacrifice themselves to block a charge.
**'''Dryads''' if you really want more battleline or a reasonable tar pit.
**'''Kurnoth Hunters''' for some of the best elite troops in the game. Boost with '''Arch-Revenant''' if you've got the points spare.
**'''spite-revenants''' can be the shock infantry unit that wanderers need. Get an archrevenant for one extra attack and exterminate light infantry on your path. Also good as a general ally.

*'''Bundo Whalebiter''': A Kraken-eater Mega-Gargant mercenary available to all Order factions. Taking him uses up your entire ally points allowance and he ignores any Behemoth or Hero limitations. A big terrifying centerpiece who can kick objectives around and instantly kill models by shoving them into his net. You can choose at the start of the Combat phase for him to fight at the end of the phase, in exchange for re-rolling failed hit rolls.

===The squatted ones===
With the coming of the Cities of Sigmar, a lot of models and units, mostly from the High Elves, got [[Squats|squatted]]. These units all still have valid warscrolls and points remain for them. However, they cannot be taken in a Cities of Sigmar as they do not have the {{AOSKeyword|Cities Of Sigmar}} keyword and they don't belong to any of the allied groups. If you want to use them, you need to be playing [[Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Order|Grand Alliance Order]] or as allies of stormcast eternals. Additionally, you can access squatted Duardin by taking them as non-allies in a Kharadron Overlords army with the Barak-Thryng Sky-Port.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Cities of Sigmar

2021-02-20T08:37:36Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Notable Cities */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Cities of Sigmar|Logo=Empire.jpg|Alliance=Order|Motto=For the <s>Empire</s> God-King!}}

The '''Cities of Sigmar''', also known as the '''Free Cities''' or '''Azyrites''', are essentially the “normal” people of the Mortal Realms under Sigmar's rule, although a minority when compared with the vast population of the territories taken by Chaos, they are probably the most numerous representatives of the Grand Alliance of Order. Humans who haven't become immortal due to having lightning jammed up their ass. Duardin who don't go into battle half naked and on fire or live in steampunk sky cities. Aelves who don't live underwater and eat souls, don't come from a misandric murdercult or aren't made of light and maths.

Each City itself is MASSIVE, comprised of numerous districts and subcultures, to the point where some could be considered their own nations. So while each City maybe known for a particular thing, it is very likely that there is an aspect of each race active in every city.

==History==

===Origins===
The story of how humans, Duardin (dwarves) and Aelves (elves) of various allegiances and creeds are somehow living together in massive cities without murderising each other is a long and expansive story that traces its way back to the closing days of the Age of Myth. Right before Chaos kicked in the proverbial door and began running rough shod across the Realms, the various mortal races lived in their respective golden ages. With the help of primarily Grungni, Teclis and Alarielle, Sigmar established countless human kingdoms and cities, with innovation, learning and cultural development blossoming at an exponential rate. The Duardin had a healthy relationship with humans as always, with a portion living alongside them, but most still taking up residence in their mountain fortresses or splitting off as the newly emerged children of Grimnir, the Fyreslayers. The Aelves enjoyed a resurgence from their initially minuscule numbers when discovered by Sigmar, and began to slowly thrive once again when the various Aelven gods joined the pantheon and began the work to restore their race to its former glory.

Of course, all of this was not to last once Chaos got wise to what was going on in the Mortal Realms. The Gods of Chaos began to secretly bore their way into the kingdoms, cities and tribes across the Realms, slowly influencing portions of the population with promises of power and immortality, and piece by piece sowing discord. When the time came to strike, the Mortal Realms were taken completely by surprise and nearly buckled under the sudden upheaval. However, the armies of Order managed to rally and held the forces of Chaos at bay for a time...That is until Archaon made his entrance into the Realms. The forces of Order began to falter and little by little they gave ground to the ever intensifying onslaught. The final blow for Order came at the Allpoints, at the disastrous confrontation that became known as the Battle of the Burning Sky. Here, the gods of Order fractured through betrayal, panic and mistrust and by the end of the slaughter Sigmar had lost Ghal Maraz, his pantheon and the most strategically important location in all the Mortal Realms. Thus, the Age of Myth came to a catastrophic end, bringing forth the Age of Chaos.

===Exodus===
With the Allpoints granting the armies of Chaos access to all of the Mortal Realms save Azyr, it did not take long for their ravenous hordes to overrun the land. The following collapse of civilization across the Realms can only be described as not falling apart, but disintegrating in its own terror.

The last of the Duardin Karaks in Chamon were overrun as the forces of Tzeentch swept across the land, the survivors reluctantly fleeing to the Gates of Azyr, with a small contingent escaping to the highest peaks of the Realm of Metal to an [[Kharadron Overlords|uncertain fate]]. Many Duardin Kings, prideful and stubborn in their sense of honor, refused to evacuate and chose to remain in their Holds, sealing their fate when the doors to Azyr were finally sealed. It is said that Grungni cried tears of molten lead when he saw how few of his children had managed to escape. Thus, the Dispossessed came to be.

The Aelven devotees of Alarielle desperately held on with their Sylvaneth comrades as Nurgle's rot and pestilence began to seep into Ghyran. However, as the Sylvaneth groves outside the Realm of Life began to be wiped out, their numbers and their reinforcements began to dwindle. As their defenses reached the breaking point, the Aelves had to make a choice; either stay with their beloved Goddess and her children and face almost certain annihilation, or abandon them in their direst hour and try to flee to Azyr before the gates closed. They chose the latter, and from that day, Alarielle and the Sylvaneth have never fully forgiven the Wanderers for their abandonment.

All the remaining human, duardin and aelf empires that were not already destroyed or besieged made a bee-line toward any realmgates to Azyr that were still open. Many didn't survive the journey, being butchered by chaos armies along the way. Many others however managed to reach Azyr and safety, others were unfortunately stranded in the other realms when Sigmar finally closed the gates as the forces of Chaos were getting too close to breaching them. These unfortunate souls either swore fealty to Chaos in return for their lives, died fighting against the maruading hordes or were forced to adopt a nomadic lifestyle for the remainder of the Age of Chaos, always on the run or in hiding from the legios of Chaos. This wasn't the end of tribulations for the survivors who have reached Azyr however. Chaos cultists and double agents had managed to slip into Azyrheim among the refugees, forcing Sigmar's witch hunters to route them out (with often lethal results). Around this time the Aelven order of the Shadowblades is believed to have first become active, systematically purging Azyr further of potential threats to Sigmar's rule.

Sigmar realized that many of the refugees themselves, having malice or deception in their hearts, could be susceptible of falling to Chaos in the future. This moved the God-King to take the uneasy task of leading a mass purge of many of the peoples that had fled to Azyr. Countless supposedly innocent souls that Sigmar deemed corruptible were slaughtered by the agents of Azyr, even those that could be suspected of treachery were not spared. Only after this extermination campaign did Sigmar deemed that Azyr was safe from further corruption. Whether he did the right thing or not is up for debate, but the fluff continuously mentions that Azyr was the only Mortal Realm free from the taint of Chaos.

For the next 500 or so years the peoples of Azyr went along with their lives, but whether they be from the various cultures of the armies of the Free Guilds or the Sinister Knights of the Order Serpentis they now all shared a united goal. Which was to rebuild their forces for a counter-invasion against Chaos. After centuries of preparation and having the Stormcast Eternal infraestructure mostly finished, the various armies of Azyr were ready to reopen the realmgates and retake their ancient territories. For many this was indeed almost a relief, as while Azyr was definitely a better place to live than any of the other Mortal Realms, life under Sigmar's rule wasn't all perfect. Sigmar fearing potential Chaos infiltration kept a rather draconian amount of control on the various cities and settlements in Azyr. From constant fear of the Order of Azyr and potential knives in backs from the Shadowblades, not to mention strict legal codes, many of the peoples from the other realms chafed somewhat in this highly ordered society. So when offered a chance to retake their old homes many were happy to give it a try.

===Reconquest===
With Sigmar's Tempest opening the Gates of Azyr what followed a massive undertaking as the combined might of all the peoples of Azyr began preparations for Sigmar's reconquest of the Realms. The sheer level of planning, logistics, training and dealmaking that went down in this period cannot be understated. Whether it was noble families looking to reclaim their ancestral homelands, outcasts going to wherever offered a fresh start, or perhaps a deal made between various parties for certain benefits in the reclaimed territories in exchange for assistance. The Regiments of the Freeguild were raised and assigned to accompany settlers to their new homes in the Realms. Duardin of the Ironweld Guilds and the Dispossessed Clans offered up their expertise in engineering as well as firepower, often in exchange for trading or mining rights in the charted territories. Wanderer Enclaves saw much demand for their knowledge of scouting the wilderness, and in turn requested territory to settle and roam freely in.

The initial areas for the first cities formed around the stormkeeps established by the Stormcast Eternals after the Realmgate Wars. From these intial settlements cities began to form around them. One obvious example being Hammerhal, which would go on to be the largest city and defacto capital of Sigmar’s growing empire. Other cities were subsequently founded usually near realmgates or areas of great strategic/economic importance (I.e Hallowheart, Tempest Eye, Excelsior and Vindicarum). The Living City was established sometime later by Allarielle herself after great victories against Nurgle’s forces and stands as a testeament to her renewed alliance with Sigmar. Later would come the establishment of industrial hub Greywater Fastness would become a seat for many of the Ironweld and Disspossesed clans, and Phoenicium, one of few Aelf dominated Cities of Sigmar. These expansions did not come easy however. Millions gave their lives in their foundation and the subsequent wars to maintain these great bastions.

Roughly 100 years after the Stormcast Eternals first set down in the Realms, these initial cities have greatly expanded upon themselves, managing to carve out their own territories in the Realms. However even with all this, much of the realms have not yet been liberated. It is estimated barely a tenth of the pre-Age of Chaos territory has been reclaimed thus far, with the rest either in Chaos hands, heavily contested, held by neutral parties, or no one, with none yet claiming these wild areas. Due to this, the cities must fight hard for any territorial gains they can manage, along with sending colonists (both willing and otherwise) out to found new cities. These cities tend to be on frontier zones, forcing them to often deal with more heavier chaos or destruction incursions, along with the deadly native wildlife or even native peoples who aren't necessarily happy with newcomers trying to colonize their ancestral lands that they defended all through the Age of Chaos. In fact, an unfortunate result of this has been the occasional Stromcast or Freeguild force having to do the uncomfortable task of subjugating or even wiping out native tribes that would refuse to compromise on these cities’ foundings. Some examples of these frontier cities include Anvilgard in Aqshy, which has quickly amassed a dark reputation from its internal dealings, or Izalend in Ghur which has to be on constant alert due to the dangerous area it inhabits. Not all of these frontier cities survive, most are either destroyed from invaders or some other calamity and must be abandoned. More than one city has suffered this fate since the first cities were established.

However many others continue to prosper and continue to expand their territory to slowly retake the realms from Chaos' grasp. Due to the dangerous nature of the realms, the mere act of traveling can be dangerous. Thus while all cities are nominally under Sigmar’s domain, many often have to rely on governing themselves for the most part, as communication with the capital Hammerhal can be slow and unreliable and Stormcast sometimes not being able to lend assistance due to being stretched thin expanding the God-King’s borders. Many have to establish their own form of government and trade zones. All cities follow the government structure laid out by Azyrhiem, however many make variations to how a city’s government is made up and how they conduct warfare due to local stigmas and situations. This leads to each city developing unique cultural identities, and since not all cities actively coordinate with each other, entire wars and new city foundings can occur without some nations even being aware of it, even if they are technically on the same faction. This is why organizations such as the Swifthawk Agents are so important to the cities, as speedy communication can often mean the difference between annihilation and salvation for threatened cities.

===Broken Realms and Insurrection===

--Under Construction...---

==Subfactions==
The Cities of Sigmar are by their nature cosmopolitan places, as many different cultures across the realms fled to Azyr only to recolonize the lands when the Age of Sigmar arrived. As such, when war comes they have a vast diversity of military forces.

*'''[[Stormcast Eternals]]''': Yes, they're here too. Most Free Cities are built around a Stormkeep, and many are named after their founding Stormhost (Hammers of Sigmar in Hammerhal, Anvils of the Heldenhammer in Anvilgard, etc.).
*'''Freeguild''': The core of the old [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Empire]]'s forces, chiefly soldiers and Demigryphs. They are the standing armies and militias of the Cities, each descended from twelve military companies that originally fled to Azyr. A City can possess multiple Freeguilds, each one with their own specialties and strategies in warfare, making them sorta like the Imperial Guard for AoS. Lore mentions that their ranks include Duardin and Aelves as well, meaning you easily use squatted High Elf/Dwarf units as proxy Freeguild units (Swordmasters as Greatswords, Thunderers as Handgunners, etc).
*'''Devoted of Sigmar''': The Old "Church of Sigmar" faction now reduced to only the [[flagellant]]. It’s incorporated into the city with quite some critical roles. Priests of Sigmar tend to the moral and spiritual health of the human population, and when a internal threat arises, it is the work of the witch hunters from the Order of Azyr to root it out, while flagellants have to process around the city countryside, spilling their blood to destroy thd chaos corruption in the land and let the city expand. Unfortunately only the latter are usable on tabletop (in a Cities of Sigmar list. The warpriests, war-altars and witch hunters have their own faction ; The Devoted of Sigmar. They can be allied in).
*'''Dispossessed''': Duardin who have lost their old Karaks in the Age of Chaos and have to live with the umgi and elgi now. Their primary goal in the greater Cities is providing defensive fortifications for the other factions, using their legendary shield walls and stubbornness to hold the line at all costs.
*'''Collegiate Arcane''': All the Empire's Wizards, including their giant engines. Sadly, no High Elf wizards made the cut, nor did their dragons. They are essentially a souped version of the Colleges of Magic, compromised of powerful Battlemages who have trained for decades in eight floating towers called the Towers of the Eight Winds (I see what you did there GW), each one focused on a certain Realm’s variety of magic.
*'''Ironweld Arsenal''': All the Dwarf and Empire war machines and vehicles. This includes letting people ride those tanks.
*'''Darkling Covens''': Cults of Sorceresses and their brainwashed Aelven minions. Rumored to have brainwashed more than just aelves so they can secretly manipulate cities from the shadows.
*'''Phoenix Temple''': Yes, these silent dead 'ard bastards are still around. They now worship the Ur-Phoenix instead of Asuryan. They were once broken Aelves (physically or mentally broken) who received the healing warmth of a phoenix, thus they were reborn as devout warrior monks.
*'''Order Serpentis''': An ancient order of tyrannical dragon-riding Aelves who lost most of their dragons in the Age of Chaos. Undaunted by this, they started hiring Sorceresses of the Darkling Covens to genetically engineer hideous part-dragon monsters to act as replacements.
*'''Wanderers''': Nomadic wood aelves from Ghyran who fled to Azyr. Upon returning they seek to restore balance to the nature they abandoned, even if many of their Sylvaneth allies despise them as traitors. Their role in the CoS army is to be pathfinders and vanguard forces, scouting ahead of the main fighting bulk to chart secure passages.
*'''Shadowblades''': Secretive Aelf assassins who worship Malerion and usually function as a secret police force within the cities.
*'''Scourge Privateers''': Descendants of a cruel slaver empire that once terrorized the seas. Now that they have to coexist with the civillians they once preyed upon, they cooled down a bit and became beast tamers who regularly hunt monsters and then sell them (whole or in pieces) to their allies. Still enjoy doing shady pirate stuff under the books, though (not that anyone is complaining when its fucking Chaos scum who are on the receving end of it for once). They still live on Black Arks, much like their Old World counterparts, except these Arks are made from binding together the bones and shells of colossal sea creatures.

==Notable Cities==
===With rules===
*'''Hammerhal''': Hammerhal is technically two cities, Hammerhal Ghyra and Hammerhal Aqsha, linked as one by the Stormrift Realmgate. The Ghyran side exports crops and lumber to Aqshy, and lava is channeled from the Aqshy side to form a protective moat. As it is home to the Hammers of Sigmar, [[Ultramarines|GREATEST OF THEM ALL]] among stormhosts, so too the people of Hammerhal seek to prove themselves as the most eminent of the Free Cities.
*'''Greywater Fastness''': Despite hailing from the Realm of Life, this city is pretty choked with smoke and industry, as they focus heavily on war machines. Literally the entire outer regions of the city are just glorified testing grounds for their weapons, riddled with craters and no vegetation aside from withered skeletal trees. This makes them rather friendly towards the [[Kharadron Overlords]], but not so much with the [[Sylvaneth]]. They were nearly starved out by the Sylvaneth until Alarielle herself arranged a compromise, and she only tolerates them because they hate Chaos and are great at bombarding them back to the Warp. What few people know though is that the city’s lead designer, Valium Maliti, is a actually the Changeling in disguise, and purposely created this industrial wasteland in Ghyran to cause tension between the Sylvaneth and Sigmar.
*'''Anvilgard''': [https://youtu.be/SYExETbLL1E?t=84 In a nutshell, basically.] Port city by a constantly erupting volcano and a constantly burning-down-but-rapidly-regrowing jungle. To hold off the jungle from reclaiming the city's territory, they spray mass amounts of basically weedkiller everywhere (which doesn't seem - thus far - to have any long-term consequences on people), which covers the city in a gloomy grey atmosphere. Y'know, the kind of shadows where criminal syndicates thrive - and thrive they do. As in, anyone who's anyone has underworld connections, though it's kept just enough on the down-low so Lord-Veritants and other inquisitorial types don't raise a stink. In recent years, [[Morathi]] has annexed it (renaming it to '''Har Kuron'''), splitting the frontier city in half between those who sided with the [[Daughters of Khaine]] and everyone else who remained loyal to Sigmar. Sigmar learned of the treachery and sent a Stormcast army to liberate the city, but a surprise parley between the Celestant-Prime and Morathi led to the Stormcast withdrawing and ceding the city to Morathi in exchange for... something.
*'''Hallowheart''': The wizard's city. Being founded by the Hallowed Knights at the bottom of a gigantic crystal cave (where lived a mutated gigantic dragon of Tzeentch, who got hammered) this city has an magical focus and the central core of Collegiate Arcane. Don't mind the continuous daemon invasion perpetrated by Tzeentch and company, or the strange whispers that promise you great power and wealth, but report those facts to the Devoted of Sigmar for a handsome reward. {{BLAM}}
*'''The Living City''': A city shaped from trees and rock by [[Alarielle]] herself that symbolizes the alliance between her and Sigmar. As such, this city allies itself with [[Sylvaneth]] capable of putting aside their grudges towards everything that isn't a tree. Also where Alarielle pardoned the Wanderers for their cowardice during the Age of Chaos, so this is their home base.
*'''The Phoenicium''': The main city of the Phoenix Temple, it's at the foot of a big tree-mountain with a goofy name that avalanched sap over the area, trapping warriors in amber. In the Age of Sigmar, a host of phoenix birds thawed the sap into a golden mist that persists ever since - and if enemies that get too close enter the mist, they get trapped in amber, which then becomes another block on the ramparts. So, yeah, picture an amber wall filled with "oh crap"-faced Chaos warriors, greenskins, and spooks - that's how The Phoenicium do. Why nobody already tricked Archaon to attack this city, turning him into a statue and win the war is anyone's guess... but then again Archaon is a god so it would only weaken him and not by much (It is great at keeping Thanquol away)
*'''Tempest's Eye''': A city on top of a mountain that has close trade and military ties to the Kharadron Overlords. Since the Tempest Lords stationed there were all recruited from former nobility, they're the only city that is directly ruled by its Stormcast Eternals.
* '''Misthåvn''': The “City of Scoundrels” was created in Ulgu from a collection of massive ships from varying races all lashed together. This unique design means that Misthåvn can divide into its various components and move along the coast of Cape Tendbrax. Rather than having districts, the city is comprised of different armadas, each overseen by a Scourge Privateer Fleetmaster/Admiral. It’s infamous among the Azyrites for its corrupt policies, underhanded combat strategies, and a very lucrative illegal narcotics market. The native populace takes a spiteful pride in this reputation, though they still do their best to make sure Sigmar doesn’t call for the city’s purging.

===Without rules===
*'''Azyrheim''': The largest city in [[Azyr]] and de-facto capital of the entire the Grand Alliance of Order. Azyrheim's also has a scifi IN SPACE look, further reinforced by some fluff which states Azyr has no day but an eternal night filled with stars, moons and other astral phenomena, another important feature of the city is the Towers of the Eight Winds, massive floating structures where the Collegiate Arcane train mages and research magic. Sigmar's obsession with keeping Azyr free of the taint of Chaos has lead to this place being rather authoritarian, as in if they catch you performing crimes they implant you with runes that burn out all thoughts of disloyalty out of your mind. On the other hand, it’s not like the freaking gods don’t know if you’re guilty and if you don’t want to be implanted then just follow the law set by one of the few deities that isn't a complete sociopath. They aren’t crazy or stupid under Sigmar so there isn’t really a reason not to.
*'''Brightspear''': A city near the coast of [[Aqshy|The Great Parch]] that was built on top of an ancient realmgate that could travel to any of the nine realms. Above the city are orbs that each contain a college of magic dedicated to one of the winds. The one dedicated to chaos was destroyed, but the echoes still remain. This city is expanded upon in great detail in the Soulbound starter set.
*'''Excelsis''': A [[Ghur|Ghurish]] city where if you aren't a worshipper of Sigmar so devoted to make the flagellants looks negligent, you can't live. Base of the Knights Excelsior, lore talks about the FIRST (yeah, probably others followed) purge of Excelsis, where a QUARTER OF THE POPULATION WERE MASSACRED, AFTER SOME SIGNS OF IMPURITIES AMONG THE CITIZENS! Weird that Sigmar allowed that. Typical Knights Excelsior mentality: if you have some sick cows, you kill them and everyone around them, be it out of overkill caution or because "''How DARE you sympathize with the HERETICS I just killed in front of you; clearly you're also HERETICS that must die!''". It's revealed that this was secretly incited in part by Slaanesh as a way to free themselves from one of the chains which keep their imprisoned (read City of Secrets for more details). Additionally, they have been infiltrated by Tzeentch cultists and a description of their army composition. Which means ironically Sigmar might be too lenient and hands-free in his authoritarianism.
*'''Vindicarum''': No lore about this one but if is the base of celestial vindicators, probably everyone in the city is high of cocaine and go around crazily stabbing each other just like <s>khornate</s> stormcast.
*'''Lethis''': Technically has rules in the form of the “Lethisian Defenders” list from Forbidden Power, but not actually part of the Cities of Sigmar allegiance. This city is based in Shyish next to Lake Lethis, a lake whose waters are cursed to take away memories. This water is actually one of their most valuable exports, as a lot of people in the Mortal Realms have [[Grimdark|traumatic memories they'd rather forget]]. Also home to a Stormvault which held [[Katakros]], who was released when the city was invaded by [[Lady Olynder]]'s Legion of Grief.
*'''Edassa''': Mentioned during Gotrek's adventures in “Realmslayer” and “Ghoulslayer”, and the home city of the character Jordainn. An African themed kingdom located in Aqshy, it sits at crossroads with two other kingdoms and city states, all of them part of a mutual pact funding the garrisons of forts and towns that run the length of the region's roads. [[Celestial Lions|Have a Lion motif in their armor as well as in their battlecry.]]
*'''Westreach and Eastdale''': Twin cities built on an island in Shyish. Westreach is populated by Azyrites while Eastdale is controlled by the Reclaimed. Both cities work with each other though the former’s haughty attitude and the latter’s superstitions has lead to tension between the two. Both cities were built over the ruins/tombs of an ancient town called Belvegrod, and since this is Shyish both cities have a terrible [[Nighthaunt]] infestation. A warding protected the city from [[Lady Olynder]]’s full wrath, but through machinations that’d make Neferata proud, the Mortarch of Grief broke the wardings and razed the Twin Cities, her undead hordes consuming the living.

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:34:40Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Famous Legions */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the [[Stormcast Eternals|fuckboys]]!}}

{{topquote|Two can play at that game!|Likely Nagash after learning how Sigmar makes Stormcast}}
{{topquote|Debt, an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.|Ambrose Bierce}}
{{topquote|The bones of the skeleton which support the body can become the bars of the cage which imprison the spirit.|J. Ruth Gendler}}

The latest addition to [[Nagash]]’s ever growing hordes (designed and sculpted by [[Maxime Corbeil]], a former dentist), the '''Ossiarch Bonereapers'''
(Also known as '''The Boney Boys''', '''Bonecast''', '''Tomb Kings 2.0''', '''Bonechads''', '''Nagash's Taxmen''', '''The Boney Bean Counters''', '''Ossiarch Bean Counters''' or '''The IRS''') are the result of an eons old plan by Big Bone Daddy.

Likely inspired by the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the Bonereapers are not mere skeletons given life by necromancy, but massive constructs of bone and countless warrior souls, making them all look impressively robust for undead. Since the Legions of Nagash are the mainstay, the Nighthaunt are the shock troops and the Flesh-Eater Courts are completely insane, these buff bone boys are the elite vanguard of the Grand Alliance. Given their themes of bones, undead constructs priest characters, architect characters and skull-throwing catapults... they're currently the closest thing we've got to [[Tomb Kings]] in AoS.

They also carry out the Bone Tithe; in addition to going out and killing shit to get their bones, the Ossiarchs give settlements they encounter a contract: Give up a set amount of bones whenever we stroll by, or face annihilation now. Understandably, most choose the former. Being unable to pay or even being rude to them also provokes a slaughter.

Visually-speaking, they're what happens when Games Workshop decides to mix [[Tyranids]], [[Tomb Kings]], and [[Necrons]] into one army.

==History==
===Age of Myth===
[[File:Slaves to Darkness vs Ossiarch Bonereapers 01.jpg|right|300px|thumb|SKULLS FOR <s>THE SKULL THRONE</s> Nagash! And all the other bones too!]]
When Nagash was helping Sigmar build his cities he secretly began experimenting on undead, combining their bones and souls into newer, stronger undead warriors; the [[Morghasts/Hammurai|Morghasts]] and the first Bonereapers. Most were put into massive underground crypts Nagash secretly had built beneath the cities, but others were kept on the surface and brought into battle. The other gods saw the Bonereapers and really didn't like them because of how unnatural they were. In response, Nagash sent these Bonereapers to the edge of Shyish to lay low until he called on them (these Bonereapers who would go on to form the Null Myriad). He also sent at least twenty of them to wander the Realms on a long-forgotten mission (these would go on to become the Petrifex Elite).

Strangely, none of the Order groups noticed until however long its been since the start of the Age of Myth that there were crypts full of undead warriors beneath their cities. Especially since they know about and need to defend against [[Skaven|enemies who specialize in creating massive complexes beneath your cities that they then invade from.]]

===Age of Chaos===
The Age of Chaos only affected the Bonereapers garrisoned at the edge of Shyish. By that time they had become resistant to magic, and they fought against demonic armies, their actions blunting the assault of Chaos on Shyish. During this time, Katakros led an army against Sigmar himself on Nagash's orders while the former was pursuing the latter for his betrayal. The battle resulted in the loss of Katakros' army, the Mortarch's defeat and subsequent confinement to a Stormvault.

===Malign Portents===
During this time, Katakros was freed from the Stormvault by fellow Mortarch, Lady Olynder. The Bonereapers on the edge of Shyish acted as a military force protecting the skeletal work crews who carried grains of Shyishan realmstone to Nagashizzar for Nagash to use to build the Black Pyramid.

===Soul Wars===
After the Necroquake, Nagash decided the time was right to wake up everyone beneath these cities, who (according to the most recent Stormcast) apparently marched back home, making them relatively pointless. In that respect, these tombs seemed to mirror the Stormvaults Sigmar had strewn about the Realms to contain various dangerous contraband like [[Katakros|a certain Mortarch]].

When the Bonereaper legions arrived in Shyish, Nagash got back to his pet-project of making super-skellies, and perfected the process. This involves taking souls and distilling them down to their most choice elements. This involves ripping apart their identity and keeping parts considered useful (suck as skills and knowledge) while discarding the parts that aren't useful (such as fears and loyalties to anyone but Nagash) and replacing those parts with something better (like loyalty to Nagash), with the strongest-willed soul among them becoming the identity of the new Bonereaper. Then these fragmented souls are put into specially crafted bone constructs. By doing so, he artificially created individuals who were warriors, leaders, bodyguards, artisans, architects, philosophers and sculptors all in one, [[Adeptus Custodes|which sounds a little familiar.]]

The Bonereapers subsequently had a meteoric rise, making their mark - and several enemies - across the realms. After establishing their powerbase in Shyish, the Ironjawz Warclan the Kryptboyz have focused their efforts on fighting the Bonereapers due to wanting to destroy their settlements and wear their bones as trophies. In Chamon, the Null Myriad encountered the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizard Constellation and got embroiled in wars for control of the realm's edge. The Ivory Host legion have gotten a foothold in Ghur, and in building their cities they've positioned themselves for conflict with several Mawtribes and the free city of Excelsis. The Ivory Host also clashed with a [[Sons of Behemat|Mega-Gargant and indirectly led him to become the mercenary known as One-Eyed Grunnock]]. They have also sent forces into Hysh that came into conflict with the Lumineth.

This was followed by the Bonereapers most notable conflict; starting the War for the Eightpoints. Katakros led the Mortis Praetorians and detachments from other Legions into the Eightpoints alongside Olynder and a Nighthaunt army to take the Eightpoints for Nagash. They succeeded in capturing and fortifying the realmgate leading to Shyish, and have established a fortified citadel around it as a base of operations. However, Katakros' campaign was halted by the return of Archaon, who defeated him in battle. Following Katakros' restoration, the conflict has become a war of attrition.

===Broken Realms===
When Morathi entered the Eightpoints in her plan to secure Varanite, she secretly sent an envoy to Katakros, giving him several tonnes of bones infused with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper attack on Archaon's holdings to distract the forces of Chaos. Knowing the forces of order will take losses in their unknown (to Katakros and the Stormcast) endeavor, Katakros accepts the bargain.

Around this time, the Lumineth launched an invasion of Shyish to attack the Ossiarch Empire. The Lumineth proved a force that could match the Bonereapers in battle, winning numerous conflicts and destroying citadels before <s>fleeing</s> going back to Hysh as the battles were to send the message that the Bonereapers aren't unbeatable. But they didn't count on the Bonereapers using the dead of both sides to replenish their losses, and eager for payback. Soon a Bonereaper force led by Arkhan himself invaded Hysh to press-gang the Mordant Courts hiding in Avalenor's mountains to join Nagash and <s>give the Lumineth a right proper boning</s> help conquer Ymetrica. The Ossiarch Empire also becomes a target of a reborn Sigvald, who seeks to destroy it as revenge for Nagash imprisoning him in a Shadeglass mirror.

Later, Shyish gets some uninvited guests in the form of a Lumineth army led by Teclis himself. They seek to end the Soul Wars and make Nagash pay for unleashing the Necroquake... but not if the Bonereapers have anything to say about it. More to come soon.

==Society==
[[File:Ossiarch Bonereapers Society.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "pyramid scheme".]]
All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, then Mortarchs Katakros and Arhkan, then the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath and various ranks beneath that. The Bonereaper caste system has a cartouche representing each caste (though Nagash's is just to symbolize him). While there is a Mortarch cartouche, only Katakros wears it because Arkhan predates the Bonereaper system (and everyone but Nagash) by several eons, and despite their alliance he's too proud to wear Katakros' symbol. While they're all obedient to Nagash and fearless, the Bonereapers used in battle are sapient and the characters at least have enough individuality to have names and some personality, though they tend to be pragmatic, work-oriented and elitist.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of groups such as crafters and preachers. There is movement between castes, but only downwards, and as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider. If the offense was major, they might get remade as a steed. The lowest caste are the exiles collectively referred to as Parrha, consisting of the worst offenders who get broken and remade into warped skeletal aberrations incapable of fighting and the Bonereapers value them less than the Imperial Guard values the life of its rank and file soldiers (for the uninitiated, that's really saying something).

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the majority of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories. Apart from Shyish, the largest concentrations of Bonereapers are in Ghur and Chamon.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers build according to principles laid down in the Principia Necrotopia, a set of guidelines that ensure optimal construction:

In the first stages of colonizing a new region, the Ossiarchs will establish tithing sites. Presumably, this involves mapping out surrounding settlements and segments of the region into their own tributaries, with each section's inhabitants made to sign a contract to begin paying the Tithe. They contruct shrines known as Bone-Tithe Nexus, which act as locations for vassals to dump their bones and are enchanted to give out powerful curses to ward off any scavengers seeking to steal from it.

Next, they will fortify key territories with small fortifications, following up with a number of Mortisan workshops to fuel the next stage of their expansion. These small holdings will eventually develop into vast and imposing fortresses, growing ever upward as the Bonereapers’ numbers grow. These are not just barracks, but places of culture for the Ossiarchs.

Ossiarch scholars will endlessly study scrolls in charnel libraries, recording the details of cultures in the Mortal Realms they have subjugated and those they seek to subjugate. These vast citadel-states eventually resemble Nagashizzar itself.

===The Bone Tithe===
[[File:Bone tithe.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Put your spines into it. Literally!]]
The Bone Tithe is instrumental to their society and Nagash's way of setting himself up as mob boss of the realms. Upon arriving in an area, the Ossiarchs send out scouts to get the lay of the land. When they find a settlement they want tribute from, a representative - in practice usually a Mortisan - approaches and makes them an offer they can't refuse; give "x" by the deadline at regular intervals, or we kill you all and takes your bones and souls for our use. To communicate, the Bonereapers draw on prior research for the local language; it doesn't matter if the vernacular's out of date by a few centuries or so, as long as they can be understood. If that doesn't work, the Bonereapers use other means, including killing a local and using their spirit as a translator if all else fails. If the locals refuse, attack them or are rude enough, [[Grimdark|the Bonereapers make good on their threat, slaughtering everything in the settlement that has bones, right down to the last child and stray animal]]. If they are feeling "nice", the Bonereapers might only kill the dissenters.

When demanding the Bone Tithe, what/who the bones come from plus the amount and condition required depends on the situation and Bonereaper legion in question. Human bone is the most widely used with ogor bones being a close second for their size and toughness, duardin bones are liked for their durability but aren't common enough, aelf bones are slightly more common but don't replenish fast enough, and greenskin bones are coarse, porous and prone to spontaneous fungal growth unless treated properly. While animal bones are also used, such as to repair Kavalos steeds or make Gothizzar Harvesters, that's not always the case and it depends on what animal they're from (Rhinoxen and Bleaklake crocodiles are some of the popular choices). The Bonereapers (though inbuilt or learned ability, it's not clear) CAN tell the difference between what race or species a specific bone comes from, so trying to cheat them by mixing in different kinds of bones doesn't work. They also respond to trickery the same way they respond to failure or refusal - immediate slaughter (as a human town learned to their cost when they tried to trick the Bonereapers by mixing pig bones in with human bones). Even other Death factions aren't immune to the Bone Tithe, as the Bonereapers consider their charge from Nagash to supersede any camaraderie with his other factions (callous elitism isn't good for alliances, reflected in the rules by the Bonereapers not being able to take allies outside Drogg Fort-Kicka).

Sometimes things are even worse. A particularly war-horny leader, most often from the Stalliarch Lords (more on them below), will give nigh-impossible demands to increase the chance of failure. What kinds of demands? How about asking the population for detailed records on the city's family lineage going back to the founders and the condition of every bone in the city ''including those bones still inside the living inhabitants''. Or maybe they ask for just one ton of bones ''every day'' (for extra lulz, the offer is made at night and has to be completed the next day). They might instead, or also, [[That Guy|arrive early to extract the Tithe just to get a good slaughter out of it]]. However it ends, the bones of the Ossiarch's victims are sorted through, the good bones taken for future use the sub-par ones discarded (same with their victims souls). Strips of skin and flesh from these unfortunates are hung from the Bonereapers' spears as a warning to anyone who considers not paying the Tithe.

Ultimately, they have a term related to the Bone Tithe called the “Terminus Concept”. This refers to the point where a society can't provide enough bones so they get slaughtered and their bones are taken. For the truth is that the Bone Tithe is ultimately unsustainable for the payers, and the Bonereapers know it. This all proves that, while Nagash is a pragmatic sort of fellow, he'll always find a way to be a <s>boner</s> [[Eldrad|huge skeletal dick]] about it.

==Forces==
[[File:Bonereaper army.jpg|right|500px|thumb|'''Angry Dooting Intensifies''']]
*'''Mortek Guard:''' Rank and file infantry of the Bonereapers. Well armored and shielded, they have the choice of swords or spears and optional greatswords as weapons. Their primary role is to create massive shield walls to protect their leaders.
*'''Morghast Harbingers and Archai:''' You know em, you love em. Nagash's original sculpted bone construct based on not-angels from the World-That-Was now served as prototypes to the current regime of spoopy skeltals. Flying blenders armed with either halberds (take these) or twin swords (dont take these). Harbingers are your chargey bois, while the Archai are bodyguard bois.
*'''Necropolis Stalkers:''' Four-armed skeletal constructs the size of Kurnoth Hunters with four faces, each one has the soul of four warriors, and switches between which one is dominant, altering their fighting style accordingly. Their name's ripped from the Necropolis Knights and the Tomb Stalkers.
*'''Immortis Guard:''' Four-armed <s>Grave Guard</s> <s>Tomb Guard</s> elite skellingtons armed with a halberd in one set of hands and a shield in the other. Like the Morghasts, Immortis are the bodyguard bois to the Stalkers' chargey bois.
*'''Kavalos Deathriders:''' Essentially bony knights somewhere between Black Knights and Varanguard in power level, and who serve Bone Daddy. Each one has the soul of dozens of warriors to draw on their knowledge and is proportionately arrogant. They have undead birds roosting on their banner poles that act as spies and messenger birds. For added creep factor, these guys normally walk at a slow and ominous trot, only sprinting when going into a headlong charge.
*'''Mortek Crawler:''' Screaming Skull Catapult 2.0 with an obligatory patent-friendly rename. In addition to flaming skulls, it can also hurl a cauldron of Death Magic that works based on bravery or a cursed stone that gets more powerful the more damage the Crawler takes. It's also powered by a bone-made hamster wheel and multiple legs.
*'''Gothizzar Harvester:''' A big monster construct with weapon hands and half a skeleton for a codpiece that helps harvest bones. The Harvester uses them to make new constructs on the fly or repair damaged ones. Their weapon arms come with either enchanted maces or scything blades for hands.
*'''Mortisan Soulreaper:''' Your offensive caster for the Bonereapers with a scythe that doesn't like hordes.
*'''Mortisan Boneshaper:''' The healers/builders of the Bonereapers. Formed from the souls of artists, they’re in charge of building the extravagant bone cities and other architecture of the legions. They all possess a friendly rivalry with each other that pushes them to one up another’s artwork.
*'''Mortisan Soulmason:''' Miniature Arkhans with four arms who are in charge of hunting and fusing souls for their various constructs. They ride into battle on bony [[Fyodor Karamazov|thrones with chicken legs]].
*'''Liege-Kavalos''': Field generals with skeleton mounts placed in charge of leading the Bonereaper armies. They are forged as a cruel mockery of Sigmar’s Lord-Celestant on Dracoth.

===Famous Legions===
*'''Mortis Praetorians''': The 10,000 strong personal army of Katakros, created out of the souls of those he personally knew in life. They have gained a fearsome reputation for their tactical acumen, especially in Shyish. [[Ultramarines|The poster boys who are a jack-of-all-trades, big on tactics and led by an ancient leader who was the basis for future generations]]. They also have the only two Bonereapers with a single original soul; Katakros himself and Zandtos.
* '''Petrifex Elite''': Made up of nomadic armies crafted from prehistoric fossilized bones, they are known for being slow-moving and a near impenetrable wall of bone. While fossilized bone tends to be fragile, the Petrifex Elite enchant them to be tough and also include already supernaturally tough bones among them (ie; the bones of godbeasts). Led by Mortisans, [[Necrons|they only exist to slay and find ancient bones to build more of themselves and make themselves even deadlier]]. They have forgotten why Nagash wants them to do this, and their leaders eschew personal identity to the point of using titles instead of names, as mandated by their leader and most senior Mortisan, the Grand Necromystic.
* '''Null Myriad''': The first Ossiarch Bonereapers made during Nagash's experiments in the Age of Myth. The Null Myriad were later refined and bolstered using the bones and souls of the countless dead who helped construct Nagash’s Black Pyramid and the best of Arkhan's Black Disciples. They are a solemn yet prideful lot with high resilience to magic and were given to Arkhan to be his personal legion; they're so loyal to Arkhan that they defer to him even over Katakros himself. Their resistance to magic extends to the power of Chaos, so they're used to inhabit the most inhospitable parts of the realms. Recently Arkhan made an alliance with Katakros, and the Null Myriad's job is to secure magic-heavy locations in the realms so Katakros can control the sources of their magic. The Null Myriad forces in Chamon have come into conflict with the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizards Constellation who also dwell there.
*'''Ivory Host''': Outwardly, they appear as honorable warriors, but hidden away in their bodies is a monstrous frenzy that turns them into clawing slavering beasts. Fitting considering they are constructed from beast and monster bones. Tasked by Nagash to conquer Ghur, they overcompensate for their bestial anger by being meticulously clean and making everything of theirs as much of a work of art as possible. Also known for [[Tomb Kings|being the only Ossiarchs who build ships, use the color gold regularly in their attire and are led by a monarch]]. Currently they’ve claimed the realmgate of Greedmouth and established the Ivory Citadel in the southwestern corner of the Ghurish Heartlands, putting them awfully close to numerous [[Ogor Mawtribes]] and the [[Cities of Sigmar|free city]] of Excelsis.
*'''Stalliarch Lords''': A cavalry centric force who are [[Creed|skillful tacticians]] and like to make impossible demands so they have an excuse to raze cities and slaughter people (on the rare occasion that someone meets their outrageous demands they keep their word... but remember the Terminus Concept). They take the freshest remains whenever possible to maximize how much they're infused with essence of the slain, which gives them more speed and vitality than other Bonereaper Legions and often a blood-slicked appearance. Basically [[That Guy]] as a cavalry-loving undead legion.
*'''Crematorians''': These Bonereapers are burning with an internal fire to the point where some of them literally explode when killed. Some of them have recently realized that they don't really have a purpose other than to fight and explode, and aren't too happy about that. In fact, their leaders [[Noblebright|have made pacts of friendship to repair each other if any of them are destroyed and the chief Liege-Kavalos scours the libraries of everyone they encounter in the hopes of finding a way to undo their fiery curse, and is implied to be on the verge of a breakthrough]].

==Significant Skeletons==
* '''[[Katakros|Orpheon Katakros]], [[Mortarch]] of the Necropolis''': In life he was the greatest strategic genius in all the Mortal Realms, and undeath has done nothing to dull his mastery of military tactics. He's been given a new body of enscrolled bone by Nagash himself which looks like a [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo stand]] rather than a skeleton. He goes into battle surrounded by various attendants; the Liege-Immortis, the Aviarch Spymaster, the Gnosis Scrollbearer, and the Prime Necrophoros.
*'''Arch-Kavalos Zandtos''': Both in life and in death, Patru Zandtos has been Katakros’ most trusted lieutenant. In life he was a refined, death-obsessed assassin who treated killing as a sacred art that should be as clean as possible and thus hated the loud, messy butchery of battle. In undeath, through the manipulations of Nagash and Katakros, he’s now a death-purist who wishes to “cleanse” Shyish of anything still living.
*'''Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe''': The grim tallyman in charge of recording/judging the Tithe. He carries the severed heads of those foolish enough to refuse to pay the Tithe and has a coffin on his back, making him look like a giant beetle. Though officially he’s under Katakros in the OBR hierarchy, he’ll only receive/carry out orders from Big Bone Daddy himself.
*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Yeah, he's part of the army despite technically being just an "average" liche as opposed to a bone golem thing. Likely because apart from Nagash, he's the most privy to understanding how they are made without being one.

==Spooky Melodies for your Bony Boys==

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DsZivjop_s Spooky Scary Skeletons! a remix for a revamp]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ The Dead March returns for AoS!]

==Trivia==
* The architecture of the Ossiarch Bonereapers was likely inspired by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Sedlec Ossuary] in the Czech Republic. The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic church where the bones of thousands of people have been artistically arranged to form the decorations and the furnishings of the chapel (it's also called "the Bone Church"). This was done several centuries ago for creative interment reasons with many dead and not enough space to bury them on holy ground.
* On a comical note, "Kavalos", the name for Bonereaper cavalry, translates to "crotch" in Greek (the Greek word is "kaválos"). Makes more sense when you think of [[Katakros]]' defining trait lookswise, and how his name even sounds like the Greek word.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Bonereaper vs Kharadron.jpg|Sky Pirates vs Bone Golems.
File:Cavalry-bonereapers.jpg|As if Blood Knights weren't bad enough, Bone Daddy brings out Kavalos Deathriders too.
File:Gothizzar Harvester.jpg|"Oh those bones, oh those bones, oh those skeleton bones. Oh mercy how they scare! With the toe bone connected to the foot bone..."
File:Bonereaper city.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Welcome to Necrotopia. Please remember to remove all skin and flesh before you reach customs.
</gallery>

==See Also==

*[[Nagash]], their jerk of a god whom they give their undisputed loyalty to (yes, really!)

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:31:13Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* The Bone Tithe */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the [[Stormcast Eternals|fuckboys]]!}}

{{topquote|Two can play at that game!|Likely Nagash after learning how Sigmar makes Stormcast}}
{{topquote|Debt, an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.|Ambrose Bierce}}
{{topquote|The bones of the skeleton which support the body can become the bars of the cage which imprison the spirit.|J. Ruth Gendler}}

The latest addition to [[Nagash]]’s ever growing hordes (designed and sculpted by [[Maxime Corbeil]], a former dentist), the '''Ossiarch Bonereapers'''
(Also known as '''The Boney Boys''', '''Bonecast''', '''Tomb Kings 2.0''', '''Bonechads''', '''Nagash's Taxmen''', '''The Boney Bean Counters''', '''Ossiarch Bean Counters''' or '''The IRS''') are the result of an eons old plan by Big Bone Daddy.

Likely inspired by the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the Bonereapers are not mere skeletons given life by necromancy, but massive constructs of bone and countless warrior souls, making them all look impressively robust for undead. Since the Legions of Nagash are the mainstay, the Nighthaunt are the shock troops and the Flesh-Eater Courts are completely insane, these buff bone boys are the elite vanguard of the Grand Alliance. Given their themes of bones, undead constructs priest characters, architect characters and skull-throwing catapults... they're currently the closest thing we've got to [[Tomb Kings]] in AoS.

They also carry out the Bone Tithe; in addition to going out and killing shit to get their bones, the Ossiarchs give settlements they encounter a contract: Give up a set amount of bones whenever we stroll by, or face annihilation now. Understandably, most choose the former. Being unable to pay or even being rude to them also provokes a slaughter.

Visually-speaking, they're what happens when Games Workshop decides to mix [[Tyranids]], [[Tomb Kings]], and [[Necrons]] into one army.

==History==
===Age of Myth===
[[File:Slaves to Darkness vs Ossiarch Bonereapers 01.jpg|right|300px|thumb|SKULLS FOR <s>THE SKULL THRONE</s> Nagash! And all the other bones too!]]
When Nagash was helping Sigmar build his cities he secretly began experimenting on undead, combining their bones and souls into newer, stronger undead warriors; the [[Morghasts/Hammurai|Morghasts]] and the first Bonereapers. Most were put into massive underground crypts Nagash secretly had built beneath the cities, but others were kept on the surface and brought into battle. The other gods saw the Bonereapers and really didn't like them because of how unnatural they were. In response, Nagash sent these Bonereapers to the edge of Shyish to lay low until he called on them (these Bonereapers who would go on to form the Null Myriad). He also sent at least twenty of them to wander the Realms on a long-forgotten mission (these would go on to become the Petrifex Elite).

Strangely, none of the Order groups noticed until however long its been since the start of the Age of Myth that there were crypts full of undead warriors beneath their cities. Especially since they know about and need to defend against [[Skaven|enemies who specialize in creating massive complexes beneath your cities that they then invade from.]]

===Age of Chaos===
The Age of Chaos only affected the Bonereapers garrisoned at the edge of Shyish. By that time they had become resistant to magic, and they fought against demonic armies, their actions blunting the assault of Chaos on Shyish. During this time, Katakros led an army against Sigmar himself on Nagash's orders while the former was pursuing the latter for his betrayal. The battle resulted in the loss of Katakros' army, the Mortarch's defeat and subsequent confinement to a Stormvault.

===Malign Portents===
During this time, Katakros was freed from the Stormvault by fellow Mortarch, Lady Olynder. The Bonereapers on the edge of Shyish acted as a military force protecting the skeletal work crews who carried grains of Shyishan realmstone to Nagashizzar for Nagash to use to build the Black Pyramid.

===Soul Wars===
After the Necroquake, Nagash decided the time was right to wake up everyone beneath these cities, who (according to the most recent Stormcast) apparently marched back home, making them relatively pointless. In that respect, these tombs seemed to mirror the Stormvaults Sigmar had strewn about the Realms to contain various dangerous contraband like [[Katakros|a certain Mortarch]].

When the Bonereaper legions arrived in Shyish, Nagash got back to his pet-project of making super-skellies, and perfected the process. This involves taking souls and distilling them down to their most choice elements. This involves ripping apart their identity and keeping parts considered useful (suck as skills and knowledge) while discarding the parts that aren't useful (such as fears and loyalties to anyone but Nagash) and replacing those parts with something better (like loyalty to Nagash), with the strongest-willed soul among them becoming the identity of the new Bonereaper. Then these fragmented souls are put into specially crafted bone constructs. By doing so, he artificially created individuals who were warriors, leaders, bodyguards, artisans, architects, philosophers and sculptors all in one, [[Adeptus Custodes|which sounds a little familiar.]]

The Bonereapers subsequently had a meteoric rise, making their mark - and several enemies - across the realms. After establishing their powerbase in Shyish, the Ironjawz Warclan the Kryptboyz have focused their efforts on fighting the Bonereapers due to wanting to destroy their settlements and wear their bones as trophies. In Chamon, the Null Myriad encountered the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizard Constellation and got embroiled in wars for control of the realm's edge. The Ivory Host legion have gotten a foothold in Ghur, and in building their cities they've positioned themselves for conflict with several Mawtribes and the free city of Excelsis. The Ivory Host also clashed with a [[Sons of Behemat|Mega-Gargant and indirectly led him to become the mercenary known as One-Eyed Grunnock]]. They have also sent forces into Hysh that came into conflict with the Lumineth.

This was followed by the Bonereapers most notable conflict; starting the War for the Eightpoints. Katakros led the Mortis Praetorians and detachments from other Legions into the Eightpoints alongside Olynder and a Nighthaunt army to take the Eightpoints for Nagash. They succeeded in capturing and fortifying the realmgate leading to Shyish, and have established a fortified citadel around it as a base of operations. However, Katakros' campaign was halted by the return of Archaon, who defeated him in battle. Following Katakros' restoration, the conflict has become a war of attrition.

===Broken Realms===
When Morathi entered the Eightpoints in her plan to secure Varanite, she secretly sent an envoy to Katakros, giving him several tonnes of bones infused with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper attack on Archaon's holdings to distract the forces of Chaos. Knowing the forces of order will take losses in their unknown (to Katakros and the Stormcast) endeavor, Katakros accepts the bargain.

Around this time, the Lumineth launched an invasion of Shyish to attack the Ossiarch Empire. The Lumineth proved a force that could match the Bonereapers in battle, winning numerous conflicts and destroying citadels before <s>fleeing</s> going back to Hysh as the battles were to send the message that the Bonereapers aren't unbeatable. But they didn't count on the Bonereapers using the dead of both sides to replenish their losses, and eager for payback. Soon a Bonereaper force led by Arkhan himself invaded Hysh to press-gang the Mordant Courts hiding in Avalenor's mountains to join Nagash and <s>give the Lumineth a right proper boning</s> help conquer Ymetrica. The Ossiarch Empire also becomes a target of a reborn Sigvald, who seeks to destroy it as revenge for Nagash imprisoning him in a Shadeglass mirror.

Later, Shyish gets some uninvited guests in the form of a Lumineth army led by Teclis himself. They seek to end the Soul Wars and make Nagash pay for unleashing the Necroquake... but not if the Bonereapers have anything to say about it. More to come soon.

==Society==
[[File:Ossiarch Bonereapers Society.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "pyramid scheme".]]
All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, then Mortarchs Katakros and Arhkan, then the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath and various ranks beneath that. The Bonereaper caste system has a cartouche representing each caste (though Nagash's is just to symbolize him). While there is a Mortarch cartouche, only Katakros wears it because Arkhan predates the Bonereaper system (and everyone but Nagash) by several eons, and despite their alliance he's too proud to wear Katakros' symbol. While they're all obedient to Nagash and fearless, the Bonereapers used in battle are sapient and the characters at least have enough individuality to have names and some personality, though they tend to be pragmatic, work-oriented and elitist.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of groups such as crafters and preachers. There is movement between castes, but only downwards, and as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider. If the offense was major, they might get remade as a steed. The lowest caste are the exiles collectively referred to as Parrha, consisting of the worst offenders who get broken and remade into warped skeletal aberrations incapable of fighting and the Bonereapers value them less than the Imperial Guard values the life of its rank and file soldiers (for the uninitiated, that's really saying something).

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the majority of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories. Apart from Shyish, the largest concentrations of Bonereapers are in Ghur and Chamon.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers build according to principles laid down in the Principia Necrotopia, a set of guidelines that ensure optimal construction:

In the first stages of colonizing a new region, the Ossiarchs will establish tithing sites. Presumably, this involves mapping out surrounding settlements and segments of the region into their own tributaries, with each section's inhabitants made to sign a contract to begin paying the Tithe. They contruct shrines known as Bone-Tithe Nexus, which act as locations for vassals to dump their bones and are enchanted to give out powerful curses to ward off any scavengers seeking to steal from it.

Next, they will fortify key territories with small fortifications, following up with a number of Mortisan workshops to fuel the next stage of their expansion. These small holdings will eventually develop into vast and imposing fortresses, growing ever upward as the Bonereapers’ numbers grow. These are not just barracks, but places of culture for the Ossiarchs.

Ossiarch scholars will endlessly study scrolls in charnel libraries, recording the details of cultures in the Mortal Realms they have subjugated and those they seek to subjugate. These vast citadel-states eventually resemble Nagashizzar itself.

===The Bone Tithe===
[[File:Bone tithe.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Put your spines into it. Literally!]]
The Bone Tithe is instrumental to their society and Nagash's way of setting himself up as mob boss of the realms. Upon arriving in an area, the Ossiarchs send out scouts to get the lay of the land. When they find a settlement they want tribute from, a representative - in practice usually a Mortisan - approaches and makes them an offer they can't refuse; give "x" by the deadline at regular intervals, or we kill you all and takes your bones and souls for our use. To communicate, the Bonereapers draw on prior research for the local language; it doesn't matter if the vernacular's out of date by a few centuries or so, as long as they can be understood. If that doesn't work, the Bonereapers use other means, including killing a local and using their spirit as a translator if all else fails. If the locals refuse, attack them or are rude enough, [[Grimdark|the Bonereapers make good on their threat, slaughtering everything in the settlement that has bones, right down to the last child and stray animal]]. If they are feeling "nice", the Bonereapers might only kill the dissenters.

When demanding the Bone Tithe, what/who the bones come from plus the amount and condition required depends on the situation and Bonereaper legion in question. Human bone is the most widely used with ogor bones being a close second for their size and toughness, duardin bones are liked for their durability but aren't common enough, aelf bones are slightly more common but don't replenish fast enough, and greenskin bones are coarse, porous and prone to spontaneous fungal growth unless treated properly. While animal bones are also used, such as to repair Kavalos steeds or make Gothizzar Harvesters, that's not always the case and it depends on what animal they're from (Rhinoxen and Bleaklake crocodiles are some of the popular choices). The Bonereapers (though inbuilt or learned ability, it's not clear) CAN tell the difference between what race or species a specific bone comes from, so trying to cheat them by mixing in different kinds of bones doesn't work. They also respond to trickery the same way they respond to failure or refusal - immediate slaughter (as a human town learned to their cost when they tried to trick the Bonereapers by mixing pig bones in with human bones). Even other Death factions aren't immune to the Bone Tithe, as the Bonereapers consider their charge from Nagash to supersede any camaraderie with his other factions (callous elitism isn't good for alliances, reflected in the rules by the Bonereapers not being able to take allies outside Drogg Fort-Kicka).

Sometimes things are even worse. A particularly war-horny leader, most often from the Stalliarch Lords (more on them below), will give nigh-impossible demands to increase the chance of failure. What kinds of demands? How about asking the population for detailed records on the city's family lineage going back to the founders and the condition of every bone in the city ''including those bones still inside the living inhabitants''. Or maybe they ask for just one ton of bones ''every day'' (for extra lulz, the offer is made at night and has to be completed the next day). They might instead, or also, [[That Guy|arrive early to extract the Tithe just to get a good slaughter out of it]]. However it ends, the bones of the Ossiarch's victims are sorted through, the good bones taken for future use the sub-par ones discarded (same with their victims souls). Strips of skin and flesh from these unfortunates are hung from the Bonereapers' spears as a warning to anyone who considers not paying the Tithe.

Ultimately, they have a term related to the Bone Tithe called the “Terminus Concept”. This refers to the point where a society can't provide enough bones so they get slaughtered and their bones are taken. For the truth is that the Bone Tithe is ultimately unsustainable for the payers, and the Bonereapers know it. This all proves that, while Nagash is a pragmatic sort of fellow, he'll always find a way to be a <s>boner</s> [[Eldrad|huge skeletal dick]] about it.

==Forces==
[[File:Bonereaper army.jpg|right|500px|thumb|'''Angry Dooting Intensifies''']]
*'''Mortek Guard:''' Rank and file infantry of the Bonereapers. Well armored and shielded, they have the choice of swords or spears and optional greatswords as weapons. Their primary role is to create massive shield walls to protect their leaders.
*'''Morghast Harbingers and Archai:''' You know em, you love em. Nagash's original sculpted bone construct based on not-angels from the World-That-Was now served as prototypes to the current regime of spoopy skeltals. Flying blenders armed with either halberds (take these) or twin swords (dont take these). Harbingers are your chargey bois, while the Archai are bodyguard bois.
*'''Necropolis Stalkers:''' Four-armed skeletal constructs the size of Kurnoth Hunters with four faces, each one has the soul of four warriors, and switches between which one is dominant, altering their fighting style accordingly. Their name's ripped from the Necropolis Knights and the Tomb Stalkers.
*'''Immortis Guard:''' Four-armed <s>Grave Guard</s> <s>Tomb Guard</s> elite skellingtons armed with a halberd in one set of hands and a shield in the other. Like the Morghasts, Immortis are the bodyguard bois to the Stalkers' chargey bois.
*'''Kavalos Deathriders:''' Essentially bony knights somewhere between Black Knights and Varanguard in power level, and who serve Bone Daddy. Each one has the soul of dozens of warriors to draw on their knowledge and is proportionately arrogant. They have undead birds roosting on their banner poles that act as spies and messenger birds. For added creep factor, these guys normally walk at a slow and ominous trot, only sprinting when going into a headlong charge.
*'''Mortek Crawler:''' Screaming Skull Catapult 2.0 with an obligatory patent-friendly rename. In addition to flaming skulls, it can also hurl a cauldron of Death Magic that works based on bravery or a cursed stone that gets more powerful the more damage the Crawler takes. It's also powered by a bone-made hamster wheel and multiple legs.
*'''Gothizzar Harvester:''' A big monster construct with weapon hands and half a skeleton for a codpiece that helps harvest bones. The Harvester uses them to make new constructs on the fly or repair damaged ones. Their weapon arms come with either enchanted maces or scything blades for hands.
*'''Mortisan Soulreaper:''' Your offensive caster for the Bonereapers with a scythe that doesn't like hordes.
*'''Mortisan Boneshaper:''' The healers/builders of the Bonereapers. Formed from the souls of artists, they’re in charge of building the extravagant bone cities and other architecture of the legions. They all possess a friendly rivalry with each other that pushes them to one up another’s artwork.
*'''Mortisan Soulmason:''' Miniature Arkhans with four arms who are in charge of hunting and fusing souls for their various constructs. They ride into battle on bony [[Fyodor Karamazov|thrones with chicken legs]].
*'''Liege-Kavalos''': Field generals with skeleton mounts placed in charge of leading the Bonereaper armies. They are forged as a cruel mockery of Sigmar’s Lord-Celestant on Dracoth.

===Famous Legions===
*'''Mortis Praetorians''': The 10,000 strong personal army of Katakros, created out of the souls of those he personally knew in life. They have gained a fearsome reputation for their tactical acumen, especially in Shyish. [[Ultramarines|The poster boys who are a jack-of-all-trades, big on tactics and led by an ancient leader who was the basis for future generations]]. They also have the only two Bonereapers with a single original soul; Katakros himself and Zandtos.
* '''Petrifex Elite''': Made up of nomadic armies crafted from prehistoric fossilized bones, they are known for being slow-moving and a near impenetrable wall of bone. While fossilized bone tends to be fragile, the Petrifex Elite enchant them to be tough and also include already supernaturally tough bones among them (ie; the bones of godbeasts). Led by Mortisans, [[Necrons|they only exist to slay and find ancient bones to build more of themselves and make themselves even deadlier]]. They have forgotten why Nagash wants them to do this, and their leaders eschew personal identity to the point of using titles instead of names, as mandated by their leader and most senior Mortisan, the Grand Necromystic.
* '''Null Myriad''': The first Ossiarch Bonereapers made during Nagash's experiments in the Age of Myth. The Null Myriad were later refined and bolstered using the bones and souls of the countless dead who helped construct Nagash’s Black Pyramid and the best of Arkhan's Black Disciples. They are a solemn yet prideful lot with high resilience to magic and were given to Arkhan to be his personal legion; they're so loyal to Arkhan that they defer to him even over Katakros himself. Their resistance to magic extends to the power of Chaos, so they're used to inhabit the most inhospitable parts of the realms. Recently Arkhan made an alliance with Katakros, and the Null Myriad's job is to secure magic-heavy locations in the realms so Katakros can control the sources of their magic. The Null Myriad forces in Chamon have come into conflict with the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizards Constellation who also dwell there.
*'''Ivory Host''': Outwardly, they appear as honorable warriors, but hidden away in their bodies is a monstrous frenzy that turns them into clawing slavering beasts. Fitting considering they are constructed from beast and monster bones. Tasked by Nagash to conquer Ghur, they overcompensate for their bestial anger by being meticulously clean and making everything of theirs as much of a work of art as possible. Also known for [[Tomb Kings|being the only Ossiarchs who build ships, use the color gold regularly in their attire and are led by a monarch]]. Currently they’ve claimed the realmgate of Greedmouth and established the Ivory Citadel in the southwestern corner of the Ghurish Heartlands, putting them awfully close to numerous [[Ogor Mawtribes]] and the [[Cities of Sigmar|free city]] of Excelsis.
*'''Stalliarch Lords''': A cavalry centric force who are [[Creed|skillful tacticians]] and like to make impossible demands so they have an excuse to raze cities and slaughter people (on the rare occasion that someone meets their outrageous demands they keep their word... but remember the Terminus Concept). They even force the Bone Tithe on other death factions, as was the case when they subjected a keep of Blood Knights to it and offered them a way out if their leader defeated a Liege-Kavalos in a duel to the death (he didn't). So in addition to being [[Kharn|psychopaths with zero regard for life, they're also team-killing douchebags]]. Basically [[That Guy]] as a cavalry-loving undead legion.
*'''Crematorians''': These Bonereapers are burning with an internal fire to the point where some of them literally explode when killed. Some of them have recently realized that they don't really have a purpose other than to fight and explode, and aren't too happy about that. In fact, their leaders [[Noblebright|have made pacts of friendship to repair each other if any of them are destroyed and the chief Liege-Kavalos scours the libraries of everyone they encounter in the hopes of finding a way to undo their fiery curse, and is implied to be on the verge of a breakthrough]].

==Significant Skeletons==
* '''[[Katakros|Orpheon Katakros]], [[Mortarch]] of the Necropolis''': In life he was the greatest strategic genius in all the Mortal Realms, and undeath has done nothing to dull his mastery of military tactics. He's been given a new body of enscrolled bone by Nagash himself which looks like a [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo stand]] rather than a skeleton. He goes into battle surrounded by various attendants; the Liege-Immortis, the Aviarch Spymaster, the Gnosis Scrollbearer, and the Prime Necrophoros.
*'''Arch-Kavalos Zandtos''': Both in life and in death, Patru Zandtos has been Katakros’ most trusted lieutenant. In life he was a refined, death-obsessed assassin who treated killing as a sacred art that should be as clean as possible and thus hated the loud, messy butchery of battle. In undeath, through the manipulations of Nagash and Katakros, he’s now a death-purist who wishes to “cleanse” Shyish of anything still living.
*'''Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe''': The grim tallyman in charge of recording/judging the Tithe. He carries the severed heads of those foolish enough to refuse to pay the Tithe and has a coffin on his back, making him look like a giant beetle. Though officially he’s under Katakros in the OBR hierarchy, he’ll only receive/carry out orders from Big Bone Daddy himself.
*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Yeah, he's part of the army despite technically being just an "average" liche as opposed to a bone golem thing. Likely because apart from Nagash, he's the most privy to understanding how they are made without being one.

==Spooky Melodies for your Bony Boys==

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DsZivjop_s Spooky Scary Skeletons! a remix for a revamp]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ The Dead March returns for AoS!]

==Trivia==
* The architecture of the Ossiarch Bonereapers was likely inspired by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Sedlec Ossuary] in the Czech Republic. The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic church where the bones of thousands of people have been artistically arranged to form the decorations and the furnishings of the chapel (it's also called "the Bone Church"). This was done several centuries ago for creative interment reasons with many dead and not enough space to bury them on holy ground.
* On a comical note, "Kavalos", the name for Bonereaper cavalry, translates to "crotch" in Greek (the Greek word is "kaválos"). Makes more sense when you think of [[Katakros]]' defining trait lookswise, and how his name even sounds like the Greek word.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Bonereaper vs Kharadron.jpg|Sky Pirates vs Bone Golems.
File:Cavalry-bonereapers.jpg|As if Blood Knights weren't bad enough, Bone Daddy brings out Kavalos Deathriders too.
File:Gothizzar Harvester.jpg|"Oh those bones, oh those bones, oh those skeleton bones. Oh mercy how they scare! With the toe bone connected to the foot bone..."
File:Bonereaper city.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Welcome to Necrotopia. Please remember to remove all skin and flesh before you reach customs.
</gallery>

==See Also==

*[[Nagash]], their jerk of a god whom they give their undisputed loyalty to (yes, really!)

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:28:53Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Society */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the [[Stormcast Eternals|fuckboys]]!}}

{{topquote|Two can play at that game!|Likely Nagash after learning how Sigmar makes Stormcast}}
{{topquote|Debt, an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.|Ambrose Bierce}}
{{topquote|The bones of the skeleton which support the body can become the bars of the cage which imprison the spirit.|J. Ruth Gendler}}

The latest addition to [[Nagash]]’s ever growing hordes (designed and sculpted by [[Maxime Corbeil]], a former dentist), the '''Ossiarch Bonereapers'''
(Also known as '''The Boney Boys''', '''Bonecast''', '''Tomb Kings 2.0''', '''Bonechads''', '''Nagash's Taxmen''', '''The Boney Bean Counters''', '''Ossiarch Bean Counters''' or '''The IRS''') are the result of an eons old plan by Big Bone Daddy.

Likely inspired by the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the Bonereapers are not mere skeletons given life by necromancy, but massive constructs of bone and countless warrior souls, making them all look impressively robust for undead. Since the Legions of Nagash are the mainstay, the Nighthaunt are the shock troops and the Flesh-Eater Courts are completely insane, these buff bone boys are the elite vanguard of the Grand Alliance. Given their themes of bones, undead constructs priest characters, architect characters and skull-throwing catapults... they're currently the closest thing we've got to [[Tomb Kings]] in AoS.

They also carry out the Bone Tithe; in addition to going out and killing shit to get their bones, the Ossiarchs give settlements they encounter a contract: Give up a set amount of bones whenever we stroll by, or face annihilation now. Understandably, most choose the former. Being unable to pay or even being rude to them also provokes a slaughter.

Visually-speaking, they're what happens when Games Workshop decides to mix [[Tyranids]], [[Tomb Kings]], and [[Necrons]] into one army.

==History==
===Age of Myth===
[[File:Slaves to Darkness vs Ossiarch Bonereapers 01.jpg|right|300px|thumb|SKULLS FOR <s>THE SKULL THRONE</s> Nagash! And all the other bones too!]]
When Nagash was helping Sigmar build his cities he secretly began experimenting on undead, combining their bones and souls into newer, stronger undead warriors; the [[Morghasts/Hammurai|Morghasts]] and the first Bonereapers. Most were put into massive underground crypts Nagash secretly had built beneath the cities, but others were kept on the surface and brought into battle. The other gods saw the Bonereapers and really didn't like them because of how unnatural they were. In response, Nagash sent these Bonereapers to the edge of Shyish to lay low until he called on them (these Bonereapers who would go on to form the Null Myriad). He also sent at least twenty of them to wander the Realms on a long-forgotten mission (these would go on to become the Petrifex Elite).

Strangely, none of the Order groups noticed until however long its been since the start of the Age of Myth that there were crypts full of undead warriors beneath their cities. Especially since they know about and need to defend against [[Skaven|enemies who specialize in creating massive complexes beneath your cities that they then invade from.]]

===Age of Chaos===
The Age of Chaos only affected the Bonereapers garrisoned at the edge of Shyish. By that time they had become resistant to magic, and they fought against demonic armies, their actions blunting the assault of Chaos on Shyish. During this time, Katakros led an army against Sigmar himself on Nagash's orders while the former was pursuing the latter for his betrayal. The battle resulted in the loss of Katakros' army, the Mortarch's defeat and subsequent confinement to a Stormvault.

===Malign Portents===
During this time, Katakros was freed from the Stormvault by fellow Mortarch, Lady Olynder. The Bonereapers on the edge of Shyish acted as a military force protecting the skeletal work crews who carried grains of Shyishan realmstone to Nagashizzar for Nagash to use to build the Black Pyramid.

===Soul Wars===
After the Necroquake, Nagash decided the time was right to wake up everyone beneath these cities, who (according to the most recent Stormcast) apparently marched back home, making them relatively pointless. In that respect, these tombs seemed to mirror the Stormvaults Sigmar had strewn about the Realms to contain various dangerous contraband like [[Katakros|a certain Mortarch]].

When the Bonereaper legions arrived in Shyish, Nagash got back to his pet-project of making super-skellies, and perfected the process. This involves taking souls and distilling them down to their most choice elements. This involves ripping apart their identity and keeping parts considered useful (suck as skills and knowledge) while discarding the parts that aren't useful (such as fears and loyalties to anyone but Nagash) and replacing those parts with something better (like loyalty to Nagash), with the strongest-willed soul among them becoming the identity of the new Bonereaper. Then these fragmented souls are put into specially crafted bone constructs. By doing so, he artificially created individuals who were warriors, leaders, bodyguards, artisans, architects, philosophers and sculptors all in one, [[Adeptus Custodes|which sounds a little familiar.]]

The Bonereapers subsequently had a meteoric rise, making their mark - and several enemies - across the realms. After establishing their powerbase in Shyish, the Ironjawz Warclan the Kryptboyz have focused their efforts on fighting the Bonereapers due to wanting to destroy their settlements and wear their bones as trophies. In Chamon, the Null Myriad encountered the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizard Constellation and got embroiled in wars for control of the realm's edge. The Ivory Host legion have gotten a foothold in Ghur, and in building their cities they've positioned themselves for conflict with several Mawtribes and the free city of Excelsis. The Ivory Host also clashed with a [[Sons of Behemat|Mega-Gargant and indirectly led him to become the mercenary known as One-Eyed Grunnock]]. They have also sent forces into Hysh that came into conflict with the Lumineth.

This was followed by the Bonereapers most notable conflict; starting the War for the Eightpoints. Katakros led the Mortis Praetorians and detachments from other Legions into the Eightpoints alongside Olynder and a Nighthaunt army to take the Eightpoints for Nagash. They succeeded in capturing and fortifying the realmgate leading to Shyish, and have established a fortified citadel around it as a base of operations. However, Katakros' campaign was halted by the return of Archaon, who defeated him in battle. Following Katakros' restoration, the conflict has become a war of attrition.

===Broken Realms===
When Morathi entered the Eightpoints in her plan to secure Varanite, she secretly sent an envoy to Katakros, giving him several tonnes of bones infused with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper attack on Archaon's holdings to distract the forces of Chaos. Knowing the forces of order will take losses in their unknown (to Katakros and the Stormcast) endeavor, Katakros accepts the bargain.

Around this time, the Lumineth launched an invasion of Shyish to attack the Ossiarch Empire. The Lumineth proved a force that could match the Bonereapers in battle, winning numerous conflicts and destroying citadels before <s>fleeing</s> going back to Hysh as the battles were to send the message that the Bonereapers aren't unbeatable. But they didn't count on the Bonereapers using the dead of both sides to replenish their losses, and eager for payback. Soon a Bonereaper force led by Arkhan himself invaded Hysh to press-gang the Mordant Courts hiding in Avalenor's mountains to join Nagash and <s>give the Lumineth a right proper boning</s> help conquer Ymetrica. The Ossiarch Empire also becomes a target of a reborn Sigvald, who seeks to destroy it as revenge for Nagash imprisoning him in a Shadeglass mirror.

Later, Shyish gets some uninvited guests in the form of a Lumineth army led by Teclis himself. They seek to end the Soul Wars and make Nagash pay for unleashing the Necroquake... but not if the Bonereapers have anything to say about it. More to come soon.

==Society==
[[File:Ossiarch Bonereapers Society.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "pyramid scheme".]]
All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, then Mortarchs Katakros and Arhkan, then the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath and various ranks beneath that. The Bonereaper caste system has a cartouche representing each caste (though Nagash's is just to symbolize him). While there is a Mortarch cartouche, only Katakros wears it because Arkhan predates the Bonereaper system (and everyone but Nagash) by several eons, and despite their alliance he's too proud to wear Katakros' symbol. While they're all obedient to Nagash and fearless, the Bonereapers used in battle are sapient and the characters at least have enough individuality to have names and some personality, though they tend to be pragmatic, work-oriented and elitist.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of groups such as crafters and preachers. There is movement between castes, but only downwards, and as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider. If the offense was major, they might get remade as a steed. The lowest caste are the exiles collectively referred to as Parrha, consisting of the worst offenders who get broken and remade into warped skeletal aberrations incapable of fighting and the Bonereapers value them less than the Imperial Guard values the life of its rank and file soldiers (for the uninitiated, that's really saying something).

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the majority of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories. Apart from Shyish, the largest concentrations of Bonereapers are in Ghur and Chamon.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers build according to principles laid down in the Principia Necrotopia, a set of guidelines that ensure optimal construction:

In the first stages of colonizing a new region, the Ossiarchs will establish tithing sites. Presumably, this involves mapping out surrounding settlements and segments of the region into their own tributaries, with each section's inhabitants made to sign a contract to begin paying the Tithe. They contruct shrines known as Bone-Tithe Nexus, which act as locations for vassals to dump their bones and are enchanted to give out powerful curses to ward off any scavengers seeking to steal from it.

Next, they will fortify key territories with small fortifications, following up with a number of Mortisan workshops to fuel the next stage of their expansion. These small holdings will eventually develop into vast and imposing fortresses, growing ever upward as the Bonereapers’ numbers grow. These are not just barracks, but places of culture for the Ossiarchs.

Ossiarch scholars will endlessly study scrolls in charnel libraries, recording the details of cultures in the Mortal Realms they have subjugated and those they seek to subjugate. These vast citadel-states eventually resemble Nagashizzar itself.

===The Bone Tithe===
[[File:Bone tithe.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Put your spines into it. Literally!]]
The Bone Tithe is instrumental to their society and Nagash's way of setting himself up as mob boss of the realms. Upon arriving in an area, the Ossiarchs send out scouts to get the lay of the land. When they find a settlement they want tribute from, a representative - in practice usually a Mortisan - approaches and makes them an offer they can't refuse; give "x" by the deadline at regular intervals, or we kill you all and takes your bones and souls for our use. To communicate, the Bonereapers draw on prior research for the local language; it doesn't matter if the vernacular's out of date by a few centuries or so, as long as they can be understood. If that doesn't work, the Bonereapers use other means, including killing a local and using their spirit as a translator if all else fails. If the locals refuse, attack them or are rude enough, [[Grimdark|the Bonereapers make good on their threat, slaughtering everything in the settlement that has bones, right down to the last child and stray animal]]. If they are feeling "nice", the Bonereapers might only kill the dissenters.

When demanding the Bone Tithe, what/who the bones come from plus the amount and condition required depends on the situation and Bonereaper legion in question. Human bone is the most widely used with ogor bones being a close second for their size and toughness, duardin bones are liked for their durability but aren't common enough, aelf bones are slightly more common but don't replenish fast enough, and greenskin bones are coarse, porous and prone to spontaneous fungal growth unless treated properly. While animal bones are also used, such as to repair Kavalos steeds or make Gothizzar Harvesters, that's not always the case and it depends on what animal they're from (Rhinoxen and Bleaklake crocodiles are some of the popular choices). The Bonereapers (though inbuilt or learned ability, it's not clear) CAN tell the difference between what race or species a specific bone comes from, so trying to cheat them by mixing in different kinds of bones doesn't work. They also respond to trickery the same way they respond to failure or refusal - immediate slaughter (as a human town learned to their cost when they tried to trick the Bonereapers by mixing pig bones in with human bones).

Sometimes things are even worse. A particularly war-horny leader, most often from the Stalliarch Lords (more on them below), will give nigh-impossible demands to increase the chance of failure. What kinds of demands? How about asking the population for detailed records on the city's family lineage going back to the founders and the condition of every bone in the city ''including those bones still inside the living inhabitants''. Or maybe they ask for just one ton of bones ''every day'' (for extra lulz, the offer is made at night and has to be completed the next day). They might instead, or also, [[That Guy|arrive early to extract the Tithe just to get a good slaughter out of it]]. However it ends, the bones of the Ossiarch's victims are sorted through, the good bones taken for future use the sub-par ones discarded (same with their victims souls). Strips of skin and flesh from these unfortunates are hung from the Bonereapers' spears as a warning to anyone who considers not paying the Tithe.

Ultimately, they have a term related to the Bone Tithe called the “Terminus Concept”. This refers to the point where a society can't provide enough bones so they get slaughtered and their bones are taken. For the truth is that the Bone Tithe is ultimately unsustainable for the payers, and the Bonereapers know it. This all proves that, while Nagash is a pragmatic sort of fellow, he'll always find a way to be a <s>boner</s> [[Eldrad|huge skeletal dick]] about it.

==Forces==
[[File:Bonereaper army.jpg|right|500px|thumb|'''Angry Dooting Intensifies''']]
*'''Mortek Guard:''' Rank and file infantry of the Bonereapers. Well armored and shielded, they have the choice of swords or spears and optional greatswords as weapons. Their primary role is to create massive shield walls to protect their leaders.
*'''Morghast Harbingers and Archai:''' You know em, you love em. Nagash's original sculpted bone construct based on not-angels from the World-That-Was now served as prototypes to the current regime of spoopy skeltals. Flying blenders armed with either halberds (take these) or twin swords (dont take these). Harbingers are your chargey bois, while the Archai are bodyguard bois.
*'''Necropolis Stalkers:''' Four-armed skeletal constructs the size of Kurnoth Hunters with four faces, each one has the soul of four warriors, and switches between which one is dominant, altering their fighting style accordingly. Their name's ripped from the Necropolis Knights and the Tomb Stalkers.
*'''Immortis Guard:''' Four-armed <s>Grave Guard</s> <s>Tomb Guard</s> elite skellingtons armed with a halberd in one set of hands and a shield in the other. Like the Morghasts, Immortis are the bodyguard bois to the Stalkers' chargey bois.
*'''Kavalos Deathriders:''' Essentially bony knights somewhere between Black Knights and Varanguard in power level, and who serve Bone Daddy. Each one has the soul of dozens of warriors to draw on their knowledge and is proportionately arrogant. They have undead birds roosting on their banner poles that act as spies and messenger birds. For added creep factor, these guys normally walk at a slow and ominous trot, only sprinting when going into a headlong charge.
*'''Mortek Crawler:''' Screaming Skull Catapult 2.0 with an obligatory patent-friendly rename. In addition to flaming skulls, it can also hurl a cauldron of Death Magic that works based on bravery or a cursed stone that gets more powerful the more damage the Crawler takes. It's also powered by a bone-made hamster wheel and multiple legs.
*'''Gothizzar Harvester:''' A big monster construct with weapon hands and half a skeleton for a codpiece that helps harvest bones. The Harvester uses them to make new constructs on the fly or repair damaged ones. Their weapon arms come with either enchanted maces or scything blades for hands.
*'''Mortisan Soulreaper:''' Your offensive caster for the Bonereapers with a scythe that doesn't like hordes.
*'''Mortisan Boneshaper:''' The healers/builders of the Bonereapers. Formed from the souls of artists, they’re in charge of building the extravagant bone cities and other architecture of the legions. They all possess a friendly rivalry with each other that pushes them to one up another’s artwork.
*'''Mortisan Soulmason:''' Miniature Arkhans with four arms who are in charge of hunting and fusing souls for their various constructs. They ride into battle on bony [[Fyodor Karamazov|thrones with chicken legs]].
*'''Liege-Kavalos''': Field generals with skeleton mounts placed in charge of leading the Bonereaper armies. They are forged as a cruel mockery of Sigmar’s Lord-Celestant on Dracoth.

===Famous Legions===
*'''Mortis Praetorians''': The 10,000 strong personal army of Katakros, created out of the souls of those he personally knew in life. They have gained a fearsome reputation for their tactical acumen, especially in Shyish. [[Ultramarines|The poster boys who are a jack-of-all-trades, big on tactics and led by an ancient leader who was the basis for future generations]]. They also have the only two Bonereapers with a single original soul; Katakros himself and Zandtos.
* '''Petrifex Elite''': Made up of nomadic armies crafted from prehistoric fossilized bones, they are known for being slow-moving and a near impenetrable wall of bone. While fossilized bone tends to be fragile, the Petrifex Elite enchant them to be tough and also include already supernaturally tough bones among them (ie; the bones of godbeasts). Led by Mortisans, [[Necrons|they only exist to slay and find ancient bones to build more of themselves and make themselves even deadlier]]. They have forgotten why Nagash wants them to do this, and their leaders eschew personal identity to the point of using titles instead of names, as mandated by their leader and most senior Mortisan, the Grand Necromystic.
* '''Null Myriad''': The first Ossiarch Bonereapers made during Nagash's experiments in the Age of Myth. The Null Myriad were later refined and bolstered using the bones and souls of the countless dead who helped construct Nagash’s Black Pyramid and the best of Arkhan's Black Disciples. They are a solemn yet prideful lot with high resilience to magic and were given to Arkhan to be his personal legion; they're so loyal to Arkhan that they defer to him even over Katakros himself. Their resistance to magic extends to the power of Chaos, so they're used to inhabit the most inhospitable parts of the realms. Recently Arkhan made an alliance with Katakros, and the Null Myriad's job is to secure magic-heavy locations in the realms so Katakros can control the sources of their magic. The Null Myriad forces in Chamon have come into conflict with the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizards Constellation who also dwell there.
*'''Ivory Host''': Outwardly, they appear as honorable warriors, but hidden away in their bodies is a monstrous frenzy that turns them into clawing slavering beasts. Fitting considering they are constructed from beast and monster bones. Tasked by Nagash to conquer Ghur, they overcompensate for their bestial anger by being meticulously clean and making everything of theirs as much of a work of art as possible. Also known for [[Tomb Kings|being the only Ossiarchs who build ships, use the color gold regularly in their attire and are led by a monarch]]. Currently they’ve claimed the realmgate of Greedmouth and established the Ivory Citadel in the southwestern corner of the Ghurish Heartlands, putting them awfully close to numerous [[Ogor Mawtribes]] and the [[Cities of Sigmar|free city]] of Excelsis.
*'''Stalliarch Lords''': A cavalry centric force who are [[Creed|skillful tacticians]] and like to make impossible demands so they have an excuse to raze cities and slaughter people (on the rare occasion that someone meets their outrageous demands they keep their word... but remember the Terminus Concept). They even force the Bone Tithe on other death factions, as was the case when they subjected a keep of Blood Knights to it and offered them a way out if their leader defeated a Liege-Kavalos in a duel to the death (he didn't). So in addition to being [[Kharn|psychopaths with zero regard for life, they're also team-killing douchebags]]. Basically [[That Guy]] as a cavalry-loving undead legion.
*'''Crematorians''': These Bonereapers are burning with an internal fire to the point where some of them literally explode when killed. Some of them have recently realized that they don't really have a purpose other than to fight and explode, and aren't too happy about that. In fact, their leaders [[Noblebright|have made pacts of friendship to repair each other if any of them are destroyed and the chief Liege-Kavalos scours the libraries of everyone they encounter in the hopes of finding a way to undo their fiery curse, and is implied to be on the verge of a breakthrough]].

==Significant Skeletons==
* '''[[Katakros|Orpheon Katakros]], [[Mortarch]] of the Necropolis''': In life he was the greatest strategic genius in all the Mortal Realms, and undeath has done nothing to dull his mastery of military tactics. He's been given a new body of enscrolled bone by Nagash himself which looks like a [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo stand]] rather than a skeleton. He goes into battle surrounded by various attendants; the Liege-Immortis, the Aviarch Spymaster, the Gnosis Scrollbearer, and the Prime Necrophoros.
*'''Arch-Kavalos Zandtos''': Both in life and in death, Patru Zandtos has been Katakros’ most trusted lieutenant. In life he was a refined, death-obsessed assassin who treated killing as a sacred art that should be as clean as possible and thus hated the loud, messy butchery of battle. In undeath, through the manipulations of Nagash and Katakros, he’s now a death-purist who wishes to “cleanse” Shyish of anything still living.
*'''Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe''': The grim tallyman in charge of recording/judging the Tithe. He carries the severed heads of those foolish enough to refuse to pay the Tithe and has a coffin on his back, making him look like a giant beetle. Though officially he’s under Katakros in the OBR hierarchy, he’ll only receive/carry out orders from Big Bone Daddy himself.
*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Yeah, he's part of the army despite technically being just an "average" liche as opposed to a bone golem thing. Likely because apart from Nagash, he's the most privy to understanding how they are made without being one.

==Spooky Melodies for your Bony Boys==

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DsZivjop_s Spooky Scary Skeletons! a remix for a revamp]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ The Dead March returns for AoS!]

==Trivia==
* The architecture of the Ossiarch Bonereapers was likely inspired by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Sedlec Ossuary] in the Czech Republic. The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic church where the bones of thousands of people have been artistically arranged to form the decorations and the furnishings of the chapel (it's also called "the Bone Church"). This was done several centuries ago for creative interment reasons with many dead and not enough space to bury them on holy ground.
* On a comical note, "Kavalos", the name for Bonereaper cavalry, translates to "crotch" in Greek (the Greek word is "kaválos"). Makes more sense when you think of [[Katakros]]' defining trait lookswise, and how his name even sounds like the Greek word.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Bonereaper vs Kharadron.jpg|Sky Pirates vs Bone Golems.
File:Cavalry-bonereapers.jpg|As if Blood Knights weren't bad enough, Bone Daddy brings out Kavalos Deathriders too.
File:Gothizzar Harvester.jpg|"Oh those bones, oh those bones, oh those skeleton bones. Oh mercy how they scare! With the toe bone connected to the foot bone..."
File:Bonereaper city.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Welcome to Necrotopia. Please remember to remove all skin and flesh before you reach customs.
</gallery>

==See Also==

*[[Nagash]], their jerk of a god whom they give their undisputed loyalty to (yes, really!)

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:28:25Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Society */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the [[Stormcast Eternals|fuckboys]]!}}

{{topquote|Two can play at that game!|Likely Nagash after learning how Sigmar makes Stormcast}}
{{topquote|Debt, an ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.|Ambrose Bierce}}
{{topquote|The bones of the skeleton which support the body can become the bars of the cage which imprison the spirit.|J. Ruth Gendler}}

The latest addition to [[Nagash]]’s ever growing hordes (designed and sculpted by [[Maxime Corbeil]], a former dentist), the '''Ossiarch Bonereapers'''
(Also known as '''The Boney Boys''', '''Bonecast''', '''Tomb Kings 2.0''', '''Bonechads''', '''Nagash's Taxmen''', '''The Boney Bean Counters''', '''Ossiarch Bean Counters''' or '''The IRS''') are the result of an eons old plan by Big Bone Daddy.

Likely inspired by the [[Stormcast Eternals]], the Bonereapers are not mere skeletons given life by necromancy, but massive constructs of bone and countless warrior souls, making them all look impressively robust for undead. Since the Legions of Nagash are the mainstay, the Nighthaunt are the shock troops and the Flesh-Eater Courts are completely insane, these buff bone boys are the elite vanguard of the Grand Alliance. Given their themes of bones, undead constructs priest characters, architect characters and skull-throwing catapults... they're currently the closest thing we've got to [[Tomb Kings]] in AoS.

They also carry out the Bone Tithe; in addition to going out and killing shit to get their bones, the Ossiarchs give settlements they encounter a contract: Give up a set amount of bones whenever we stroll by, or face annihilation now. Understandably, most choose the former. Being unable to pay or even being rude to them also provokes a slaughter.

Visually-speaking, they're what happens when Games Workshop decides to mix [[Tyranids]], [[Tomb Kings]], and [[Necrons]] into one army.

==History==
===Age of Myth===
[[File:Slaves to Darkness vs Ossiarch Bonereapers 01.jpg|right|300px|thumb|SKULLS FOR <s>THE SKULL THRONE</s> Nagash! And all the other bones too!]]
When Nagash was helping Sigmar build his cities he secretly began experimenting on undead, combining their bones and souls into newer, stronger undead warriors; the [[Morghasts/Hammurai|Morghasts]] and the first Bonereapers. Most were put into massive underground crypts Nagash secretly had built beneath the cities, but others were kept on the surface and brought into battle. The other gods saw the Bonereapers and really didn't like them because of how unnatural they were. In response, Nagash sent these Bonereapers to the edge of Shyish to lay low until he called on them (these Bonereapers who would go on to form the Null Myriad). He also sent at least twenty of them to wander the Realms on a long-forgotten mission (these would go on to become the Petrifex Elite).

Strangely, none of the Order groups noticed until however long its been since the start of the Age of Myth that there were crypts full of undead warriors beneath their cities. Especially since they know about and need to defend against [[Skaven|enemies who specialize in creating massive complexes beneath your cities that they then invade from.]]

===Age of Chaos===
The Age of Chaos only affected the Bonereapers garrisoned at the edge of Shyish. By that time they had become resistant to magic, and they fought against demonic armies, their actions blunting the assault of Chaos on Shyish. During this time, Katakros led an army against Sigmar himself on Nagash's orders while the former was pursuing the latter for his betrayal. The battle resulted in the loss of Katakros' army, the Mortarch's defeat and subsequent confinement to a Stormvault.

===Malign Portents===
During this time, Katakros was freed from the Stormvault by fellow Mortarch, Lady Olynder. The Bonereapers on the edge of Shyish acted as a military force protecting the skeletal work crews who carried grains of Shyishan realmstone to Nagashizzar for Nagash to use to build the Black Pyramid.

===Soul Wars===
After the Necroquake, Nagash decided the time was right to wake up everyone beneath these cities, who (according to the most recent Stormcast) apparently marched back home, making them relatively pointless. In that respect, these tombs seemed to mirror the Stormvaults Sigmar had strewn about the Realms to contain various dangerous contraband like [[Katakros|a certain Mortarch]].

When the Bonereaper legions arrived in Shyish, Nagash got back to his pet-project of making super-skellies, and perfected the process. This involves taking souls and distilling them down to their most choice elements. This involves ripping apart their identity and keeping parts considered useful (suck as skills and knowledge) while discarding the parts that aren't useful (such as fears and loyalties to anyone but Nagash) and replacing those parts with something better (like loyalty to Nagash), with the strongest-willed soul among them becoming the identity of the new Bonereaper. Then these fragmented souls are put into specially crafted bone constructs. By doing so, he artificially created individuals who were warriors, leaders, bodyguards, artisans, architects, philosophers and sculptors all in one, [[Adeptus Custodes|which sounds a little familiar.]]

The Bonereapers subsequently had a meteoric rise, making their mark - and several enemies - across the realms. After establishing their powerbase in Shyish, the Ironjawz Warclan the Kryptboyz have focused their efforts on fighting the Bonereapers due to wanting to destroy their settlements and wear their bones as trophies. In Chamon, the Null Myriad encountered the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizard Constellation and got embroiled in wars for control of the realm's edge. The Ivory Host legion have gotten a foothold in Ghur, and in building their cities they've positioned themselves for conflict with several Mawtribes and the free city of Excelsis. The Ivory Host also clashed with a [[Sons of Behemat|Mega-Gargant and indirectly led him to become the mercenary known as One-Eyed Grunnock]]. They have also sent forces into Hysh that came into conflict with the Lumineth.

This was followed by the Bonereapers most notable conflict; starting the War for the Eightpoints. Katakros led the Mortis Praetorians and detachments from other Legions into the Eightpoints alongside Olynder and a Nighthaunt army to take the Eightpoints for Nagash. They succeeded in capturing and fortifying the realmgate leading to Shyish, and have established a fortified citadel around it as a base of operations. However, Katakros' campaign was halted by the return of Archaon, who defeated him in battle. Following Katakros' restoration, the conflict has become a war of attrition.

===Broken Realms===
When Morathi entered the Eightpoints in her plan to secure Varanite, she secretly sent an envoy to Katakros, giving him several tonnes of bones infused with the magic of Ulgu in exchange for a Bonereaper attack on Archaon's holdings to distract the forces of Chaos. Knowing the forces of order will take losses in their unknown (to Katakros and the Stormcast) endeavor, Katakros accepts the bargain.

Around this time, the Lumineth launched an invasion of Shyish to attack the Ossiarch Empire. The Lumineth proved a force that could match the Bonereapers in battle, winning numerous conflicts and destroying citadels before <s>fleeing</s> going back to Hysh as the battles were to send the message that the Bonereapers aren't unbeatable. But they didn't count on the Bonereapers using the dead of both sides to replenish their losses, and eager for payback. Soon a Bonereaper force led by Arkhan himself invaded Hysh to press-gang the Mordant Courts hiding in Avalenor's mountains to join Nagash and <s>give the Lumineth a right proper boning</s> help conquer Ymetrica. The Ossiarch Empire also becomes a target of a reborn Sigvald, who seeks to destroy it as revenge for Nagash imprisoning him in a Shadeglass mirror.

Later, Shyish gets some uninvited guests in the form of a Lumineth army led by Teclis himself. They seek to end the Soul Wars and make Nagash pay for unleashing the Necroquake... but not if the Bonereapers have anything to say about it. More to come soon.

==Society==
[[File:Ossiarch Bonereapers Society.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "pyramid scheme".]]
All Ossiarch Bonereapers are built for a specific purpose and assigned a role based on the souls from which they’re formed. This is codified through a caste system, with Nagash at the top, then Mortarchs Katakros and Arhkan, then the highest ranking Ossiarchs underneath and various ranks beneath that. The Bonereaper caste system has a cartouche representing each caste (though Nagash's is just to symbolize him). While there is a Mortarch cartouche, only Katakros wears it because Arkhan predates the Bonereaper system (and everyone but Nagash) by several eons, and despite their alliance he's too proud to wear Katakros' symbol. While they're all obedient to Nagash and fearless, the Bonereapers used in battle are sapient and the characters at least have enough individuality to have names and traces of personality. As a whole, they're very pragmatic, work-oriented and elitist.

While many Ossiarch Bonereapers are warriors, there are castes of groups such as crafters and preachers. There is movement between castes, but only downwards, and as a punishment for failure. A Liege Kavalos who fails in their mission, for example, may be remade as a Kavalos Deathrider. If the offense was major, they might get remade as a steed. The lowest caste are the exiles collectively referred to as Parrha, consisting of the worst offenders who get broken and remade into warped skeletal aberrations incapable of fighting and the Bonereapers value them less than the Imperial Guard values the life of its rank and file soldiers (for the uninitiated, that's really saying something).

The Ossiarch Bonereapers can be found all across the Mortal Realms, aiming to conquer everything from Azyr to the Eightpoints. At present, the majority of the Ossiarch Bonereapers are concentrated in Shyish, inhabiting the nations that surround the Shyish Nadir. This allows them easy access to a vast source of magical power and establishes them as a permanent garrison around this most valuable of territories. Apart from Shyish, the largest concentrations of Bonereapers are in Ghur and Chamon.

The Ossiarch Bonereapers build according to principles laid down in the Principia Necrotopia, a set of guidelines that ensure optimal construction:

In the first stages of colonizing a new region, the Ossiarchs will establish tithing sites. Presumably, this involves mapping out surrounding settlements and segments of the region into their own tributaries, with each section's inhabitants made to sign a contract to begin paying the Tithe. They contruct shrines known as Bone-Tithe Nexus, which act as locations for vassals to dump their bones and are enchanted to give out powerful curses to ward off any scavengers seeking to steal from it.

Next, they will fortify key territories with small fortifications, following up with a number of Mortisan workshops to fuel the next stage of their expansion. These small holdings will eventually develop into vast and imposing fortresses, growing ever upward as the Bonereapers’ numbers grow. These are not just barracks, but places of culture for the Ossiarchs.

Ossiarch scholars will endlessly study scrolls in charnel libraries, recording the details of cultures in the Mortal Realms they have subjugated and those they seek to subjugate. These vast citadel-states eventually resemble Nagashizzar itself.

===The Bone Tithe===
[[File:Bone tithe.jpg|left|300px|thumb|Put your spines into it. Literally!]]
The Bone Tithe is instrumental to their society and Nagash's way of setting himself up as mob boss of the realms. Upon arriving in an area, the Ossiarchs send out scouts to get the lay of the land. When they find a settlement they want tribute from, a representative - in practice usually a Mortisan - approaches and makes them an offer they can't refuse; give "x" by the deadline at regular intervals, or we kill you all and takes your bones and souls for our use. To communicate, the Bonereapers draw on prior research for the local language; it doesn't matter if the vernacular's out of date by a few centuries or so, as long as they can be understood. If that doesn't work, the Bonereapers use other means, including killing a local and using their spirit as a translator if all else fails. If the locals refuse, attack them or are rude enough, [[Grimdark|the Bonereapers make good on their threat, slaughtering everything in the settlement that has bones, right down to the last child and stray animal]]. If they are feeling "nice", the Bonereapers might only kill the dissenters.

When demanding the Bone Tithe, what/who the bones come from plus the amount and condition required depends on the situation and Bonereaper legion in question. Human bone is the most widely used with ogor bones being a close second for their size and toughness, duardin bones are liked for their durability but aren't common enough, aelf bones are slightly more common but don't replenish fast enough, and greenskin bones are coarse, porous and prone to spontaneous fungal growth unless treated properly. While animal bones are also used, such as to repair Kavalos steeds or make Gothizzar Harvesters, that's not always the case and it depends on what animal they're from (Rhinoxen and Bleaklake crocodiles are some of the popular choices). The Bonereapers (though inbuilt or learned ability, it's not clear) CAN tell the difference between what race or species a specific bone comes from, so trying to cheat them by mixing in different kinds of bones doesn't work. They also respond to trickery the same way they respond to failure or refusal - immediate slaughter (as a human town learned to their cost when they tried to trick the Bonereapers by mixing pig bones in with human bones).

Sometimes things are even worse. A particularly war-horny leader, most often from the Stalliarch Lords (more on them below), will give nigh-impossible demands to increase the chance of failure. What kinds of demands? How about asking the population for detailed records on the city's family lineage going back to the founders and the condition of every bone in the city ''including those bones still inside the living inhabitants''. Or maybe they ask for just one ton of bones ''every day'' (for extra lulz, the offer is made at night and has to be completed the next day). They might instead, or also, [[That Guy|arrive early to extract the Tithe just to get a good slaughter out of it]]. However it ends, the bones of the Ossiarch's victims are sorted through, the good bones taken for future use the sub-par ones discarded (same with their victims souls). Strips of skin and flesh from these unfortunates are hung from the Bonereapers' spears as a warning to anyone who considers not paying the Tithe.

Ultimately, they have a term related to the Bone Tithe called the “Terminus Concept”. This refers to the point where a society can't provide enough bones so they get slaughtered and their bones are taken. For the truth is that the Bone Tithe is ultimately unsustainable for the payers, and the Bonereapers know it. This all proves that, while Nagash is a pragmatic sort of fellow, he'll always find a way to be a <s>boner</s> [[Eldrad|huge skeletal dick]] about it.

==Forces==
[[File:Bonereaper army.jpg|right|500px|thumb|'''Angry Dooting Intensifies''']]
*'''Mortek Guard:''' Rank and file infantry of the Bonereapers. Well armored and shielded, they have the choice of swords or spears and optional greatswords as weapons. Their primary role is to create massive shield walls to protect their leaders.
*'''Morghast Harbingers and Archai:''' You know em, you love em. Nagash's original sculpted bone construct based on not-angels from the World-That-Was now served as prototypes to the current regime of spoopy skeltals. Flying blenders armed with either halberds (take these) or twin swords (dont take these). Harbingers are your chargey bois, while the Archai are bodyguard bois.
*'''Necropolis Stalkers:''' Four-armed skeletal constructs the size of Kurnoth Hunters with four faces, each one has the soul of four warriors, and switches between which one is dominant, altering their fighting style accordingly. Their name's ripped from the Necropolis Knights and the Tomb Stalkers.
*'''Immortis Guard:''' Four-armed <s>Grave Guard</s> <s>Tomb Guard</s> elite skellingtons armed with a halberd in one set of hands and a shield in the other. Like the Morghasts, Immortis are the bodyguard bois to the Stalkers' chargey bois.
*'''Kavalos Deathriders:''' Essentially bony knights somewhere between Black Knights and Varanguard in power level, and who serve Bone Daddy. Each one has the soul of dozens of warriors to draw on their knowledge and is proportionately arrogant. They have undead birds roosting on their banner poles that act as spies and messenger birds. For added creep factor, these guys normally walk at a slow and ominous trot, only sprinting when going into a headlong charge.
*'''Mortek Crawler:''' Screaming Skull Catapult 2.0 with an obligatory patent-friendly rename. In addition to flaming skulls, it can also hurl a cauldron of Death Magic that works based on bravery or a cursed stone that gets more powerful the more damage the Crawler takes. It's also powered by a bone-made hamster wheel and multiple legs.
*'''Gothizzar Harvester:''' A big monster construct with weapon hands and half a skeleton for a codpiece that helps harvest bones. The Harvester uses them to make new constructs on the fly or repair damaged ones. Their weapon arms come with either enchanted maces or scything blades for hands.
*'''Mortisan Soulreaper:''' Your offensive caster for the Bonereapers with a scythe that doesn't like hordes.
*'''Mortisan Boneshaper:''' The healers/builders of the Bonereapers. Formed from the souls of artists, they’re in charge of building the extravagant bone cities and other architecture of the legions. They all possess a friendly rivalry with each other that pushes them to one up another’s artwork.
*'''Mortisan Soulmason:''' Miniature Arkhans with four arms who are in charge of hunting and fusing souls for their various constructs. They ride into battle on bony [[Fyodor Karamazov|thrones with chicken legs]].
*'''Liege-Kavalos''': Field generals with skeleton mounts placed in charge of leading the Bonereaper armies. They are forged as a cruel mockery of Sigmar’s Lord-Celestant on Dracoth.

===Famous Legions===
*'''Mortis Praetorians''': The 10,000 strong personal army of Katakros, created out of the souls of those he personally knew in life. They have gained a fearsome reputation for their tactical acumen, especially in Shyish. [[Ultramarines|The poster boys who are a jack-of-all-trades, big on tactics and led by an ancient leader who was the basis for future generations]]. They also have the only two Bonereapers with a single original soul; Katakros himself and Zandtos.
* '''Petrifex Elite''': Made up of nomadic armies crafted from prehistoric fossilized bones, they are known for being slow-moving and a near impenetrable wall of bone. While fossilized bone tends to be fragile, the Petrifex Elite enchant them to be tough and also include already supernaturally tough bones among them (ie; the bones of godbeasts). Led by Mortisans, [[Necrons|they only exist to slay and find ancient bones to build more of themselves and make themselves even deadlier]]. They have forgotten why Nagash wants them to do this, and their leaders eschew personal identity to the point of using titles instead of names, as mandated by their leader and most senior Mortisan, the Grand Necromystic.
* '''Null Myriad''': The first Ossiarch Bonereapers made during Nagash's experiments in the Age of Myth. The Null Myriad were later refined and bolstered using the bones and souls of the countless dead who helped construct Nagash’s Black Pyramid and the best of Arkhan's Black Disciples. They are a solemn yet prideful lot with high resilience to magic and were given to Arkhan to be his personal legion; they're so loyal to Arkhan that they defer to him even over Katakros himself. Their resistance to magic extends to the power of Chaos, so they're used to inhabit the most inhospitable parts of the realms. Recently Arkhan made an alliance with Katakros, and the Null Myriad's job is to secure magic-heavy locations in the realms so Katakros can control the sources of their magic. The Null Myriad forces in Chamon have come into conflict with the Seraphon of the Thunder Lizards Constellation who also dwell there.
*'''Ivory Host''': Outwardly, they appear as honorable warriors, but hidden away in their bodies is a monstrous frenzy that turns them into clawing slavering beasts. Fitting considering they are constructed from beast and monster bones. Tasked by Nagash to conquer Ghur, they overcompensate for their bestial anger by being meticulously clean and making everything of theirs as much of a work of art as possible. Also known for [[Tomb Kings|being the only Ossiarchs who build ships, use the color gold regularly in their attire and are led by a monarch]]. Currently they’ve claimed the realmgate of Greedmouth and established the Ivory Citadel in the southwestern corner of the Ghurish Heartlands, putting them awfully close to numerous [[Ogor Mawtribes]] and the [[Cities of Sigmar|free city]] of Excelsis.
*'''Stalliarch Lords''': A cavalry centric force who are [[Creed|skillful tacticians]] and like to make impossible demands so they have an excuse to raze cities and slaughter people (on the rare occasion that someone meets their outrageous demands they keep their word... but remember the Terminus Concept). They even force the Bone Tithe on other death factions, as was the case when they subjected a keep of Blood Knights to it and offered them a way out if their leader defeated a Liege-Kavalos in a duel to the death (he didn't). So in addition to being [[Kharn|psychopaths with zero regard for life, they're also team-killing douchebags]]. Basically [[That Guy]] as a cavalry-loving undead legion.
*'''Crematorians''': These Bonereapers are burning with an internal fire to the point where some of them literally explode when killed. Some of them have recently realized that they don't really have a purpose other than to fight and explode, and aren't too happy about that. In fact, their leaders [[Noblebright|have made pacts of friendship to repair each other if any of them are destroyed and the chief Liege-Kavalos scours the libraries of everyone they encounter in the hopes of finding a way to undo their fiery curse, and is implied to be on the verge of a breakthrough]].

==Significant Skeletons==
* '''[[Katakros|Orpheon Katakros]], [[Mortarch]] of the Necropolis''': In life he was the greatest strategic genius in all the Mortal Realms, and undeath has done nothing to dull his mastery of military tactics. He's been given a new body of enscrolled bone by Nagash himself which looks like a [[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure|JoJo stand]] rather than a skeleton. He goes into battle surrounded by various attendants; the Liege-Immortis, the Aviarch Spymaster, the Gnosis Scrollbearer, and the Prime Necrophoros.
*'''Arch-Kavalos Zandtos''': Both in life and in death, Patru Zandtos has been Katakros’ most trusted lieutenant. In life he was a refined, death-obsessed assassin who treated killing as a sacred art that should be as clean as possible and thus hated the loud, messy butchery of battle. In undeath, through the manipulations of Nagash and Katakros, he’s now a death-purist who wishes to “cleanse” Shyish of anything still living.
*'''Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe''': The grim tallyman in charge of recording/judging the Tithe. He carries the severed heads of those foolish enough to refuse to pay the Tithe and has a coffin on his back, making him look like a giant beetle. Though officially he’s under Katakros in the OBR hierarchy, he’ll only receive/carry out orders from Big Bone Daddy himself.
*'''[[Arkhan the Black]]''': Yeah, he's part of the army despite technically being just an "average" liche as opposed to a bone golem thing. Likely because apart from Nagash, he's the most privy to understanding how they are made without being one.

==Spooky Melodies for your Bony Boys==

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DsZivjop_s Spooky Scary Skeletons! a remix for a revamp]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKHAX1K4sKQ The Dead March returns for AoS!]

==Trivia==
* The architecture of the Ossiarch Bonereapers was likely inspired by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedlec_Ossuary Sedlec Ossuary] in the Czech Republic. The Sedlec Ossuary is a Roman Catholic church where the bones of thousands of people have been artistically arranged to form the decorations and the furnishings of the chapel (it's also called "the Bone Church"). This was done several centuries ago for creative interment reasons with many dead and not enough space to bury them on holy ground.
* On a comical note, "Kavalos", the name for Bonereaper cavalry, translates to "crotch" in Greek (the Greek word is "kaválos"). Makes more sense when you think of [[Katakros]]' defining trait lookswise, and how his name even sounds like the Greek word.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Bonereaper vs Kharadron.jpg|Sky Pirates vs Bone Golems.
File:Cavalry-bonereapers.jpg|As if Blood Knights weren't bad enough, Bone Daddy brings out Kavalos Deathriders too.
File:Gothizzar Harvester.jpg|"Oh those bones, oh those bones, oh those skeleton bones. Oh mercy how they scare! With the toe bone connected to the foot bone..."
File:Bonereaper city.jpg|right|300px|thumb|Welcome to Necrotopia. Please remember to remove all skin and flesh before you reach customs.
</gallery>

==See Also==

*[[Nagash]], their jerk of a god whom they give their undisputed loyalty to (yes, really!)

{{Template:Playable Factions in Warhammer: Age of Sigmar}}

[[Category:Age of Sigmar]]

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death/Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:25:43Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Mr. Arkhan’s Wild Ride */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the fuckboys!}}

Get ready to send a chill down your opponent's spine, for this is no time to be humerus. Nagash is rising, and he has a bone to pick with the Mortal Realms!

==Why play Ossiarch Bonereapers?==
* They're SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS!
* You liked playing super-elite units like Blood Knights? Well you now play a different elite FACTION!
* You miss the Tomb Kings and this is as close as it gets for now with a vulture being called a Carrion, undead constructs and a war machine that hurls flaming skulls.
* They collect protection payments of bone like a skeletal version of the Mafia.
* Part of the reason for their existence is to troll Sigmarines.
* You want a sneak peek at what civilization would be like if Nagash wins.

===Pros===
* [[Awesome|'''Immunity to Battleshock!''']]. Not just bravery 10, the Bonereapers do not take battleshock tests. They have no guts, but they're braver than everyone else.
* Excellent at debuffing their enemies in various ways, especially their bravery (spells, Morghasts...)
* Conversely, they have numerous ways to buff themselves.
* Very durable, and various ways to boost that to the point of being arguably the most durable army in the game.
* Point-for-point, they have some of the strongest warscrolls of the game as few units can beat their ossiarch counterpart (Mortek Guard and Kavalos Deathriders are strong contenders for best battleline units in the game).
* They use the Relentless Discipline Points mechanic (also called RDP) instead of Command Points. Things that screw with CP won't work on them. Despite this, they still benefit from Command Abilities.
* They're a Death army that isn't reliant on Heroes. Unit champions have the HEKATOS keyword, which gives a smaller radius of 6+ Deathless saves and allows them to use RDP abilities. Certain elite units are also HEKATOS, so they can function completely independently.
* If you're sick of those magic-heavy armies like Tzeentch's forces, the Lizardmen and the Lumineth, the Null Myriad Bonereaper Legion is for you with army-wide +5 immunity to spells that can be buffed.
* Almost everything is 3+ to hit, with various ways to boost it.
* With the Crematorians Bonereaper Legion, your guys can take enemies down with them when/if they're slain - the more they attack you, the more they die! [[Awesome|Rinse and repeat, since you can bring back slain models!]]
* Nagash and [[Arkhan the Black|bro-tier mini-Nagash]] are part of the army roster; [[Awesome|they also benefit from keywords and Battle Traits]].
* Numerous characters and a unit that can heal anything in your army - including themselves - or bring back dead models.
* Our Endless Spells are awesome. Not only that, they're soul linked, so no friendly fire and they're always under the casting player's control.
* If you like bone puns...

===Cons===
* Most of your army is slow (though there are a few abilities to mitigate this).
* Shooting is almost non-existent. Apart from the amazing Mortek Crawler, you only have the Gothizzar Harvester's shooting and Nagash's laser eyes.
* No extra protection against shooting beyond certain spells. Shooting armies tend to really hurt the Ossiarchs (especially the Kharadron Overlords).
* The army's quite straightforward and lacking in useful tricks. There's no summoning, deepstrike or special combat mechanics like striking twice. Any decent opponent knows what you will do. There is a teleportation mechanic, but it's very gimmicky, limited and requires a lot of cunning to get something out of it.
* Limited means to deal Mortal Wounds. Ossiarchs tend to bounce on really armored units if stalkers aren't around. This can be mitigated with MW dealers like the Crematorians Legion and anyone with "Kavalos" in their name, but still relies a lot on the dice.
* Magic is average and mostly around buffing allies and debuffing enemies. Sure, Nagash and Arkhan are there, but the magic lore is still unimpressive, especially compared to real magical factions (looking at you, Tzeentch and Seraphon).
* Low model count, slightly mitigated by having the means to bring back (re)dead models.
* No allies apart from the Mega-Gargant Drogg; their foreign policy makes the Daughters of Khaine look like the Stormcast Eternals (can still have mercenaries though - unless you bring Nagash or Arkhan).
* If you know the Greek language, it'll be hard to take any unit or hero with "Kavalos" in their name seriously.
* Hope you like bone puns.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Ossiarch Bonereapers}}

==Allegiance Abilities==
===Battle Traits===
*'''Ranks Unbroken by Dissent:''' [[Awesome|Do not take battleshock tests for friendly OSSIARCH BONEREAPER units]]. Yes, you read that right, immunity to Battleshock. Your enemy's only options are killing, flee or be killed. In addition, you do not generate Command Points. Instead, you generate Relentless Discipline Points at the start of each battle round but lose them when you generate your next batch (they should be all spent before that happens).
**Generate a Relentless Discipline Point if:
*** EACH {{AOSKeyword|Ossiarch Bonereapers Hero}} - 1
*** EACH Warscroll Battalion - 1
*** EACH Friendly {{AOSKeyword|LIEGE}} - 1
*** If KATAKROS is the general and on the battlefield - 3
*** Roll a die for each UNIT with the {{AOSKeyword|OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS}} keyword, including the previous {{AOSKeyword|HEROES}}. On a 6, you get 1.
**Unfortunately, you can't use the Generic or Scenario command abilities (rerolling Run, charge, shooting rolls) but you have a ton of CAs that will Guzzle your DP.

*'''Deathless Warriors''': It's Deathless Minions from Legions of Nagash, albeit with a rename. It allows you to ignore wounds and mortal wounds on a 6+. However, you'll be able to get more mileage out of it than other Death armies, as any unit wholly within 12" of a {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS Hero}} or 6" of a Hekatos (i.e: the leader for your battlelines) count for the ability, removing the need to have your Heroes babysitting your units. Units that are {{AOSKeyword|HEKATOS}} (elite bone warriors units) always benefit from the ability, allowing them to strike out entirely unsupported.

*'''Unstoppable Advance (CA)''': In Movement Phase. Pick 1 unit within X" of a hero or hekatos. +3" movement. It can still run OR charge. You cannot pick the same unit more than once per phase.

===Command Traits===

====Liege-Kavalos====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dark Acolyte:''' Becomes a 1 cast/unbind {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}} with one Mortisan Lore spell.
*'''Peerless Warrior:''' Melee wound rolls of 6 deal an extra mortal wound.
*'''Hatred of the Living:''' +1 to hit in melee (including their mount) against non-{{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} units.
*'''Life-stealer:''' If they kill any models in combat, heal 1d3 wounds at the end of that phase.

====Mortisan====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dire Ultimatum:''' -2 to Bravery for enemies within 12". Although it requires coordinating a couple of units, you can cause a MASSIVE debuff to enemy Bravery by combining this and the Scroll of Command (see below).
*'''Grave-sand Bones:''' Knows an extra spell from the Lore of the Mortisans.
*'''Oathbreaker Curse:''' Every time your opponent gets a CP, on a d6 roll of 6 it is lost. Obviously Katakros does it better, but this does work more than once per turn if your enemy has CP-generating abilities.
*'''Soul Energy:''' You can re-roll casting, unbinding and dispelling rolls, but whenever you do you take a mortal wound.

===Artefacts===
*'''Relics of the Kavaloi (Liege-Kavalos)'''
#'''Mind Blade:''' Pick one of bearer’s melee weapons. If unmodified hit roll is a 6, and target is a hero, opponent loses a Command Point and the hero can’t use command abilities for the rest of the battle. Apart from only working on sixes this is incredible.
#'''Lordly Phylactery:''' Once per battle start of any phase, gain D3 RD points.
#'''Scroll of Command:''' Subtract 2 Bravery from enemy units within 6” of bearer. Only really recommended if you're going for Mortis Praetorians (see their Legion description for more information). Although, a Liege-Kavalos with this, with a Mortisan general with the Dire Ultimatum command trait nearby drops enemy Bravery by a whopping -4!
#'''Grave-sand Boneplates:''' At the end of the combat phase, roll dice for each enemy unit within 3”, on a 4+ that unit suffers a mortal wound. Mediocre.
#'''Marrow Pact:''' Once per battle, in hero phase pick one enemy unit within 6” of bearer. On a 3+, unit suffers D3 mortal wounds, heal the same number of wounds.
#'''Helm of the Ordained:''' Add one to hit rolls for attacks made by {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} units and mounts while wholly within 12” of the bearer. One of the best choices for a Liege-Kavalos if including Bonereaper Legion weapons, otherwise it's the best unless you have a very specific playstyle in mind.

*'''Tools of the Boneshaper (Boneshapers)'''
#<s>Skeleton</s> '''Artisan's key:''' Before using the bearer’s bone shaper ability, roll a dice and on a 4+ either you can pick two units instead of one, or the same unit twice within 6”. The best of the three by a narrow margin.
#'''Lode of Saturation:''' At the start of the Hero phase, choose a unit within 1”, deathless warrior battle trait on 5+ instead of 6.
#'''Crafter Gems:''' Hero phase, heal up to 3 wounds. Once the total wounds healed in the battle is 3 you cannot use it any longer.

*'''Treasures of the Soulmason (Soulmasons)'''
#'''Gothizzar Cartouche:''' +1 to melee wound rolls for units wholly within 9” of bearer if target does not have Death keyword. The best option if you're not facing {{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} armies.
#'''Soul Reservior:''' +2 to cast, but if casting roll is unmodified 10+ artifact cannot be used again.
#'''Thorne of Dzendt:''' +2 to wounds and +2 attacks for mount. A good all around choice, especially for keeping your chair bound wizard safe.

*'''Weapons of the Soulreaper (Soulreapers)'''
#'''Luminscythe:''' minus 1 for hit rolls targeting bearer. +1 casting rolls for bearer for Lore of Mortisans or warscroll spell.
#'''Vial of Binding:''' Once per battle in hero phase, pick enemy model within 12" of bearer and roll a D6. If roll is equal or greater than the wound characteristic they are slain. The best choice if you take a Soul Reaper, and the obvious choice for offensive.
#'''Guardian Reavesoul:''' Negate wound on a 5+ instead of 6+ for deathless minions. Can shatter to negate last wound if about to die. If you're not taking Vial of Binding, this is the go-to choice.

===Spell Lore===
#'''Arcane Command:''' CV5. Gain D3 Relentless Discipline Points. Nice if you've got an extra spell, or had some bad luck with your rolls.
# '''Empower Nadirite Weapons: ''' CV5. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, the units Nadirite Weapons ability explodes on a 5+ instead of 6, or 4+ if its a {{AOSKeyword|DEATHRIDERS}} attacking with spears after charging.
# '''Protection of Nagash: ''' CV6. 5+ FNP for the caster. If any wounds get through your FNP, and the caster isn't slain, remove them from the battlefield after all wounds have been allocated, and place them anywhere on the board 9" away from enemy models then dispel this spell. Great for getting important casters out of sticky situations, or absolutely hilarious on Nagash if you wanna fuck with your opponent.
# '''Reinforce Battle-shields: ''' CV6. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit armed with Shields or Nadirite Battle-shields wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, they gain a 5+ FNP but only for mortal wounds. Pair this with a gothizzar harvester, the reroll saves command ability for some truly unkillable troops.
# '''Drain Vitality: ''' CV6. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. Until your next hero phase, reroll unmodified hit and save rolls of 6 made by that unit. Good for blunting a spooky unit's charge, but less useful than the other options available.
# '''Mortal Contract: ''' CV7. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. For the rest of the '''BATTLE''', roll a die at the end of any phase that the unit dealt damage to a friendly {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit (but only if it was with an attack). On 3+, the cursed unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Lawdy, this is probably the most obnoxious spell we can sling, if you can remember who you marked the entire game. Great into low unit-count armies.

===Endless Spells===

An important distinction to note between these Endless Spells and others that exist is that the ones presented below have the '''Soul-Linked''' ability, meaning they always move before Endless Spells without the Soul-Linked ability and are controlled by the casting Player only, meaning your opponent cannot control these Endless Spells to mess with your plans. However on the flip side, the Wizard who cast the spell has a -1 to his casting rolls and cannot cast anymore soul-linked spells while their soul-linked endless spell is up. If the caster dies then the soul-linked spell is also dispelled, so keep him alive if you want the spells to last.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Bone-tithe-Shrieker-en.pdf Bone-tithe Shrieker]''': 30 points, Gives -1 bravery, and +1 to be hit to enemy units within 12" of it. Simple, but effective. Place it just in front of your battle line to make the enemy think twice, or use it to make holding an objective less than desirable.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Soulstealer-Carrion-en.pdf Soulstealer Carrion]''': 20 points, Gives LOS to the Soul-Linked wizard. You won't be taking it for this. Instead, you'll be taking it for it's actual ability: Soul Thief. Roll a D6 at the end of each Phase if any Chaos, Order, or Destruction models were slain within 6" of it. On a 1 or 2, the Wizard this Endless Spell is Soul-Linked with heals a wound. On a 3 or 4, it does 1 Mortal Wound on each Chaos, Destruction or Order unit within 6" of it, and on a 5-6, it does both effects. AMAZINGLY fun, if you're not playing into Death, so do with that as you will.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nightmare-Predator-en.pdf The Nightmare Predator]''': 40 points, Your standard causes Mortal Wounds Endless Spell (dealing D3 Mortal Wounds to all non-bonecasts within 3" of it), but with a twist - when cast, pick an enemy Hero to be marked as it's prey. If this spell gets within range of them, it spits out d6 mortal wounds instead. For it's dirt cheap point cost, this is almost auto-include.

==<span style=color:Gray>Famous Legions</span>==

For awhile the best Legion was Petrifex Elite, by far. But due to Petrifex spam and the resulting complaints GW jumped them with something even they couldn't take - the nerf-bat. Oh, the old gray Petrifex, it ain't what it used to be. Now, Mortis Praetorians are in the lead and the others are good but most are situational; Crematorians are worth considering if you spam Mortek Guard and Null Myriad against a magic-heavy opponent.

<big>Mortis Praetorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''The Dread Legion''':-1 bravery to enemy units within 12".
*'''Command Trait''': '''Katakros' Chosen''': Once per battle if the general is on the Battlefield, gain D3 RDP points.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Counter-strike''': Pick a friendly unit Wholly within 6" of a HEKATOS or Wholly 12" of a HERO. If charged, they can re-roll hits.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Artificer's Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons. It has -3 Rend.
The poster boys, the jack-of-all-trades and the best choice if you’re bringing Katakros, otherwise it's decent but not an auto-take. Plus other death armies capitalize on "fear-bombing" a bit more effectively (looking at you, Legions of Grief and Blood).

<big>Petrifex Elite</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Unstoppable Juggernauts''': Re-roll save rolls of 1 in melee.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Mighty Archaeossian''': +2 Wounds.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Bludgeon''': In the combat phase, give a unit +1 rend on one weapon, can't stack.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Godbone Armor''': The first wound allocated to the bearer in each '''phase''' is negated.
Makes your entire army (including Nagash) overall more tanky, gives your commander a few extra wounds for a chuckle, lets you put some durability on a caster via the relic (especially useful if you're bringing some Endless Spells), AND comes with a command ability that makes you killy, just to throw your opponent for a loop. Pre-nerf it added +1 to everyone's armor save and was THE choice of Bonereaper Legion. Now it's decent but no longer the one best choice.

<big>Null Myriad</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Eldritch Nulls''': Ignore the effects of spells on a 5+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Unsettling and Sinister''': -1 to Bravery in 3", and -1 to be hit during combat phase.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Holdfast''': Make the battle trait work on a 2+ instead of 5+.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''<s>Cheese</s> <s>Chad</s> Baleful Blade''': Pick 1 of the bearer's weapons. [[Awesome|Saves can't be made against attacks from this weapon and wounds can't be negated]] (though they can later be healed).
The magic choice. Their innate rules mean you can focus more on offensive magic, and the Artefact is perfect for any combat character... but is obviously best on a Liege-Kavalos. One of the best choices, but if your meta is very magic heavy this is clearly the best. Make those six hallowheart battlemages cry because they can do nothing to you (and then notice that you can't probably do much to them either, so the battle is probably a void of winds of magic).

<big>Ivory Host</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': At the start of each combat phase, any IVORY HOST unit within 6" of an IVORY HOST <i>model</i> that is wounded is subject to rage for that phase. While subject to rage, get +1 to hit, but -1 save. Dependent on having damaged multi-wound models nearby and can potentially really mess your own forces up, but can lead to you hitting very hard. Fortunately, as it's only for the combat phase, you don't have to worry about it when you're being shot at.
*'''Command Trait''': Every hero phase your general gains 1 attack for all his melee weapons on a 5+. Best to have a Liege-Kavalos as your general for this.
*'''Command Ability''': Cancel the -1 save from the battle trait. This is what makes the Ivory host interesting, letting you pull some shenanigans with a screen unit or pulling some clutch damage out at a vital time.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Beastbound Blade''': One of the bearer's melee weapons gets +1 attack.
The combat choice, though dependent on good dice rolls, positioning and carefully picking your fights. Decent in and of itself, but very situational and the worst choice crunch-wise compared to the others.

<big>Stalliarch Lords</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': Run and charge. Pretty good for increasing your threat range on a slow army.
*'''Command Trait''': Pick an enemy hero within 3" at the start of the combat phase. Gain +1 to hit against it but -1 to anything else. Pretty situational and lackluster.
*'''Command Ability''': Retreat and charge in the same turn. Good for repositioning or getting your charge bonuses again. Here's looking at you, Deathriders.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Nadir-Bound Mount''': Can only be taken by a Liege-Kavalos. They roll D3 additional dice for their Unstoppable Charge ability.
The speedy and somewhat trollish choice. Do you wanna go fast? Do you want a liege or Zandtos to run fast next to fast cavalry? Or if you take a Liege make them hit like a ton of bricks? Then go these guys. They let you skimp out of the costly battalion with their inherent command ability, and make your already fast cavalry even faster. They even pair well with Stalkers, Morghast Harbingers or Harvesters, to just really irritate your opponent.

<big>Crematorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Immolation''': When a model dies you get a chance to cause MW to an enemy within 3" on a 5+, with monsters and characters adding 1 to their roll/going off on a 4+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Wrathful Avenger''': If the general dies, add 2 to the dice roll for Immolation and it does D3 Mortal Wounds rather than 1.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Levelers of Cities''': One friendly CREMATORIANS unit with 6" of a Hekatros or 12" of a hero ignores cover saves.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Searing Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons and add 1 to the Damage characteristic.
The TRUE trolling choice. Paired with some revives and harvesters, and laugh as your opponent realizes that killing your models meant their guys died and then revived the dudes they just tried to kill, rinse and repeat. Especially lulzy against Sons of Behemat, given how reliant they are on combat... which is ground zero for your skeleton suicide bombers.

==<span style=color:Gray>Warscrolls<span>==
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: '''DEATH''', '''OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS'''

===Leaders===
====Named Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Katakros-Mortarch-of-the-Necropolis-en.pdf Orpheon Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis]''': (500pts) Like Skarbrand, his attacks get stronger the more wounds he takes. Katakros himself has [[Awesome|Rend and Damage 3]] and he can bop foes with his shield to dole out Mortal Wounds, so he can dish out some hurt in combat, but not until he's taken some wounds representing his companions dying so Katakros himself joins the fray. However, he is one of the slowest characters in the game - 4" move (which doesn’t much matter when he’s on a '''12 centimetre''' base, and you can use the Relentless Advance to boost Katakros' movement to 7") and can't fly, but Mortarch of Necropolis allows Katakros to heal up to three friendly OBR units wholly within 24" of his model for 3 wounds worth on your hero phase. Katakros is a friendly OBR unit within 24" of himself, so he can choose to heal himself for 3 wounds every one of your hero phases. Because he is so slow, he hates cannons even more than his boss so engage shooty armies at your own risk. He's pricey in points and cash, but you get what you pay for - no more no less - as he's a good beatstick and support character, just don't try to send him up against other super combat lords who have a damage of 3 or better because he can easily get his shit kicked in, especially if they have some serious wound negation. If your opponent is fielding a character with either (or worse, both) then make sure to screen him out. It's better to not get him in combat and keep your Relentless Discipline points, heals and Command Point sabotage than it is for you to possibly lose all of those.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nagash-Supreme-Lord-of-the-Undead-en.pdf Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead]''': (880pts) Changed from his early forms, Nagash is now 30 points more expensive, and no longer loots the spells from all of his Death-based allies. (but he does know the whole spell lore by default.) Instead, he can now restore wounds/models to 5 of his Bonecast Eternals, and can sling Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt as much as his undead heart (and casting limit) desire.
**As Nagash and Arkhan gain the OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS keyword, they can heal themselves, making them quite a bit more resilient in an OBR army than when accompanying their own legions. Go figure.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arkhan-the-Black-Mortarch-of-Sacrament-en.pdf Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament]''': (360pts) Much like Nagash, Arkhan is more expensive now, at a "whopping" 20 points more than before. With an extra cast and deny, and the ability to sling Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield like his Boss, (along with learning the whole spell lore,) it sounds like that price increase came with some buffs. However, overall Arkhan's in a slightly more disappointing place. Curse of Years no longer succeeds on 1s, meaning it's slightly more fair, and his command ability has now been limited to one use a turn, spoiling an awful lot of fun that could have been had.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arch-Kavalos-Zandtos-en.pdf Arch-Kavalos Patru Zandtos]''': (220pts) A named Mortis Praetorians Liego-Kavalos, with additional abilities like more damage on the charge, rerolls to wound, and another CA that grants a Praetorians unit the same reroll ability. A good choice for leader - practically an auto-take if you want a Liege-Kavalos in Mortis Praetorians.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Volkmortian-Master-of-the-Bone-tithe-en.pdf Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe]''': (180pts) He is a Wizard that should be very close to the front lines. He has a chance to prevent a model within 3" from attacking him on a 5+ as a defense. He also has a 12" aura of -1 to bravery and -1 to any Wizard attempting to unbind any spell he casts (which improves in that rare instance an enemy General dies near him). His Unique spell can instantly kill any model within 1" of him on a 5+, and the range on it cannot be modified, which can be used to punish any foolish combat heroes or big monsters he ends up fighting - though it is a bit unreliable to make him a dedicated assassin. Overall, he should be standing behind your troops (ideally Immortis Guard or Mortek Guard), providing the debuff and using his 2 spells per turn.

====Generic Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Liege-Kavalso-en.pdf Liege-Kavalos]''': (200pts) Your commander on a big-boned mount that gives two guaranteed Relentless Discipline points. Lots of decent attacks, but nothing too nutty. When he charges he has an increased pile in and the ability to fling out some extra mortal wounds. His Command Ability gives a unit wholly within 12" +1 attack. He probably functions best running with some deathriders for a spoopy cavalry wing, though having him roam around your anvils can make for some good time damage output.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulreaper-en.pdf Mortisan Soulreaper]''': (120pts) Our CC battlemage, though with his weapon the most he'll be reaping is chaff mobs. His unique spell lets him smack one unit at range, or every unit in CC with him with a few mortal wounds. Probably our worst unit, as outside of his spell-slinging, he's basically a really expensive cairn wraith from nighthaunt. Look elsewhere, unless you really love his amazing model.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Boneshaper-en.pdf Mortisan Boneshaper]''': (130pts) Probably your most included HQ, and part of the <s>glue that holds your army together</s> calcium that strengthens your bone boys. With the ability to restore 3 wounds (or 3 wounds worth of boys (raise 3 Mortek Guard, or 1 Kavalos Deathriders everything else has 4+ wounds)) to a friendly squad and sling a few spells, he feels close to auto-include, especially if you left Nagash or Arkhan at home. His unique spell lets him fling [[Awesome|BONESTORM!]] at an enemy unit, roll for each model within 18" and every 6 deals a mortal wound, a nice anti-horde spell being easy to cast on 5. Keep him out of combat and out of LoS so he can spend your whole game building bonecasts in a dark corner away from anyone else.
** Boneshapers and Immortis Guard are a good match, as they can take wounds for him and he can heal them if they take too many hits.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulmason-en.pdf Mortisan Soulmason]''': (140pts) The grand vizier will see you now. He's got a passable melee profile, but that's not why you take him. He's a wizard with 2 casts and unbinds and a unique spell, Soul-Guide, that gives a friendly Ossiarch Bonereapers unit the ability to reroll 1's to hit. Pretty good so far, but it gets better. At the end of your hero phase, on a 2+ cast Soul-Guide more times even if it was already attempted that turn. Basically, bring him when you're spamming catapults (or anything, really) and spread the re-rolling to hit love.
** For extra fun, his potential multiple casts force the enemy to consider whether to unbind these spells or other spells.

===Battleline===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Guard-en.pdf Mortek Guard]''': (Battleline, 130/440pts, Min:10, Max:40) Your basic skellies are a decently-protected lot with a 4+ save. Their basic weapons are 2 attacks with -1 Rend sword or a spear, both can double the hits inflicted on a 6+ to hit. The greatblade, on the other hand, trades that for a slightly better wound score, which isn't remarkable but at least keeps the sword's Rend. Their slow speed is helped by their banner giving them +1 to runs and charges, and the +3" move order mentioned above. A good choice for loadout is sword for smaller units and spears for bigger units.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': This boy is a mini-HQ that gives to your Relentless Discipline pool and keys to a lot of other things. (in big units you have to pack a lot of models very close together to have Deathless Warriors). He's only got an attack more than the base guard, but he also confers a command ability that lets his pack re-roll all saves for the combat phase - much more valuable for their survival.
** With the Petrifex Elite, you can take the spears and use the Petrifex command ability to give them rend, just save the spears for larger units of Mortek Guard.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Kavalos-Deathriders-en.pdf Kavalos Deathriders]''': (Battleline, 180/460pts, Min:5, Max:15) Your basic skellies, but on a horse! When compared to their foot-slogging brothers, these guys have +1 attack and 3 wounds each, the 2 extra pony swings we all know and love (actually, even their horses are on steroids, wounding on a 3+), and a whopping 12" move compared to the former's 4". Not only that, but their spears have exploding hits on a 5+ roll on the charge, giving you a bit more reason to consider selling the rend on your swords.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': Much like the Mortek Guard, the Deathrider's hekatos has +1 attack with their weapon, but his command ability gives you some mortal wound output on the charge and a double-range pile in. FAQ'd to confirm a unit can only benefit from this once per phase.

===Hekatos===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Necropolis-Stalkers-en.pdf Necropolis Stalkers]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:6) Speedy, Re-rolling, <s>tyranid warriors </s> skeleton boys. Each turn, these massive lads pick whether they want to re-roll hits, wounds, saves, or add +1 to their weapons' Rend and Damage. While rerolling saves is nice when you get charged by something scary, you'll almost always use +1 rend and damage, as it turns your basic stalker into a stormcast blender, and your unit leader <s>into a literal monster</s> into an equally strong blender as the normal weapons, when enhanced with -1 rend and +1 dmg, are actually stronger than the special weapon, proven by Mathhammer. Their command ability that lets them re-roll run and charge rolls while also ignoring terrain as if they could fly.
** Another option is to run them with a Soulmason equipped with the Gothizzar Cartouche in support which gives +1 to wound rolls. Now, assuming you also have Katakros on the board and you can get Soul-Guide onto your Stalkers then the best Aspect to run is the Destroyer Aspect because this combo would then mean your hitting on 2's and re-rolling 1's '''AND''' wounding on 2's (with spirit blades)
** Upon testing with Mathhammer, in this precise scenario, precision still pulls far ahead if you take 3 of the normal weapons and give them all of these buffs. There is around an average damage difference of 5 per round.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Immortis-Guard-en.pdf Immortis Guard]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:12)The Anvil to the stalker's hammer. These guys have a lower damage output, with 2 3+/3+/-2/2 damage (though the base rend 2 is nice), and the ability to bop someone with their shields for a bit of extra damage, with the occasional mortal wound when rolling a 6. Their main draw, however, is their base 3+ save and bodyguard ability. Whenever they're within 3" of a friendly hero, on a 2+ they must eat a wound or mortal wound that would have been applied to said hero. Their command ability lets them immediately pile in and swing again after their first go, but only with their shields. Less than impressive, but nice for positioning. Having two weapons means they get more out of the Liege's extra attack command ability, and with their own on top of that the mortal wounds do become bit more reliable.
*'''Morghasts [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Archai-en.pdf Archai] & [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Harbingers-en.pdf Harbingers]''': (190pts, Min:2, Max:6) Nagash's angels of death come in 2 flavors, with the archai having a chance to shrug off mortal wounds, and harbingers getting a 3d6 charge. Beyond those differences either one is monstrous combatants, and tough to boot, with 6 wounds 4+ armor and being Hekatos for the death save. They also have a bravery debuff as a bonus. You should always take the halberd for 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/3, as they will only do less damage against units with a 6+ save, shown by Mathhammer. You don't want your Morghasts engaging Chaff, as they aren't meant to be wiping chaff for you. Additionally, adding attacks to the Halberd from your Liege is much stronger than doing so to your swords.
** See the above option for Stalkers and apply to Morghasts - you'll lose out on the re-rolling wounds but up the rend to -2 and the damage to 3 (with halberds) so the Mathammer will result in more wounds on average (even if you run swords) - only real issue with this is keep up with the Morghasts on your bone throne.
** Following the Petrifex nerf, these guys just got a bit more viable. They mesh well with quite a few Legions (the Archai save against spells compliments Null Myriad spell nullifying, the Harbingers compliment the Stalliarch rules - and they're probably our best unit against the Kharadron Overlords and more).

===Behemoths===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Gothizzar-Harvester-en.pdf Gothizzar Harvester]''': (200pts, Behemoth) Big guy has 10 wounds and a 4+ save. Has good damage potential with 4 solid ranged attacks and a BUNCH of 2 damage melee swings, with a choice between bludgeons or sickles. These weapons have the exact same melee stats, but different effects. Bludgeons do 2 mortal wounds on unmodified hits of 6 instead of normal damage, (basically giving the guy a Nighthaunt's frightful touch) while the sickles get +1 to hit against units with 5+ models. The Bludgeons are the better choice, as there are other ways to boost hit rolls and Mortal Wounds are useful whoever you're up against. More importantly than that, this guy is another source of precious calcium/healer. Each time any models (friend or foe) die within 3" of him, he can heal an Ossiarch Bonereaper unit within 6" on a 4+. The heals he gives depends on the wounds characteristic of the model slain. It's worth noting he can do this to himself, making his relatively fragile 10 wounds and 4+ save last a little longer.
**For the Crematorians, this guy makes the list even more trollish. Camp him by your Mortek Guard, and when they die and cause mortal wounds, he can heal them right back up. Free mortal wounds, anyone?
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Crawler-en.pdf Mortek Crawler]''': (200pts, Artillery, Behemoth) The most trolltastic catapult in all of AoS. With a nice 36" range and solid durability, it starts as a remarkably strong springboard for the absolute terror of its ammo types. Once per battle, you can fire a different choice of ammo from two different options and their effects are trolltastically memeable.
**Necrotic Skulls: Your normal shots. You're getting a pretty hefty 3 2+/3+/-/variable shots that start at 5 damage, and dips down to 1 as the model takes damage. Good as a general all-rounder, but pales in comparison to what follows.
***Just to reiterate however: 3 shots at 5 damage initially. Although lack of rend hurts, this is a horde killing volley beyond compare, particularly as their hit and wound rolls are so good.
**Cauldron of Torment: the first of the meme shots. Instead of firing like normal, you roll a dice for every model in the target unit, and whenever you meet or beat their '''UNMODIFIED''' Bravery, one model is slain. "But Anon," you reply, "lots of units have high Bravery! That's not good," To which I say, sure, you're right. this isn't good against undead, Stormcast, or Chaos, but do you know what it IS good against? grots, where you wipe half of whatever squad you fire at. Or freeguild, where you gun down a third of whatever unit you want in a ghostly fog. And we're STILL not done with this bad boy.
**Cursed Stele: Does your local meta not really do hordes? Or do they just love low model-count armies with high leadership? Well, have I got a unit for you! Instead of shooting normally, pick a model within range (so, characters, banners, unit leaders, etc.) and roll 2d6. If you roll equal to or higher than their wound stat, the guy dies (with some modifiers, starting at -3 to your roll, slowly turning to +3 as you lose wounds). This right here is disgusting. With an average roll of 4, you kill support heroes about 60% of the time or get to guaranteed snipe off important banners or unit champions whenever you're feeling cheeky. Did that daemon prince swoop in and drop you to 1 wound? Wouldn't it be great if his failure meant your average roll is now a 10 and insta-gibs the winged sexy, sexy biscuit daemon? (Lovely to consider, but the 6" minimum range on the Crawler's attacks means if it's in melee it's been neutered - protect at all costs!)

===Scenery===
*'''Bone-tithe Nexus''': (0pts) Your mandatory accompanying setpiece is a giant monolith surrounded by bones upon bones. In truth it acts more like a sentry that can chuck out one of four different Punishments each turn: -1 to hit, MW Sniping, causes problem for a wizard, or Can't run and only roll 1d6 for charges. The physical footprint of this thing is BIG. You're supposed to place the terrain before defining and placing any of the game's (neutral) terrain. Placing the damn thing can therefore be problematic in organized events, where terrain is pre-set before the game starts.

==Battalions==
<big>'''Ossiarch Cohort'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''4450''')
''Katakros, Zandtos or Liege Kavalos, 1-3 Mortek Shield-Corps, 1-3 Kavalos Lances, 1 Mortisian Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1 Mortek Ballistari''
* The Super Battalion.
For putting together all that dough together your general generates 1d3 additional RDPs at the beginning of your hero phase.

<big>'''Aegis Immortal'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''1 Archai, 2 Immortis.''
The ARCHAI from this battalion has the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS ability from the Immortis Guard warscroll. In addition, if you use the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS and the roll is a 5+, the wound/MW is negated instead of allocated to a unit from this battalion. Take with Petrifex Elite to make your characters near unkillable. Solid choice, pun intended, the only drawback is if you want a more offensive playstyle since this is defensive-based.

<big>'''Katakrosian Deathglaive'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''2 Stalkers, 1 Morghast Harbinger''
After units are set up but before the first battleround, if all units from the btn are WHOLLY WITHIN 12" of the Harbingers, you can move any of them up to 6" The best name for a Battalion in all of AoS. Useful for strategic positioning and claiming objectives, it's a decent choice. One foe it does help against is Kharadron Overlords, positioning your Morghasts and Stalkers to better catch their fliers.

<big>'''Kavalos Lance'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''680''')
''Arch-Kavalos OR 1 Liege-Kavalos, 2 Kavalos Deathriders.''
Units from this battalion can retreat and charge if wholly within 12" of the Liege when the charge roll is made. In addition, once per turn, you can use the Deathrider Wedge CA for a unit from this battalion without spending RDP. Pretty good, especially if you bring a spellcaster with Empower Nadirite Weapons, more so if you're running Petrifex to give the weapons extra rend. Just remember it's a waste of points if you're using the Stalliarch Lords legion because they do this but better and for free.

<big>'''Mortek Ballistari'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''760''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Mortek Guard, 2 Crawlers.''
Roll a die before you allocate a wound/MW to a Crawler from this btn while it is within 3" of the Mortek Guard unit from the same btn. Add 2 if the Crawler is within 3" of the Boneshaper from the same btn. On a 4+, it is instead allocated to the GUARD instead of the CRAWLER.

<big>'''Mortek Shield-corps'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''630''')
''Either Volkmortian, a Boneshaper, a Soulreaper OR a Soulmason, and 3 Mortek Guard.''
Once per turn, you can use Shieldwall for one unit in the battalion without spending RDP. The cheapest option, and a decent choice, making your Mortek Guard that much more durable and freeing RDP to be spent elsewhere. Petrifex Mortek Guard will be even tougher with a free re-roll, and it's a good safety net if a unit loses their Hekatos.

<big>'''Mortisan Trident'''</big> 110 pts (min points: '''700''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Soulreaper, 1 Soulmason, 1 Harvester.''
EACH Mortisan from this battalion can attempt to cast 1 extra spell if WITHIN 18" of the harvester AND the harvester is within 3" of any enemy units.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Retinue''' </big> 120 pts (min points: '''840''')
''Volkmortian, 1 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1 Archai.''
The exclusive battalion from Feast of Bones. At the start of your hero phase, you can return 1 slain model to a unit within 8 inches of Morty.
This battalion, and it's older dreadier brother, is the armies only reliable method of bringing back dead Stalkers and Archai.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Dread Retinue''' </big> 130 pts (min points: '''850''')
''Volkmortian, 1-3 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1-2 Archai or Harbingers, in any configuration.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Comes with the same ability as Vokmortain's Retinue, but also gives you a start of game ability to hurt the chances of a single enemy hero hitting Vokmortian. Because you can take Harbingers instead of Archai with this battalion, which opens up returning Morghast Harbingers to play, this battalion is much better than the regular Retinue. The restriction on legion means that, of course, this cannot really be considered competitive at this time.

<big> '''Harvester Scythe Corps''' </big> 100 pts (min points: '''660''')
''2 Kavalos Deathriders and 1 Gothizzar Harvester.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Battalion lets you add one to wound rolls for the Harvester if within 12 of the dead ponies. Decent if you need to generate the RDP and the artefact, but if you are taking a pair of Deathriders, you might as well be taking a Liege and going for the Kavalos Lance battalion, which also doesn't restrict you out of the better legions.

<big> '''Vokmortian's Tithe Legion''' </big> 110 pts (min points: '''5640''')
''This list of other battalions: 1 Vokmortian's Dread Retinue, 1-3 Mortek Shield Corps, 1 Mortisan Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1-3 Kavalos Lances or Harvester Scythe Corps in any configuration, 1 Mortek Ballistari, 1 Harvester Scythe Corps.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion.
The boring part of this battalion is that you probably won't ever get to field it, and even if you do, the abilities from it aren't the best. You get to generate an additional D3 RDP per hero phase, and you get to take '''any number of''' Nighthaunt allies, without them counting against ally rules. Super battalions are fun, but this one means that outside of the nearly 6k points you have to spend on it, you also need Nighthaunt to make use of it. It's a good goal for a collection, though.

==Army Building==
=== Getting Started ===
When getting started with the Ossiarch Bonereapers, it's important that you understand the direction you want to take your list in. If you are going for competitive, you're going to be making the most out of Mortek Guard, while if you are going for fun and cool, you have a lot of fun and cool options.

If new to the game, look out for a Feast of Bones set half, as it can be a great start to your Ossiarch Army. Another way to start would be with a box of Mortek Guard and a Liege Kavalos, as this gives you a little bit less than a Start Collecting worth of points, but a lot of cool units to start working on.

=== Currently Competitive ===

The best lists right now center around the fact that Mortek Guard units are incredibly over-statted for their points cost. As for which Legion, following the nerfing of Petrifex, Mortis Praetorians have stepped up to top spot. Petrifex are still viable, but no longer auto-take.

==== Heroes ====

A Petrifex-aligned Liege-Kavalos is a mainstay in the General position, as the Mighty Croissant command trait and Godbone Armor artefact make it a 9 wound, ignoring first wounds of every phase monster, along with the extra RDP generation for being a liege, and a built in Mystic Shield effect making the Liege basically indestructible, as Nagash would want. The other best hero seems to be the Soulmason, as it has great casting for the points, and really fills out the support role of your army.

You can also build Nagash or Arkhan centric lists, and those typically look like Nagash/Arkhan + 40 blobs of guard and a support unit or two.

==== Battleline ====

Mortek Guard, usually a pair of 2 40 blobs are great. Then, fill out the battleline with some of those dead ponies. Seriously, Mortek Guard are only 130 points right now, can be given exploding 5+s and additional rend. They're practically the backbone of any Ossiarch army.

==== Other Models ====

Necropolis Stalkers are your can-openers, popping heavily armored units. They can also move as if flying, opening up more options, and are cheaper than the other Hekatos units.

Gothizzar harvesters can be run as a one of per blob of Guard you manage to field. This means that your Mortek Guard is going to have a 4+/6+/4+ save, which is equal to about a 13.88% (or a "1.25+" save equivalent) chance to wound. Per model. That's like having a 0.83+ save.

Mortek Crawlers can be utilized to constantly rampage as your large blobs of guard gum up the board, create incredibly tough tar pits, and slow down enemy units. Another benefit is that if a cheap unit is used by your opponent to attempt to capture an objective, you might be able to wipe it out before it gains any points if you notice it soon enough and identify that part of your opponent's game plan.

==== Spells ====

There are several good spells that you can take, although overall the spell lore is kind of boring. Empower Nadirite Weapons is the best spell in the lore, mainly because most lists are running blobs of 40 Mortek Guard and the spell makes them table. Arcane Command can be taken on a second support wizard, as can Mortal Contract, depending on who you think you might be facing. Reinforce shield walls can also be a decent spell, especially if you are combining several layers of saves to make Mortek Guard the ultimate pit of bone.

==== Using Battalions ====

Because of the ability to increase RDP generation, there are some ways you can use cheap battalions to increase the amount of RDP you have, and lower the amount you need for specific units. One of the best and cheapest battalions is the Mortek Shield Corps battalion, which requires one of your 3 Mortisans or Vokmortian and 3 units of 10 Mortek Guard, allowing you to use one of the CAs on the Mortek Guard for free, once per turn. It also presents you with an additional RDP per turn. The shield wall ability allows you to reroll saves, which means that your 4+/6+ save turns into a 4+/4+/6+ save. Now, add in one of those Harvesters, meaning that you have a 4+/4+/4+/6+ save, or a 10% chance to fail incoming non-rend armor saves. That means that for every 20 armor saves, less than three should convert to a wound.

The Kavalos Lance battalion makes use of a pair of the fantastically modelled (by Nagash or GW) Kavalos Deathriders, and a Liege Kavalos. This battalion allows you to make up some of the difficulties of movement that the Ossiarch are presented with, and the additional RDP are always great for the +3" movement.

Another interesting battalion to consider taking is the Mortisan Trident Battalion, which would be how you go about building a strong Magical Ossiarch Bonereapers army. With the current state of Tzeentch, however, this army might be a bit rough to play. This battalion requires you to take all three Mortisans, as well as a Harvester, allowing you additional spell casts, when close to the harvester. That battalion and an Arkhan would allow you some crazy amounts of spells, and if you can take full advantage of that, you might end up thrashing a lot of armies that can't deal with heavy spell usage. Sadly, a lot of your spells work much better when you have a lot of your points in Mortek Guard, who are core to any army you create.

Other battalions can be taken solely for RDP generation and the artefacts you can take, seeing as your first artefact will generally have to be the Petrifex Elite artefact, Godbone Armor. Both Boneshapers and Soulmasons have decent "tools" for their artefacts, but they are not necessary, so don't feel forced to take a battalion for some bad models.

==Tactics==

===Mr. Arkhan’s Wild Ride===
Take Arkhan the Black as your general, along with two Gothizzar Harvesters and a buttload of Mortek Guard. Finally put them all under the Crematorians legion. Your boney boys will proceed to explode in the faces of the enemy and then be brought back to un-life from the ashes thanks to the Mortarch and Harvesters’ restoration abilities. Is this trolling? Yes. Is it fun? ''Oh yes.'' Also take a Mortisan Boneshaper as a cherry on top for extra heals and bring an Endless Spell or two; cast with Arkhan to laugh off that casting penalty.

* Nerfed slightly in December 2019 Errata. Now Gothizzar Harvester ability only triggers "each time a model is slain within 3" of any models with this ability." No double dipping on the Gothizzar heals anymore by choosing to remove a model within 3" of both. Personally, I'd say this is a good thing since this formation would be pretty much unbeatable without enough ranged firepower/artillery to snipe the 10 wound Gothizzars out of the Mortek blob (and in a single shooting phase to prevent 6 wound auto-heal from Arkhan and the Boneshaper).

===Trolling with Catapults===
Take a Soulmason as your general and put him in a massive blob of 60 Mortek Guard with 4 Mortek Crawlers behind. With some amazing dice rolls (which can be helped by using the Soul Resevoir artefact) the Soulmason can give all 4 Crawlers rerollable hits of 1. The Guard can block any incoming attackers whilst the catapults bombard your enemies from across the table. Even if your skellie dudes are taken out and the enemy damages your Centipedes of Doom it just means that their characters are more likely to be decimated by the most trolling shot in AoS, the Cursed Stele. So just sit back, relax and watch your enemies die before they even reach you.

Alternatively, take 2 of Ballistari battalions. Lose the Soulmason but gain some mad defenses.

=== Feast of Bones upgrades ===

If you started with the Feast of Bones kit, there are several ways to build the army. The first is the (maybe subjectively) best, which is to go with the Rule of Cool - buy the cool models. Run 3x10 Mortek Guard to get Battleline out of the way, and then take advantage of how cool Morghasts are to scare your opponents.

Starting with Vokmortian, 10x Mortek Guard, 3x Necopolis Stalkers, and 2x Morghasts, and the Vokmortian's Retinue battalion, you can instead use the Dread Retinue Battalion, to use Morghast Harbingers instead of Archai. Or, get a second unit of Stalkers and create the objectively coolest battalion, the Katakrosian Deathglaive. Add in some more guard or Kavalos Deathriders, and whatever else you want that you like. That's it. It's the rule of cool. With Morghasts - the coolest rule of cool unit.

The other way is to move to a more competitive list, but sadly, the Feast of Bones units aren't great. Vokmortian is pretty bad, as are Morghasts, relative to what is offered in the army, although they can be used as a tool. You can run Vokmortian as a Boneshaper, especially if you figure out a cool conversion for it. Then, add in a Soulmason and another support HQ or Liege, and a lot of Mortek Guard. Add in a few Gothizzar Harvesters and/or Crawlers, and you have the fundamentals to a competitive list.

==Allied Armies==
No Allies. Nope, none. Nighthaunt hate your guts. Legions of Nagash hate your attitude. Not even the Flesh Eater Courts is crazy enough to be your friend. Don't like it? Go play Stormcast, and go fuck yourself while you're at it.

There is...one however...

*'''Big Drogg Fort-Kicka''': A Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant available to all Death factions as an ally. Functions like Gotrek in the Order factions where he uses up your whole allies allowance in exchange for a very destructive monster of a unit. His most important feature is the ability to destroy terrain, including faction terrain. He also has a unique breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death/Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:25:02Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Other Models */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the fuckboys!}}

Get ready to send a chill down your opponent's spine, for this is no time to be humerus. Nagash is rising, and he has a bone to pick with the Mortal Realms!

==Why play Ossiarch Bonereapers?==
* They're SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS!
* You liked playing super-elite units like Blood Knights? Well you now play a different elite FACTION!
* You miss the Tomb Kings and this is as close as it gets for now with a vulture being called a Carrion, undead constructs and a war machine that hurls flaming skulls.
* They collect protection payments of bone like a skeletal version of the Mafia.
* Part of the reason for their existence is to troll Sigmarines.
* You want a sneak peek at what civilization would be like if Nagash wins.

===Pros===
* [[Awesome|'''Immunity to Battleshock!''']]. Not just bravery 10, the Bonereapers do not take battleshock tests. They have no guts, but they're braver than everyone else.
* Excellent at debuffing their enemies in various ways, especially their bravery (spells, Morghasts...)
* Conversely, they have numerous ways to buff themselves.
* Very durable, and various ways to boost that to the point of being arguably the most durable army in the game.
* Point-for-point, they have some of the strongest warscrolls of the game as few units can beat their ossiarch counterpart (Mortek Guard and Kavalos Deathriders are strong contenders for best battleline units in the game).
* They use the Relentless Discipline Points mechanic (also called RDP) instead of Command Points. Things that screw with CP won't work on them. Despite this, they still benefit from Command Abilities.
* They're a Death army that isn't reliant on Heroes. Unit champions have the HEKATOS keyword, which gives a smaller radius of 6+ Deathless saves and allows them to use RDP abilities. Certain elite units are also HEKATOS, so they can function completely independently.
* If you're sick of those magic-heavy armies like Tzeentch's forces, the Lizardmen and the Lumineth, the Null Myriad Bonereaper Legion is for you with army-wide +5 immunity to spells that can be buffed.
* Almost everything is 3+ to hit, with various ways to boost it.
* With the Crematorians Bonereaper Legion, your guys can take enemies down with them when/if they're slain - the more they attack you, the more they die! [[Awesome|Rinse and repeat, since you can bring back slain models!]]
* Nagash and [[Arkhan the Black|bro-tier mini-Nagash]] are part of the army roster; [[Awesome|they also benefit from keywords and Battle Traits]].
* Numerous characters and a unit that can heal anything in your army - including themselves - or bring back dead models.
* Our Endless Spells are awesome. Not only that, they're soul linked, so no friendly fire and they're always under the casting player's control.
* If you like bone puns...

===Cons===
* Most of your army is slow (though there are a few abilities to mitigate this).
* Shooting is almost non-existent. Apart from the amazing Mortek Crawler, you only have the Gothizzar Harvester's shooting and Nagash's laser eyes.
* No extra protection against shooting beyond certain spells. Shooting armies tend to really hurt the Ossiarchs (especially the Kharadron Overlords).
* The army's quite straightforward and lacking in useful tricks. There's no summoning, deepstrike or special combat mechanics like striking twice. Any decent opponent knows what you will do. There is a teleportation mechanic, but it's very gimmicky, limited and requires a lot of cunning to get something out of it.
* Limited means to deal Mortal Wounds. Ossiarchs tend to bounce on really armored units if stalkers aren't around. This can be mitigated with MW dealers like the Crematorians Legion and anyone with "Kavalos" in their name, but still relies a lot on the dice.
* Magic is average and mostly around buffing allies and debuffing enemies. Sure, Nagash and Arkhan are there, but the magic lore is still unimpressive, especially compared to real magical factions (looking at you, Tzeentch and Seraphon).
* Low model count, slightly mitigated by having the means to bring back (re)dead models.
* No allies apart from the Mega-Gargant Drogg; their foreign policy makes the Daughters of Khaine look like the Stormcast Eternals (can still have mercenaries though - unless you bring Nagash or Arkhan).
* If you know the Greek language, it'll be hard to take any unit or hero with "Kavalos" in their name seriously.
* Hope you like bone puns.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Ossiarch Bonereapers}}

==Allegiance Abilities==
===Battle Traits===
*'''Ranks Unbroken by Dissent:''' [[Awesome|Do not take battleshock tests for friendly OSSIARCH BONEREAPER units]]. Yes, you read that right, immunity to Battleshock. Your enemy's only options are killing, flee or be killed. In addition, you do not generate Command Points. Instead, you generate Relentless Discipline Points at the start of each battle round but lose them when you generate your next batch (they should be all spent before that happens).
**Generate a Relentless Discipline Point if:
*** EACH {{AOSKeyword|Ossiarch Bonereapers Hero}} - 1
*** EACH Warscroll Battalion - 1
*** EACH Friendly {{AOSKeyword|LIEGE}} - 1
*** If KATAKROS is the general and on the battlefield - 3
*** Roll a die for each UNIT with the {{AOSKeyword|OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS}} keyword, including the previous {{AOSKeyword|HEROES}}. On a 6, you get 1.
**Unfortunately, you can't use the Generic or Scenario command abilities (rerolling Run, charge, shooting rolls) but you have a ton of CAs that will Guzzle your DP.

*'''Deathless Warriors''': It's Deathless Minions from Legions of Nagash, albeit with a rename. It allows you to ignore wounds and mortal wounds on a 6+. However, you'll be able to get more mileage out of it than other Death armies, as any unit wholly within 12" of a {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS Hero}} or 6" of a Hekatos (i.e: the leader for your battlelines) count for the ability, removing the need to have your Heroes babysitting your units. Units that are {{AOSKeyword|HEKATOS}} (elite bone warriors units) always benefit from the ability, allowing them to strike out entirely unsupported.

*'''Unstoppable Advance (CA)''': In Movement Phase. Pick 1 unit within X" of a hero or hekatos. +3" movement. It can still run OR charge. You cannot pick the same unit more than once per phase.

===Command Traits===

====Liege-Kavalos====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dark Acolyte:''' Becomes a 1 cast/unbind {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}} with one Mortisan Lore spell.
*'''Peerless Warrior:''' Melee wound rolls of 6 deal an extra mortal wound.
*'''Hatred of the Living:''' +1 to hit in melee (including their mount) against non-{{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} units.
*'''Life-stealer:''' If they kill any models in combat, heal 1d3 wounds at the end of that phase.

====Mortisan====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dire Ultimatum:''' -2 to Bravery for enemies within 12". Although it requires coordinating a couple of units, you can cause a MASSIVE debuff to enemy Bravery by combining this and the Scroll of Command (see below).
*'''Grave-sand Bones:''' Knows an extra spell from the Lore of the Mortisans.
*'''Oathbreaker Curse:''' Every time your opponent gets a CP, on a d6 roll of 6 it is lost. Obviously Katakros does it better, but this does work more than once per turn if your enemy has CP-generating abilities.
*'''Soul Energy:''' You can re-roll casting, unbinding and dispelling rolls, but whenever you do you take a mortal wound.

===Artefacts===
*'''Relics of the Kavaloi (Liege-Kavalos)'''
#'''Mind Blade:''' Pick one of bearer’s melee weapons. If unmodified hit roll is a 6, and target is a hero, opponent loses a Command Point and the hero can’t use command abilities for the rest of the battle. Apart from only working on sixes this is incredible.
#'''Lordly Phylactery:''' Once per battle start of any phase, gain D3 RD points.
#'''Scroll of Command:''' Subtract 2 Bravery from enemy units within 6” of bearer. Only really recommended if you're going for Mortis Praetorians (see their Legion description for more information). Although, a Liege-Kavalos with this, with a Mortisan general with the Dire Ultimatum command trait nearby drops enemy Bravery by a whopping -4!
#'''Grave-sand Boneplates:''' At the end of the combat phase, roll dice for each enemy unit within 3”, on a 4+ that unit suffers a mortal wound. Mediocre.
#'''Marrow Pact:''' Once per battle, in hero phase pick one enemy unit within 6” of bearer. On a 3+, unit suffers D3 mortal wounds, heal the same number of wounds.
#'''Helm of the Ordained:''' Add one to hit rolls for attacks made by {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} units and mounts while wholly within 12” of the bearer. One of the best choices for a Liege-Kavalos if including Bonereaper Legion weapons, otherwise it's the best unless you have a very specific playstyle in mind.

*'''Tools of the Boneshaper (Boneshapers)'''
#<s>Skeleton</s> '''Artisan's key:''' Before using the bearer’s bone shaper ability, roll a dice and on a 4+ either you can pick two units instead of one, or the same unit twice within 6”. The best of the three by a narrow margin.
#'''Lode of Saturation:''' At the start of the Hero phase, choose a unit within 1”, deathless warrior battle trait on 5+ instead of 6.
#'''Crafter Gems:''' Hero phase, heal up to 3 wounds. Once the total wounds healed in the battle is 3 you cannot use it any longer.

*'''Treasures of the Soulmason (Soulmasons)'''
#'''Gothizzar Cartouche:''' +1 to melee wound rolls for units wholly within 9” of bearer if target does not have Death keyword. The best option if you're not facing {{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} armies.
#'''Soul Reservior:''' +2 to cast, but if casting roll is unmodified 10+ artifact cannot be used again.
#'''Thorne of Dzendt:''' +2 to wounds and +2 attacks for mount. A good all around choice, especially for keeping your chair bound wizard safe.

*'''Weapons of the Soulreaper (Soulreapers)'''
#'''Luminscythe:''' minus 1 for hit rolls targeting bearer. +1 casting rolls for bearer for Lore of Mortisans or warscroll spell.
#'''Vial of Binding:''' Once per battle in hero phase, pick enemy model within 12" of bearer and roll a D6. If roll is equal or greater than the wound characteristic they are slain. The best choice if you take a Soul Reaper, and the obvious choice for offensive.
#'''Guardian Reavesoul:''' Negate wound on a 5+ instead of 6+ for deathless minions. Can shatter to negate last wound if about to die. If you're not taking Vial of Binding, this is the go-to choice.

===Spell Lore===
#'''Arcane Command:''' CV5. Gain D3 Relentless Discipline Points. Nice if you've got an extra spell, or had some bad luck with your rolls.
# '''Empower Nadirite Weapons: ''' CV5. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, the units Nadirite Weapons ability explodes on a 5+ instead of 6, or 4+ if its a {{AOSKeyword|DEATHRIDERS}} attacking with spears after charging.
# '''Protection of Nagash: ''' CV6. 5+ FNP for the caster. If any wounds get through your FNP, and the caster isn't slain, remove them from the battlefield after all wounds have been allocated, and place them anywhere on the board 9" away from enemy models then dispel this spell. Great for getting important casters out of sticky situations, or absolutely hilarious on Nagash if you wanna fuck with your opponent.
# '''Reinforce Battle-shields: ''' CV6. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit armed with Shields or Nadirite Battle-shields wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, they gain a 5+ FNP but only for mortal wounds. Pair this with a gothizzar harvester, the reroll saves command ability for some truly unkillable troops.
# '''Drain Vitality: ''' CV6. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. Until your next hero phase, reroll unmodified hit and save rolls of 6 made by that unit. Good for blunting a spooky unit's charge, but less useful than the other options available.
# '''Mortal Contract: ''' CV7. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. For the rest of the '''BATTLE''', roll a die at the end of any phase that the unit dealt damage to a friendly {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit (but only if it was with an attack). On 3+, the cursed unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Lawdy, this is probably the most obnoxious spell we can sling, if you can remember who you marked the entire game. Great into low unit-count armies.

===Endless Spells===

An important distinction to note between these Endless Spells and others that exist is that the ones presented below have the '''Soul-Linked''' ability, meaning they always move before Endless Spells without the Soul-Linked ability and are controlled by the casting Player only, meaning your opponent cannot control these Endless Spells to mess with your plans. However on the flip side, the Wizard who cast the spell has a -1 to his casting rolls and cannot cast anymore soul-linked spells while their soul-linked endless spell is up. If the caster dies then the soul-linked spell is also dispelled, so keep him alive if you want the spells to last.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Bone-tithe-Shrieker-en.pdf Bone-tithe Shrieker]''': 30 points, Gives -1 bravery, and +1 to be hit to enemy units within 12" of it. Simple, but effective. Place it just in front of your battle line to make the enemy think twice, or use it to make holding an objective less than desirable.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Soulstealer-Carrion-en.pdf Soulstealer Carrion]''': 20 points, Gives LOS to the Soul-Linked wizard. You won't be taking it for this. Instead, you'll be taking it for it's actual ability: Soul Thief. Roll a D6 at the end of each Phase if any Chaos, Order, or Destruction models were slain within 6" of it. On a 1 or 2, the Wizard this Endless Spell is Soul-Linked with heals a wound. On a 3 or 4, it does 1 Mortal Wound on each Chaos, Destruction or Order unit within 6" of it, and on a 5-6, it does both effects. AMAZINGLY fun, if you're not playing into Death, so do with that as you will.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nightmare-Predator-en.pdf The Nightmare Predator]''': 40 points, Your standard causes Mortal Wounds Endless Spell (dealing D3 Mortal Wounds to all non-bonecasts within 3" of it), but with a twist - when cast, pick an enemy Hero to be marked as it's prey. If this spell gets within range of them, it spits out d6 mortal wounds instead. For it's dirt cheap point cost, this is almost auto-include.

==<span style=color:Gray>Famous Legions</span>==

For awhile the best Legion was Petrifex Elite, by far. But due to Petrifex spam and the resulting complaints GW jumped them with something even they couldn't take - the nerf-bat. Oh, the old gray Petrifex, it ain't what it used to be. Now, Mortis Praetorians are in the lead and the others are good but most are situational; Crematorians are worth considering if you spam Mortek Guard and Null Myriad against a magic-heavy opponent.

<big>Mortis Praetorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''The Dread Legion''':-1 bravery to enemy units within 12".
*'''Command Trait''': '''Katakros' Chosen''': Once per battle if the general is on the Battlefield, gain D3 RDP points.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Counter-strike''': Pick a friendly unit Wholly within 6" of a HEKATOS or Wholly 12" of a HERO. If charged, they can re-roll hits.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Artificer's Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons. It has -3 Rend.
The poster boys, the jack-of-all-trades and the best choice if you’re bringing Katakros, otherwise it's decent but not an auto-take. Plus other death armies capitalize on "fear-bombing" a bit more effectively (looking at you, Legions of Grief and Blood).

<big>Petrifex Elite</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Unstoppable Juggernauts''': Re-roll save rolls of 1 in melee.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Mighty Archaeossian''': +2 Wounds.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Bludgeon''': In the combat phase, give a unit +1 rend on one weapon, can't stack.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Godbone Armor''': The first wound allocated to the bearer in each '''phase''' is negated.
Makes your entire army (including Nagash) overall more tanky, gives your commander a few extra wounds for a chuckle, lets you put some durability on a caster via the relic (especially useful if you're bringing some Endless Spells), AND comes with a command ability that makes you killy, just to throw your opponent for a loop. Pre-nerf it added +1 to everyone's armor save and was THE choice of Bonereaper Legion. Now it's decent but no longer the one best choice.

<big>Null Myriad</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Eldritch Nulls''': Ignore the effects of spells on a 5+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Unsettling and Sinister''': -1 to Bravery in 3", and -1 to be hit during combat phase.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Holdfast''': Make the battle trait work on a 2+ instead of 5+.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''<s>Cheese</s> <s>Chad</s> Baleful Blade''': Pick 1 of the bearer's weapons. [[Awesome|Saves can't be made against attacks from this weapon and wounds can't be negated]] (though they can later be healed).
The magic choice. Their innate rules mean you can focus more on offensive magic, and the Artefact is perfect for any combat character... but is obviously best on a Liege-Kavalos. One of the best choices, but if your meta is very magic heavy this is clearly the best. Make those six hallowheart battlemages cry because they can do nothing to you (and then notice that you can't probably do much to them either, so the battle is probably a void of winds of magic).

<big>Ivory Host</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': At the start of each combat phase, any IVORY HOST unit within 6" of an IVORY HOST <i>model</i> that is wounded is subject to rage for that phase. While subject to rage, get +1 to hit, but -1 save. Dependent on having damaged multi-wound models nearby and can potentially really mess your own forces up, but can lead to you hitting very hard. Fortunately, as it's only for the combat phase, you don't have to worry about it when you're being shot at.
*'''Command Trait''': Every hero phase your general gains 1 attack for all his melee weapons on a 5+. Best to have a Liege-Kavalos as your general for this.
*'''Command Ability''': Cancel the -1 save from the battle trait. This is what makes the Ivory host interesting, letting you pull some shenanigans with a screen unit or pulling some clutch damage out at a vital time.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Beastbound Blade''': One of the bearer's melee weapons gets +1 attack.
The combat choice, though dependent on good dice rolls, positioning and carefully picking your fights. Decent in and of itself, but very situational and the worst choice crunch-wise compared to the others.

<big>Stalliarch Lords</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': Run and charge. Pretty good for increasing your threat range on a slow army.
*'''Command Trait''': Pick an enemy hero within 3" at the start of the combat phase. Gain +1 to hit against it but -1 to anything else. Pretty situational and lackluster.
*'''Command Ability''': Retreat and charge in the same turn. Good for repositioning or getting your charge bonuses again. Here's looking at you, Deathriders.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Nadir-Bound Mount''': Can only be taken by a Liege-Kavalos. They roll D3 additional dice for their Unstoppable Charge ability.
The speedy and somewhat trollish choice. Do you wanna go fast? Do you want a liege or Zandtos to run fast next to fast cavalry? Or if you take a Liege make them hit like a ton of bricks? Then go these guys. They let you skimp out of the costly battalion with their inherent command ability, and make your already fast cavalry even faster. They even pair well with Stalkers, Morghast Harbingers or Harvesters, to just really irritate your opponent.

<big>Crematorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Immolation''': When a model dies you get a chance to cause MW to an enemy within 3" on a 5+, with monsters and characters adding 1 to their roll/going off on a 4+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Wrathful Avenger''': If the general dies, add 2 to the dice roll for Immolation and it does D3 Mortal Wounds rather than 1.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Levelers of Cities''': One friendly CREMATORIANS unit with 6" of a Hekatros or 12" of a hero ignores cover saves.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Searing Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons and add 1 to the Damage characteristic.
The TRUE trolling choice. Paired with some revives and harvesters, and laugh as your opponent realizes that killing your models meant their guys died and then revived the dudes they just tried to kill, rinse and repeat. Especially lulzy against Sons of Behemat, given how reliant they are on combat... which is ground zero for your skeleton suicide bombers.

==<span style=color:Gray>Warscrolls<span>==
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: '''DEATH''', '''OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS'''

===Leaders===
====Named Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Katakros-Mortarch-of-the-Necropolis-en.pdf Orpheon Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis]''': (500pts) Like Skarbrand, his attacks get stronger the more wounds he takes. Katakros himself has [[Awesome|Rend and Damage 3]] and he can bop foes with his shield to dole out Mortal Wounds, so he can dish out some hurt in combat, but not until he's taken some wounds representing his companions dying so Katakros himself joins the fray. However, he is one of the slowest characters in the game - 4" move (which doesn’t much matter when he’s on a '''12 centimetre''' base, and you can use the Relentless Advance to boost Katakros' movement to 7") and can't fly, but Mortarch of Necropolis allows Katakros to heal up to three friendly OBR units wholly within 24" of his model for 3 wounds worth on your hero phase. Katakros is a friendly OBR unit within 24" of himself, so he can choose to heal himself for 3 wounds every one of your hero phases. Because he is so slow, he hates cannons even more than his boss so engage shooty armies at your own risk. He's pricey in points and cash, but you get what you pay for - no more no less - as he's a good beatstick and support character, just don't try to send him up against other super combat lords who have a damage of 3 or better because he can easily get his shit kicked in, especially if they have some serious wound negation. If your opponent is fielding a character with either (or worse, both) then make sure to screen him out. It's better to not get him in combat and keep your Relentless Discipline points, heals and Command Point sabotage than it is for you to possibly lose all of those.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nagash-Supreme-Lord-of-the-Undead-en.pdf Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead]''': (880pts) Changed from his early forms, Nagash is now 30 points more expensive, and no longer loots the spells from all of his Death-based allies. (but he does know the whole spell lore by default.) Instead, he can now restore wounds/models to 5 of his Bonecast Eternals, and can sling Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt as much as his undead heart (and casting limit) desire.
**As Nagash and Arkhan gain the OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS keyword, they can heal themselves, making them quite a bit more resilient in an OBR army than when accompanying their own legions. Go figure.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arkhan-the-Black-Mortarch-of-Sacrament-en.pdf Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament]''': (360pts) Much like Nagash, Arkhan is more expensive now, at a "whopping" 20 points more than before. With an extra cast and deny, and the ability to sling Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield like his Boss, (along with learning the whole spell lore,) it sounds like that price increase came with some buffs. However, overall Arkhan's in a slightly more disappointing place. Curse of Years no longer succeeds on 1s, meaning it's slightly more fair, and his command ability has now been limited to one use a turn, spoiling an awful lot of fun that could have been had.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arch-Kavalos-Zandtos-en.pdf Arch-Kavalos Patru Zandtos]''': (220pts) A named Mortis Praetorians Liego-Kavalos, with additional abilities like more damage on the charge, rerolls to wound, and another CA that grants a Praetorians unit the same reroll ability. A good choice for leader - practically an auto-take if you want a Liege-Kavalos in Mortis Praetorians.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Volkmortian-Master-of-the-Bone-tithe-en.pdf Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe]''': (180pts) He is a Wizard that should be very close to the front lines. He has a chance to prevent a model within 3" from attacking him on a 5+ as a defense. He also has a 12" aura of -1 to bravery and -1 to any Wizard attempting to unbind any spell he casts (which improves in that rare instance an enemy General dies near him). His Unique spell can instantly kill any model within 1" of him on a 5+, and the range on it cannot be modified, which can be used to punish any foolish combat heroes or big monsters he ends up fighting - though it is a bit unreliable to make him a dedicated assassin. Overall, he should be standing behind your troops (ideally Immortis Guard or Mortek Guard), providing the debuff and using his 2 spells per turn.

====Generic Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Liege-Kavalso-en.pdf Liege-Kavalos]''': (200pts) Your commander on a big-boned mount that gives two guaranteed Relentless Discipline points. Lots of decent attacks, but nothing too nutty. When he charges he has an increased pile in and the ability to fling out some extra mortal wounds. His Command Ability gives a unit wholly within 12" +1 attack. He probably functions best running with some deathriders for a spoopy cavalry wing, though having him roam around your anvils can make for some good time damage output.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulreaper-en.pdf Mortisan Soulreaper]''': (120pts) Our CC battlemage, though with his weapon the most he'll be reaping is chaff mobs. His unique spell lets him smack one unit at range, or every unit in CC with him with a few mortal wounds. Probably our worst unit, as outside of his spell-slinging, he's basically a really expensive cairn wraith from nighthaunt. Look elsewhere, unless you really love his amazing model.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Boneshaper-en.pdf Mortisan Boneshaper]''': (130pts) Probably your most included HQ, and part of the <s>glue that holds your army together</s> calcium that strengthens your bone boys. With the ability to restore 3 wounds (or 3 wounds worth of boys (raise 3 Mortek Guard, or 1 Kavalos Deathriders everything else has 4+ wounds)) to a friendly squad and sling a few spells, he feels close to auto-include, especially if you left Nagash or Arkhan at home. His unique spell lets him fling [[Awesome|BONESTORM!]] at an enemy unit, roll for each model within 18" and every 6 deals a mortal wound, a nice anti-horde spell being easy to cast on 5. Keep him out of combat and out of LoS so he can spend your whole game building bonecasts in a dark corner away from anyone else.
** Boneshapers and Immortis Guard are a good match, as they can take wounds for him and he can heal them if they take too many hits.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulmason-en.pdf Mortisan Soulmason]''': (140pts) The grand vizier will see you now. He's got a passable melee profile, but that's not why you take him. He's a wizard with 2 casts and unbinds and a unique spell, Soul-Guide, that gives a friendly Ossiarch Bonereapers unit the ability to reroll 1's to hit. Pretty good so far, but it gets better. At the end of your hero phase, on a 2+ cast Soul-Guide more times even if it was already attempted that turn. Basically, bring him when you're spamming catapults (or anything, really) and spread the re-rolling to hit love.
** For extra fun, his potential multiple casts force the enemy to consider whether to unbind these spells or other spells.

===Battleline===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Guard-en.pdf Mortek Guard]''': (Battleline, 130/440pts, Min:10, Max:40) Your basic skellies are a decently-protected lot with a 4+ save. Their basic weapons are 2 attacks with -1 Rend sword or a spear, both can double the hits inflicted on a 6+ to hit. The greatblade, on the other hand, trades that for a slightly better wound score, which isn't remarkable but at least keeps the sword's Rend. Their slow speed is helped by their banner giving them +1 to runs and charges, and the +3" move order mentioned above. A good choice for loadout is sword for smaller units and spears for bigger units.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': This boy is a mini-HQ that gives to your Relentless Discipline pool and keys to a lot of other things. (in big units you have to pack a lot of models very close together to have Deathless Warriors). He's only got an attack more than the base guard, but he also confers a command ability that lets his pack re-roll all saves for the combat phase - much more valuable for their survival.
** With the Petrifex Elite, you can take the spears and use the Petrifex command ability to give them rend, just save the spears for larger units of Mortek Guard.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Kavalos-Deathriders-en.pdf Kavalos Deathriders]''': (Battleline, 180/460pts, Min:5, Max:15) Your basic skellies, but on a horse! When compared to their foot-slogging brothers, these guys have +1 attack and 3 wounds each, the 2 extra pony swings we all know and love (actually, even their horses are on steroids, wounding on a 3+), and a whopping 12" move compared to the former's 4". Not only that, but their spears have exploding hits on a 5+ roll on the charge, giving you a bit more reason to consider selling the rend on your swords.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': Much like the Mortek Guard, the Deathrider's hekatos has +1 attack with their weapon, but his command ability gives you some mortal wound output on the charge and a double-range pile in. FAQ'd to confirm a unit can only benefit from this once per phase.

===Hekatos===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Necropolis-Stalkers-en.pdf Necropolis Stalkers]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:6) Speedy, Re-rolling, <s>tyranid warriors </s> skeleton boys. Each turn, these massive lads pick whether they want to re-roll hits, wounds, saves, or add +1 to their weapons' Rend and Damage. While rerolling saves is nice when you get charged by something scary, you'll almost always use +1 rend and damage, as it turns your basic stalker into a stormcast blender, and your unit leader <s>into a literal monster</s> into an equally strong blender as the normal weapons, when enhanced with -1 rend and +1 dmg, are actually stronger than the special weapon, proven by Mathhammer. Their command ability that lets them re-roll run and charge rolls while also ignoring terrain as if they could fly.
** Another option is to run them with a Soulmason equipped with the Gothizzar Cartouche in support which gives +1 to wound rolls. Now, assuming you also have Katakros on the board and you can get Soul-Guide onto your Stalkers then the best Aspect to run is the Destroyer Aspect because this combo would then mean your hitting on 2's and re-rolling 1's '''AND''' wounding on 2's (with spirit blades)
** Upon testing with Mathhammer, in this precise scenario, precision still pulls far ahead if you take 3 of the normal weapons and give them all of these buffs. There is around an average damage difference of 5 per round.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Immortis-Guard-en.pdf Immortis Guard]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:12)The Anvil to the stalker's hammer. These guys have a lower damage output, with 2 3+/3+/-2/2 damage (though the base rend 2 is nice), and the ability to bop someone with their shields for a bit of extra damage, with the occasional mortal wound when rolling a 6. Their main draw, however, is their base 3+ save and bodyguard ability. Whenever they're within 3" of a friendly hero, on a 2+ they must eat a wound or mortal wound that would have been applied to said hero. Their command ability lets them immediately pile in and swing again after their first go, but only with their shields. Less than impressive, but nice for positioning. Having two weapons means they get more out of the Liege's extra attack command ability, and with their own on top of that the mortal wounds do become bit more reliable.
*'''Morghasts [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Archai-en.pdf Archai] & [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Harbingers-en.pdf Harbingers]''': (190pts, Min:2, Max:6) Nagash's angels of death come in 2 flavors, with the archai having a chance to shrug off mortal wounds, and harbingers getting a 3d6 charge. Beyond those differences either one is monstrous combatants, and tough to boot, with 6 wounds 4+ armor and being Hekatos for the death save. They also have a bravery debuff as a bonus. You should always take the halberd for 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/3, as they will only do less damage against units with a 6+ save, shown by Mathhammer. You don't want your Morghasts engaging Chaff, as they aren't meant to be wiping chaff for you. Additionally, adding attacks to the Halberd from your Liege is much stronger than doing so to your swords.
** See the above option for Stalkers and apply to Morghasts - you'll lose out on the re-rolling wounds but up the rend to -2 and the damage to 3 (with halberds) so the Mathammer will result in more wounds on average (even if you run swords) - only real issue with this is keep up with the Morghasts on your bone throne.
** Following the Petrifex nerf, these guys just got a bit more viable. They mesh well with quite a few Legions (the Archai save against spells compliments Null Myriad spell nullifying, the Harbingers compliment the Stalliarch rules - and they're probably our best unit against the Kharadron Overlords and more).

===Behemoths===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Gothizzar-Harvester-en.pdf Gothizzar Harvester]''': (200pts, Behemoth) Big guy has 10 wounds and a 4+ save. Has good damage potential with 4 solid ranged attacks and a BUNCH of 2 damage melee swings, with a choice between bludgeons or sickles. These weapons have the exact same melee stats, but different effects. Bludgeons do 2 mortal wounds on unmodified hits of 6 instead of normal damage, (basically giving the guy a Nighthaunt's frightful touch) while the sickles get +1 to hit against units with 5+ models. The Bludgeons are the better choice, as there are other ways to boost hit rolls and Mortal Wounds are useful whoever you're up against. More importantly than that, this guy is another source of precious calcium/healer. Each time any models (friend or foe) die within 3" of him, he can heal an Ossiarch Bonereaper unit within 6" on a 4+. The heals he gives depends on the wounds characteristic of the model slain. It's worth noting he can do this to himself, making his relatively fragile 10 wounds and 4+ save last a little longer.
**For the Crematorians, this guy makes the list even more trollish. Camp him by your Mortek Guard, and when they die and cause mortal wounds, he can heal them right back up. Free mortal wounds, anyone?
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Crawler-en.pdf Mortek Crawler]''': (200pts, Artillery, Behemoth) The most trolltastic catapult in all of AoS. With a nice 36" range and solid durability, it starts as a remarkably strong springboard for the absolute terror of its ammo types. Once per battle, you can fire a different choice of ammo from two different options and their effects are trolltastically memeable.
**Necrotic Skulls: Your normal shots. You're getting a pretty hefty 3 2+/3+/-/variable shots that start at 5 damage, and dips down to 1 as the model takes damage. Good as a general all-rounder, but pales in comparison to what follows.
***Just to reiterate however: 3 shots at 5 damage initially. Although lack of rend hurts, this is a horde killing volley beyond compare, particularly as their hit and wound rolls are so good.
**Cauldron of Torment: the first of the meme shots. Instead of firing like normal, you roll a dice for every model in the target unit, and whenever you meet or beat their '''UNMODIFIED''' Bravery, one model is slain. "But Anon," you reply, "lots of units have high Bravery! That's not good," To which I say, sure, you're right. this isn't good against undead, Stormcast, or Chaos, but do you know what it IS good against? grots, where you wipe half of whatever squad you fire at. Or freeguild, where you gun down a third of whatever unit you want in a ghostly fog. And we're STILL not done with this bad boy.
**Cursed Stele: Does your local meta not really do hordes? Or do they just love low model-count armies with high leadership? Well, have I got a unit for you! Instead of shooting normally, pick a model within range (so, characters, banners, unit leaders, etc.) and roll 2d6. If you roll equal to or higher than their wound stat, the guy dies (with some modifiers, starting at -3 to your roll, slowly turning to +3 as you lose wounds). This right here is disgusting. With an average roll of 4, you kill support heroes about 60% of the time or get to guaranteed snipe off important banners or unit champions whenever you're feeling cheeky. Did that daemon prince swoop in and drop you to 1 wound? Wouldn't it be great if his failure meant your average roll is now a 10 and insta-gibs the winged sexy, sexy biscuit daemon? (Lovely to consider, but the 6" minimum range on the Crawler's attacks means if it's in melee it's been neutered - protect at all costs!)

===Scenery===
*'''Bone-tithe Nexus''': (0pts) Your mandatory accompanying setpiece is a giant monolith surrounded by bones upon bones. In truth it acts more like a sentry that can chuck out one of four different Punishments each turn: -1 to hit, MW Sniping, causes problem for a wizard, or Can't run and only roll 1d6 for charges. The physical footprint of this thing is BIG. You're supposed to place the terrain before defining and placing any of the game's (neutral) terrain. Placing the damn thing can therefore be problematic in organized events, where terrain is pre-set before the game starts.

==Battalions==
<big>'''Ossiarch Cohort'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''4450''')
''Katakros, Zandtos or Liege Kavalos, 1-3 Mortek Shield-Corps, 1-3 Kavalos Lances, 1 Mortisian Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1 Mortek Ballistari''
* The Super Battalion.
For putting together all that dough together your general generates 1d3 additional RDPs at the beginning of your hero phase.

<big>'''Aegis Immortal'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''1 Archai, 2 Immortis.''
The ARCHAI from this battalion has the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS ability from the Immortis Guard warscroll. In addition, if you use the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS and the roll is a 5+, the wound/MW is negated instead of allocated to a unit from this battalion. Take with Petrifex Elite to make your characters near unkillable. Solid choice, pun intended, the only drawback is if you want a more offensive playstyle since this is defensive-based.

<big>'''Katakrosian Deathglaive'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''2 Stalkers, 1 Morghast Harbinger''
After units are set up but before the first battleround, if all units from the btn are WHOLLY WITHIN 12" of the Harbingers, you can move any of them up to 6" The best name for a Battalion in all of AoS. Useful for strategic positioning and claiming objectives, it's a decent choice. One foe it does help against is Kharadron Overlords, positioning your Morghasts and Stalkers to better catch their fliers.

<big>'''Kavalos Lance'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''680''')
''Arch-Kavalos OR 1 Liege-Kavalos, 2 Kavalos Deathriders.''
Units from this battalion can retreat and charge if wholly within 12" of the Liege when the charge roll is made. In addition, once per turn, you can use the Deathrider Wedge CA for a unit from this battalion without spending RDP. Pretty good, especially if you bring a spellcaster with Empower Nadirite Weapons, more so if you're running Petrifex to give the weapons extra rend. Just remember it's a waste of points if you're using the Stalliarch Lords legion because they do this but better and for free.

<big>'''Mortek Ballistari'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''760''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Mortek Guard, 2 Crawlers.''
Roll a die before you allocate a wound/MW to a Crawler from this btn while it is within 3" of the Mortek Guard unit from the same btn. Add 2 if the Crawler is within 3" of the Boneshaper from the same btn. On a 4+, it is instead allocated to the GUARD instead of the CRAWLER.

<big>'''Mortek Shield-corps'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''630''')
''Either Volkmortian, a Boneshaper, a Soulreaper OR a Soulmason, and 3 Mortek Guard.''
Once per turn, you can use Shieldwall for one unit in the battalion without spending RDP. The cheapest option, and a decent choice, making your Mortek Guard that much more durable and freeing RDP to be spent elsewhere. Petrifex Mortek Guard will be even tougher with a free re-roll, and it's a good safety net if a unit loses their Hekatos.

<big>'''Mortisan Trident'''</big> 110 pts (min points: '''700''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Soulreaper, 1 Soulmason, 1 Harvester.''
EACH Mortisan from this battalion can attempt to cast 1 extra spell if WITHIN 18" of the harvester AND the harvester is within 3" of any enemy units.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Retinue''' </big> 120 pts (min points: '''840''')
''Volkmortian, 1 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1 Archai.''
The exclusive battalion from Feast of Bones. At the start of your hero phase, you can return 1 slain model to a unit within 8 inches of Morty.
This battalion, and it's older dreadier brother, is the armies only reliable method of bringing back dead Stalkers and Archai.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Dread Retinue''' </big> 130 pts (min points: '''850''')
''Volkmortian, 1-3 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1-2 Archai or Harbingers, in any configuration.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Comes with the same ability as Vokmortain's Retinue, but also gives you a start of game ability to hurt the chances of a single enemy hero hitting Vokmortian. Because you can take Harbingers instead of Archai with this battalion, which opens up returning Morghast Harbingers to play, this battalion is much better than the regular Retinue. The restriction on legion means that, of course, this cannot really be considered competitive at this time.

<big> '''Harvester Scythe Corps''' </big> 100 pts (min points: '''660''')
''2 Kavalos Deathriders and 1 Gothizzar Harvester.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Battalion lets you add one to wound rolls for the Harvester if within 12 of the dead ponies. Decent if you need to generate the RDP and the artefact, but if you are taking a pair of Deathriders, you might as well be taking a Liege and going for the Kavalos Lance battalion, which also doesn't restrict you out of the better legions.

<big> '''Vokmortian's Tithe Legion''' </big> 110 pts (min points: '''5640''')
''This list of other battalions: 1 Vokmortian's Dread Retinue, 1-3 Mortek Shield Corps, 1 Mortisan Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1-3 Kavalos Lances or Harvester Scythe Corps in any configuration, 1 Mortek Ballistari, 1 Harvester Scythe Corps.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion.
The boring part of this battalion is that you probably won't ever get to field it, and even if you do, the abilities from it aren't the best. You get to generate an additional D3 RDP per hero phase, and you get to take '''any number of''' Nighthaunt allies, without them counting against ally rules. Super battalions are fun, but this one means that outside of the nearly 6k points you have to spend on it, you also need Nighthaunt to make use of it. It's a good goal for a collection, though.

==Army Building==
=== Getting Started ===
When getting started with the Ossiarch Bonereapers, it's important that you understand the direction you want to take your list in. If you are going for competitive, you're going to be making the most out of Mortek Guard, while if you are going for fun and cool, you have a lot of fun and cool options.

If new to the game, look out for a Feast of Bones set half, as it can be a great start to your Ossiarch Army. Another way to start would be with a box of Mortek Guard and a Liege Kavalos, as this gives you a little bit less than a Start Collecting worth of points, but a lot of cool units to start working on.

=== Currently Competitive ===

The best lists right now center around the fact that Mortek Guard units are incredibly over-statted for their points cost. As for which Legion, following the nerfing of Petrifex, Mortis Praetorians have stepped up to top spot. Petrifex are still viable, but no longer auto-take.

==== Heroes ====

A Petrifex-aligned Liege-Kavalos is a mainstay in the General position, as the Mighty Croissant command trait and Godbone Armor artefact make it a 9 wound, ignoring first wounds of every phase monster, along with the extra RDP generation for being a liege, and a built in Mystic Shield effect making the Liege basically indestructible, as Nagash would want. The other best hero seems to be the Soulmason, as it has great casting for the points, and really fills out the support role of your army.

You can also build Nagash or Arkhan centric lists, and those typically look like Nagash/Arkhan + 40 blobs of guard and a support unit or two.

==== Battleline ====

Mortek Guard, usually a pair of 2 40 blobs are great. Then, fill out the battleline with some of those dead ponies. Seriously, Mortek Guard are only 130 points right now, can be given exploding 5+s and additional rend. They're practically the backbone of any Ossiarch army.

==== Other Models ====

Necropolis Stalkers are your can-openers, popping heavily armored units. They can also move as if flying, opening up more options, and are cheaper than the other Hekatos units.

Gothizzar harvesters can be run as a one of per blob of Guard you manage to field. This means that your Mortek Guard is going to have a 4+/6+/4+ save, which is equal to about a 13.88% (or a "1.25+" save equivalent) chance to wound. Per model. That's like having a 0.83+ save.

Mortek Crawlers can be utilized to constantly rampage as your large blobs of guard gum up the board, create incredibly tough tar pits, and slow down enemy units. Another benefit is that if a cheap unit is used by your opponent to attempt to capture an objective, you might be able to wipe it out before it gains any points if you notice it soon enough and identify that part of your opponent's game plan.

==== Spells ====

There are several good spells that you can take, although overall the spell lore is kind of boring. Empower Nadirite Weapons is the best spell in the lore, mainly because most lists are running blobs of 40 Mortek Guard and the spell makes them table. Arcane Command can be taken on a second support wizard, as can Mortal Contract, depending on who you think you might be facing. Reinforce shield walls can also be a decent spell, especially if you are combining several layers of saves to make Mortek Guard the ultimate pit of bone.

==== Using Battalions ====

Because of the ability to increase RDP generation, there are some ways you can use cheap battalions to increase the amount of RDP you have, and lower the amount you need for specific units. One of the best and cheapest battalions is the Mortek Shield Corps battalion, which requires one of your 3 Mortisans or Vokmortian and 3 units of 10 Mortek Guard, allowing you to use one of the CAs on the Mortek Guard for free, once per turn. It also presents you with an additional RDP per turn. The shield wall ability allows you to reroll saves, which means that your 4+/6+ save turns into a 4+/4+/6+ save. Now, add in one of those Harvesters, meaning that you have a 4+/4+/4+/6+ save, or a 10% chance to fail incoming non-rend armor saves. That means that for every 20 armor saves, less than three should convert to a wound.

The Kavalos Lance battalion makes use of a pair of the fantastically modelled (by Nagash or GW) Kavalos Deathriders, and a Liege Kavalos. This battalion allows you to make up some of the difficulties of movement that the Ossiarch are presented with, and the additional RDP are always great for the +3" movement.

Another interesting battalion to consider taking is the Mortisan Trident Battalion, which would be how you go about building a strong Magical Ossiarch Bonereapers army. With the current state of Tzeentch, however, this army might be a bit rough to play. This battalion requires you to take all three Mortisans, as well as a Harvester, allowing you additional spell casts, when close to the harvester. That battalion and an Arkhan would allow you some crazy amounts of spells, and if you can take full advantage of that, you might end up thrashing a lot of armies that can't deal with heavy spell usage. Sadly, a lot of your spells work much better when you have a lot of your points in Mortek Guard, who are core to any army you create.

Other battalions can be taken solely for RDP generation and the artefacts you can take, seeing as your first artefact will generally have to be the Petrifex Elite artefact, Godbone Armor. Both Boneshapers and Soulmasons have decent "tools" for their artefacts, but they are not necessary, so don't feel forced to take a battalion for some bad models.

==Tactics==

===Mr. Arkhan’s Wild Ride===
Take Arkhan the Black as your general, along with two Gothizzar Harvesters and a buttload of Mortek Guard. Finally put them all under the Crematorians legion. Your boney boys will proceed to explode in the faces of the enemy and then be brought back to un-life from the ashes thanks to the Mortarch and Harvesters’ restoration abilities. Is this trolling? Yes. Is it fun? ''Oh yes.'' Also take a Mortisan Boneshaper as a cherry on top for extra heals and bring an Endless Spell or two; cast with Arkhan to laugh off that casting penalty.
* Nerfed slightly in December 2019 Errata. Now Gothizzar Harvester ability only triggers "each time a model is slain within 3" of any models with this ability." No double dipping on the Gothizzar heals anymore by choosing to remove a model within 3" of both. Personally, I'd say this is a good thing since this formation would be pretty much unbeatable without enough ranged firepower/artillery to snipe the 10 wound Gothizzars out of the Mortek blob (and in a single shooting phase to prevent 6 wound auto-heal from Arkhan and the Boneshaper).

===Trolling with Catapults===
Take a Soulmason as your general and put him in a massive blob of 60 Mortek Guard with 4 Mortek Crawlers behind. With some amazing dice rolls (which can be helped by using the Soul Resevoir artefact) the Soulmason can give all 4 Crawlers rerollable hits of 1. The Guard can block any incoming attackers whilst the catapults bombard your enemies from across the table. Even if your skellie dudes are taken out and the enemy damages your Centipedes of Doom it just means that their characters are more likely to be decimated by the most trolling shot in AoS, the Cursed Stele. So just sit back, relax and watch your enemies die before they even reach you.

Alternatively, take 2 of Ballistari battalions. Lose the Soulmason but gain some mad defenses.

=== Feast of Bones upgrades ===

If you started with the Feast of Bones kit, there are several ways to build the army. The first is the (maybe subjectively) best, which is to go with the Rule of Cool - buy the cool models. Run 3x10 Mortek Guard to get Battleline out of the way, and then take advantage of how cool Morghasts are to scare your opponents.

Starting with Vokmortian, 10x Mortek Guard, 3x Necopolis Stalkers, and 2x Morghasts, and the Vokmortian's Retinue battalion, you can instead use the Dread Retinue Battalion, to use Morghast Harbingers instead of Archai. Or, get a second unit of Stalkers and create the objectively coolest battalion, the Katakrosian Deathglaive. Add in some more guard or Kavalos Deathriders, and whatever else you want that you like. That's it. It's the rule of cool. With Morghasts - the coolest rule of cool unit.

The other way is to move to a more competitive list, but sadly, the Feast of Bones units aren't great. Vokmortian is pretty bad, as are Morghasts, relative to what is offered in the army, although they can be used as a tool. You can run Vokmortian as a Boneshaper, especially if you figure out a cool conversion for it. Then, add in a Soulmason and another support HQ or Liege, and a lot of Mortek Guard. Add in a few Gothizzar Harvesters and/or Crawlers, and you have the fundamentals to a competitive list.

==Allied Armies==
No Allies. Nope, none. Nighthaunt hate your guts. Legions of Nagash hate your attitude. Not even the Flesh Eater Courts is crazy enough to be your friend. Don't like it? Go play Stormcast, and go fuck yourself while you're at it.

There is...one however...

*'''Big Drogg Fort-Kicka''': A Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant available to all Death factions as an ally. Functions like Gotrek in the Order factions where he uses up your whole allies allowance in exchange for a very destructive monster of a unit. His most important feature is the ability to destroy terrain, including faction terrain. He also has a unique breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Age of Sigmar/Tactics/Death/Ossiarch Bonereapers

2021-02-20T08:24:39Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* Currently Competitive */

{{Age of Sigmar Faction|Faction=Ossiarch Bonereapers|Logo=Immortis-WC2.jpg|Alliance=Death|Motto=The Skeleton War is upon us! We ride against the fuckboys!}}

Get ready to send a chill down your opponent's spine, for this is no time to be humerus. Nagash is rising, and he has a bone to pick with the Mortal Realms!

==Why play Ossiarch Bonereapers?==
* They're SPOOKY SCARY SKELETONS!
* You liked playing super-elite units like Blood Knights? Well you now play a different elite FACTION!
* You miss the Tomb Kings and this is as close as it gets for now with a vulture being called a Carrion, undead constructs and a war machine that hurls flaming skulls.
* They collect protection payments of bone like a skeletal version of the Mafia.
* Part of the reason for their existence is to troll Sigmarines.
* You want a sneak peek at what civilization would be like if Nagash wins.

===Pros===
* [[Awesome|'''Immunity to Battleshock!''']]. Not just bravery 10, the Bonereapers do not take battleshock tests. They have no guts, but they're braver than everyone else.
* Excellent at debuffing their enemies in various ways, especially their bravery (spells, Morghasts...)
* Conversely, they have numerous ways to buff themselves.
* Very durable, and various ways to boost that to the point of being arguably the most durable army in the game.
* Point-for-point, they have some of the strongest warscrolls of the game as few units can beat their ossiarch counterpart (Mortek Guard and Kavalos Deathriders are strong contenders for best battleline units in the game).
* They use the Relentless Discipline Points mechanic (also called RDP) instead of Command Points. Things that screw with CP won't work on them. Despite this, they still benefit from Command Abilities.
* They're a Death army that isn't reliant on Heroes. Unit champions have the HEKATOS keyword, which gives a smaller radius of 6+ Deathless saves and allows them to use RDP abilities. Certain elite units are also HEKATOS, so they can function completely independently.
* If you're sick of those magic-heavy armies like Tzeentch's forces, the Lizardmen and the Lumineth, the Null Myriad Bonereaper Legion is for you with army-wide +5 immunity to spells that can be buffed.
* Almost everything is 3+ to hit, with various ways to boost it.
* With the Crematorians Bonereaper Legion, your guys can take enemies down with them when/if they're slain - the more they attack you, the more they die! [[Awesome|Rinse and repeat, since you can bring back slain models!]]
* Nagash and [[Arkhan the Black|bro-tier mini-Nagash]] are part of the army roster; [[Awesome|they also benefit from keywords and Battle Traits]].
* Numerous characters and a unit that can heal anything in your army - including themselves - or bring back dead models.
* Our Endless Spells are awesome. Not only that, they're soul linked, so no friendly fire and they're always under the casting player's control.
* If you like bone puns...

===Cons===
* Most of your army is slow (though there are a few abilities to mitigate this).
* Shooting is almost non-existent. Apart from the amazing Mortek Crawler, you only have the Gothizzar Harvester's shooting and Nagash's laser eyes.
* No extra protection against shooting beyond certain spells. Shooting armies tend to really hurt the Ossiarchs (especially the Kharadron Overlords).
* The army's quite straightforward and lacking in useful tricks. There's no summoning, deepstrike or special combat mechanics like striking twice. Any decent opponent knows what you will do. There is a teleportation mechanic, but it's very gimmicky, limited and requires a lot of cunning to get something out of it.
* Limited means to deal Mortal Wounds. Ossiarchs tend to bounce on really armored units if stalkers aren't around. This can be mitigated with MW dealers like the Crematorians Legion and anyone with "Kavalos" in their name, but still relies a lot on the dice.
* Magic is average and mostly around buffing allies and debuffing enemies. Sure, Nagash and Arkhan are there, but the magic lore is still unimpressive, especially compared to real magical factions (looking at you, Tzeentch and Seraphon).
* Low model count, slightly mitigated by having the means to bring back (re)dead models.
* No allies apart from the Mega-Gargant Drogg; their foreign policy makes the Daughters of Khaine look like the Stormcast Eternals (can still have mercenaries though - unless you bring Nagash or Arkhan).
* If you know the Greek language, it'll be hard to take any unit or hero with "Kavalos" in their name seriously.
* Hope you like bone puns.

==Rulebooks==
{{AOSRulebooks|tome=Ossiarch Bonereapers}}

==Allegiance Abilities==
===Battle Traits===
*'''Ranks Unbroken by Dissent:''' [[Awesome|Do not take battleshock tests for friendly OSSIARCH BONEREAPER units]]. Yes, you read that right, immunity to Battleshock. Your enemy's only options are killing, flee or be killed. In addition, you do not generate Command Points. Instead, you generate Relentless Discipline Points at the start of each battle round but lose them when you generate your next batch (they should be all spent before that happens).
**Generate a Relentless Discipline Point if:
*** EACH {{AOSKeyword|Ossiarch Bonereapers Hero}} - 1
*** EACH Warscroll Battalion - 1
*** EACH Friendly {{AOSKeyword|LIEGE}} - 1
*** If KATAKROS is the general and on the battlefield - 3
*** Roll a die for each UNIT with the {{AOSKeyword|OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS}} keyword, including the previous {{AOSKeyword|HEROES}}. On a 6, you get 1.
**Unfortunately, you can't use the Generic or Scenario command abilities (rerolling Run, charge, shooting rolls) but you have a ton of CAs that will Guzzle your DP.

*'''Deathless Warriors''': It's Deathless Minions from Legions of Nagash, albeit with a rename. It allows you to ignore wounds and mortal wounds on a 6+. However, you'll be able to get more mileage out of it than other Death armies, as any unit wholly within 12" of a {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS Hero}} or 6" of a Hekatos (i.e: the leader for your battlelines) count for the ability, removing the need to have your Heroes babysitting your units. Units that are {{AOSKeyword|HEKATOS}} (elite bone warriors units) always benefit from the ability, allowing them to strike out entirely unsupported.

*'''Unstoppable Advance (CA)''': In Movement Phase. Pick 1 unit within X" of a hero or hekatos. +3" movement. It can still run OR charge. You cannot pick the same unit more than once per phase.

===Command Traits===

====Liege-Kavalos====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dark Acolyte:''' Becomes a 1 cast/unbind {{AOSKeyword|WIZARD}} with one Mortisan Lore spell.
*'''Peerless Warrior:''' Melee wound rolls of 6 deal an extra mortal wound.
*'''Hatred of the Living:''' +1 to hit in melee (including their mount) against non-{{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} units.
*'''Life-stealer:''' If they kill any models in combat, heal 1d3 wounds at the end of that phase.

====Mortisan====
*'''Ancient Knowledge:''' While on the battlefield, get an extra RDP at the start of the battle round.
*'''Immortal Ruler:''' Deathless Warrior trait works on a 5+ for this general. Always good.
*'''Dire Ultimatum:''' -2 to Bravery for enemies within 12". Although it requires coordinating a couple of units, you can cause a MASSIVE debuff to enemy Bravery by combining this and the Scroll of Command (see below).
*'''Grave-sand Bones:''' Knows an extra spell from the Lore of the Mortisans.
*'''Oathbreaker Curse:''' Every time your opponent gets a CP, on a d6 roll of 6 it is lost. Obviously Katakros does it better, but this does work more than once per turn if your enemy has CP-generating abilities.
*'''Soul Energy:''' You can re-roll casting, unbinding and dispelling rolls, but whenever you do you take a mortal wound.

===Artefacts===
*'''Relics of the Kavaloi (Liege-Kavalos)'''
#'''Mind Blade:''' Pick one of bearer’s melee weapons. If unmodified hit roll is a 6, and target is a hero, opponent loses a Command Point and the hero can’t use command abilities for the rest of the battle. Apart from only working on sixes this is incredible.
#'''Lordly Phylactery:''' Once per battle start of any phase, gain D3 RD points.
#'''Scroll of Command:''' Subtract 2 Bravery from enemy units within 6” of bearer. Only really recommended if you're going for Mortis Praetorians (see their Legion description for more information). Although, a Liege-Kavalos with this, with a Mortisan general with the Dire Ultimatum command trait nearby drops enemy Bravery by a whopping -4!
#'''Grave-sand Boneplates:''' At the end of the combat phase, roll dice for each enemy unit within 3”, on a 4+ that unit suffers a mortal wound. Mediocre.
#'''Marrow Pact:''' Once per battle, in hero phase pick one enemy unit within 6” of bearer. On a 3+, unit suffers D3 mortal wounds, heal the same number of wounds.
#'''Helm of the Ordained:''' Add one to hit rolls for attacks made by {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} units and mounts while wholly within 12” of the bearer. One of the best choices for a Liege-Kavalos if including Bonereaper Legion weapons, otherwise it's the best unless you have a very specific playstyle in mind.

*'''Tools of the Boneshaper (Boneshapers)'''
#<s>Skeleton</s> '''Artisan's key:''' Before using the bearer’s bone shaper ability, roll a dice and on a 4+ either you can pick two units instead of one, or the same unit twice within 6”. The best of the three by a narrow margin.
#'''Lode of Saturation:''' At the start of the Hero phase, choose a unit within 1”, deathless warrior battle trait on 5+ instead of 6.
#'''Crafter Gems:''' Hero phase, heal up to 3 wounds. Once the total wounds healed in the battle is 3 you cannot use it any longer.

*'''Treasures of the Soulmason (Soulmasons)'''
#'''Gothizzar Cartouche:''' +1 to melee wound rolls for units wholly within 9” of bearer if target does not have Death keyword. The best option if you're not facing {{AOSKeyword|DEATH}} armies.
#'''Soul Reservior:''' +2 to cast, but if casting roll is unmodified 10+ artifact cannot be used again.
#'''Thorne of Dzendt:''' +2 to wounds and +2 attacks for mount. A good all around choice, especially for keeping your chair bound wizard safe.

*'''Weapons of the Soulreaper (Soulreapers)'''
#'''Luminscythe:''' minus 1 for hit rolls targeting bearer. +1 casting rolls for bearer for Lore of Mortisans or warscroll spell.
#'''Vial of Binding:''' Once per battle in hero phase, pick enemy model within 12" of bearer and roll a D6. If roll is equal or greater than the wound characteristic they are slain. The best choice if you take a Soul Reaper, and the obvious choice for offensive.
#'''Guardian Reavesoul:''' Negate wound on a 5+ instead of 6+ for deathless minions. Can shatter to negate last wound if about to die. If you're not taking Vial of Binding, this is the go-to choice.

===Spell Lore===
#'''Arcane Command:''' CV5. Gain D3 Relentless Discipline Points. Nice if you've got an extra spell, or had some bad luck with your rolls.
# '''Empower Nadirite Weapons: ''' CV5. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, the units Nadirite Weapons ability explodes on a 5+ instead of 6, or 4+ if its a {{AOSKeyword|DEATHRIDERS}} attacking with spears after charging.
# '''Protection of Nagash: ''' CV6. 5+ FNP for the caster. If any wounds get through your FNP, and the caster isn't slain, remove them from the battlefield after all wounds have been allocated, and place them anywhere on the board 9" away from enemy models then dispel this spell. Great for getting important casters out of sticky situations, or absolutely hilarious on Nagash if you wanna fuck with your opponent.
# '''Reinforce Battle-shields: ''' CV6. Pick 1 {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit armed with Shields or Nadirite Battle-shields wholly within 24" and visible. Until the start of your next hero phase, they gain a 5+ FNP but only for mortal wounds. Pair this with a gothizzar harvester, the reroll saves command ability for some truly unkillable troops.
# '''Drain Vitality: ''' CV6. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. Until your next hero phase, reroll unmodified hit and save rolls of 6 made by that unit. Good for blunting a spooky unit's charge, but less useful than the other options available.
# '''Mortal Contract: ''' CV7. Pick 1 enemy unit within 18" and visible. For the rest of the '''BATTLE''', roll a die at the end of any phase that the unit dealt damage to a friendly {{AOSKeyword|BONEREAPERS}} unit (but only if it was with an attack). On 3+, the cursed unit suffers D3 mortal wounds. Lawdy, this is probably the most obnoxious spell we can sling, if you can remember who you marked the entire game. Great into low unit-count armies.

===Endless Spells===

An important distinction to note between these Endless Spells and others that exist is that the ones presented below have the '''Soul-Linked''' ability, meaning they always move before Endless Spells without the Soul-Linked ability and are controlled by the casting Player only, meaning your opponent cannot control these Endless Spells to mess with your plans. However on the flip side, the Wizard who cast the spell has a -1 to his casting rolls and cannot cast anymore soul-linked spells while their soul-linked endless spell is up. If the caster dies then the soul-linked spell is also dispelled, so keep him alive if you want the spells to last.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Bone-tithe-Shrieker-en.pdf Bone-tithe Shrieker]''': 30 points, Gives -1 bravery, and +1 to be hit to enemy units within 12" of it. Simple, but effective. Place it just in front of your battle line to make the enemy think twice, or use it to make holding an objective less than desirable.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Soulstealer-Carrion-en.pdf Soulstealer Carrion]''': 20 points, Gives LOS to the Soul-Linked wizard. You won't be taking it for this. Instead, you'll be taking it for it's actual ability: Soul Thief. Roll a D6 at the end of each Phase if any Chaos, Order, or Destruction models were slain within 6" of it. On a 1 or 2, the Wizard this Endless Spell is Soul-Linked with heals a wound. On a 3 or 4, it does 1 Mortal Wound on each Chaos, Destruction or Order unit within 6" of it, and on a 5-6, it does both effects. AMAZINGLY fun, if you're not playing into Death, so do with that as you will.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nightmare-Predator-en.pdf The Nightmare Predator]''': 40 points, Your standard causes Mortal Wounds Endless Spell (dealing D3 Mortal Wounds to all non-bonecasts within 3" of it), but with a twist - when cast, pick an enemy Hero to be marked as it's prey. If this spell gets within range of them, it spits out d6 mortal wounds instead. For it's dirt cheap point cost, this is almost auto-include.

==<span style=color:Gray>Famous Legions</span>==

For awhile the best Legion was Petrifex Elite, by far. But due to Petrifex spam and the resulting complaints GW jumped them with something even they couldn't take - the nerf-bat. Oh, the old gray Petrifex, it ain't what it used to be. Now, Mortis Praetorians are in the lead and the others are good but most are situational; Crematorians are worth considering if you spam Mortek Guard and Null Myriad against a magic-heavy opponent.

<big>Mortis Praetorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''The Dread Legion''':-1 bravery to enemy units within 12".
*'''Command Trait''': '''Katakros' Chosen''': Once per battle if the general is on the Battlefield, gain D3 RDP points.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Counter-strike''': Pick a friendly unit Wholly within 6" of a HEKATOS or Wholly 12" of a HERO. If charged, they can re-roll hits.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Artificer's Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons. It has -3 Rend.
The poster boys, the jack-of-all-trades and the best choice if you’re bringing Katakros, otherwise it's decent but not an auto-take. Plus other death armies capitalize on "fear-bombing" a bit more effectively (looking at you, Legions of Grief and Blood).

<big>Petrifex Elite</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Unstoppable Juggernauts''': Re-roll save rolls of 1 in melee.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Mighty Archaeossian''': +2 Wounds.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Bludgeon''': In the combat phase, give a unit +1 rend on one weapon, can't stack.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Godbone Armor''': The first wound allocated to the bearer in each '''phase''' is negated.
Makes your entire army (including Nagash) overall more tanky, gives your commander a few extra wounds for a chuckle, lets you put some durability on a caster via the relic (especially useful if you're bringing some Endless Spells), AND comes with a command ability that makes you killy, just to throw your opponent for a loop. Pre-nerf it added +1 to everyone's armor save and was THE choice of Bonereaper Legion. Now it's decent but no longer the one best choice.

<big>Null Myriad</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Eldritch Nulls''': Ignore the effects of spells on a 5+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Unsettling and Sinister''': -1 to Bravery in 3", and -1 to be hit during combat phase.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Holdfast''': Make the battle trait work on a 2+ instead of 5+.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''<s>Cheese</s> <s>Chad</s> Baleful Blade''': Pick 1 of the bearer's weapons. [[Awesome|Saves can't be made against attacks from this weapon and wounds can't be negated]] (though they can later be healed).
The magic choice. Their innate rules mean you can focus more on offensive magic, and the Artefact is perfect for any combat character... but is obviously best on a Liege-Kavalos. One of the best choices, but if your meta is very magic heavy this is clearly the best. Make those six hallowheart battlemages cry because they can do nothing to you (and then notice that you can't probably do much to them either, so the battle is probably a void of winds of magic).

<big>Ivory Host</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': At the start of each combat phase, any IVORY HOST unit within 6" of an IVORY HOST <i>model</i> that is wounded is subject to rage for that phase. While subject to rage, get +1 to hit, but -1 save. Dependent on having damaged multi-wound models nearby and can potentially really mess your own forces up, but can lead to you hitting very hard. Fortunately, as it's only for the combat phase, you don't have to worry about it when you're being shot at.
*'''Command Trait''': Every hero phase your general gains 1 attack for all his melee weapons on a 5+. Best to have a Liege-Kavalos as your general for this.
*'''Command Ability''': Cancel the -1 save from the battle trait. This is what makes the Ivory host interesting, letting you pull some shenanigans with a screen unit or pulling some clutch damage out at a vital time.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Beastbound Blade''': One of the bearer's melee weapons gets +1 attack.
The combat choice, though dependent on good dice rolls, positioning and carefully picking your fights. Decent in and of itself, but very situational and the worst choice crunch-wise compared to the others.

<big>Stalliarch Lords</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': Run and charge. Pretty good for increasing your threat range on a slow army.
*'''Command Trait''': Pick an enemy hero within 3" at the start of the combat phase. Gain +1 to hit against it but -1 to anything else. Pretty situational and lackluster.
*'''Command Ability''': Retreat and charge in the same turn. Good for repositioning or getting your charge bonuses again. Here's looking at you, Deathriders.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Nadir-Bound Mount''': Can only be taken by a Liege-Kavalos. They roll D3 additional dice for their Unstoppable Charge ability.
The speedy and somewhat trollish choice. Do you wanna go fast? Do you want a liege or Zandtos to run fast next to fast cavalry? Or if you take a Liege make them hit like a ton of bricks? Then go these guys. They let you skimp out of the costly battalion with their inherent command ability, and make your already fast cavalry even faster. They even pair well with Stalkers, Morghast Harbingers or Harvesters, to just really irritate your opponent.

<big>Crematorians</big>
*'''Battle Traits''': '''Immolation''': When a model dies you get a chance to cause MW to an enemy within 3" on a 5+, with monsters and characters adding 1 to their roll/going off on a 4+.
*'''Command Trait''': '''Wrathful Avenger''': If the general dies, add 2 to the dice roll for Immolation and it does D3 Mortal Wounds rather than 1.
*'''Command Ability''': '''Levelers of Cities''': One friendly CREMATORIANS unit with 6" of a Hekatros or 12" of a hero ignores cover saves.
*'''Artefact of Power''': '''Searing Blade''': Pick one of the bearer's melee weapons and add 1 to the Damage characteristic.
The TRUE trolling choice. Paired with some revives and harvesters, and laugh as your opponent realizes that killing your models meant their guys died and then revived the dudes they just tried to kill, rinse and repeat. Especially lulzy against Sons of Behemat, given how reliant they are on combat... which is ground zero for your skeleton suicide bombers.

==<span style=color:Gray>Warscrolls<span>==
The common keywords of these warscrolls are: '''DEATH''', '''OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS'''

===Leaders===
====Named Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Katakros-Mortarch-of-the-Necropolis-en.pdf Orpheon Katakros, Mortarch of the Necropolis]''': (500pts) Like Skarbrand, his attacks get stronger the more wounds he takes. Katakros himself has [[Awesome|Rend and Damage 3]] and he can bop foes with his shield to dole out Mortal Wounds, so he can dish out some hurt in combat, but not until he's taken some wounds representing his companions dying so Katakros himself joins the fray. However, he is one of the slowest characters in the game - 4" move (which doesn’t much matter when he’s on a '''12 centimetre''' base, and you can use the Relentless Advance to boost Katakros' movement to 7") and can't fly, but Mortarch of Necropolis allows Katakros to heal up to three friendly OBR units wholly within 24" of his model for 3 wounds worth on your hero phase. Katakros is a friendly OBR unit within 24" of himself, so he can choose to heal himself for 3 wounds every one of your hero phases. Because he is so slow, he hates cannons even more than his boss so engage shooty armies at your own risk. He's pricey in points and cash, but you get what you pay for - no more no less - as he's a good beatstick and support character, just don't try to send him up against other super combat lords who have a damage of 3 or better because he can easily get his shit kicked in, especially if they have some serious wound negation. If your opponent is fielding a character with either (or worse, both) then make sure to screen him out. It's better to not get him in combat and keep your Relentless Discipline points, heals and Command Point sabotage than it is for you to possibly lose all of those.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Nagash-Supreme-Lord-of-the-Undead-en.pdf Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead]''': (880pts) Changed from his early forms, Nagash is now 30 points more expensive, and no longer loots the spells from all of his Death-based allies. (but he does know the whole spell lore by default.) Instead, he can now restore wounds/models to 5 of his Bonecast Eternals, and can sling Mystic Shield and Arcane Bolt as much as his undead heart (and casting limit) desire.
**As Nagash and Arkhan gain the OSSIARCH BONEREAPERS keyword, they can heal themselves, making them quite a bit more resilient in an OBR army than when accompanying their own legions. Go figure.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arkhan-the-Black-Mortarch-of-Sacrament-en.pdf Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament]''': (360pts) Much like Nagash, Arkhan is more expensive now, at a "whopping" 20 points more than before. With an extra cast and deny, and the ability to sling Arcane Bolt and Mystic Shield like his Boss, (along with learning the whole spell lore,) it sounds like that price increase came with some buffs. However, overall Arkhan's in a slightly more disappointing place. Curse of Years no longer succeeds on 1s, meaning it's slightly more fair, and his command ability has now been limited to one use a turn, spoiling an awful lot of fun that could have been had.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Arch-Kavalos-Zandtos-en.pdf Arch-Kavalos Patru Zandtos]''': (220pts) A named Mortis Praetorians Liego-Kavalos, with additional abilities like more damage on the charge, rerolls to wound, and another CA that grants a Praetorians unit the same reroll ability. A good choice for leader - practically an auto-take if you want a Liege-Kavalos in Mortis Praetorians.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Volkmortian-Master-of-the-Bone-tithe-en.pdf Vokmortian, Master of the Bone-tithe]''': (180pts) He is a Wizard that should be very close to the front lines. He has a chance to prevent a model within 3" from attacking him on a 5+ as a defense. He also has a 12" aura of -1 to bravery and -1 to any Wizard attempting to unbind any spell he casts (which improves in that rare instance an enemy General dies near him). His Unique spell can instantly kill any model within 1" of him on a 5+, and the range on it cannot be modified, which can be used to punish any foolish combat heroes or big monsters he ends up fighting - though it is a bit unreliable to make him a dedicated assassin. Overall, he should be standing behind your troops (ideally Immortis Guard or Mortek Guard), providing the debuff and using his 2 spells per turn.

====Generic Leaders====
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Liege-Kavalso-en.pdf Liege-Kavalos]''': (200pts) Your commander on a big-boned mount that gives two guaranteed Relentless Discipline points. Lots of decent attacks, but nothing too nutty. When he charges he has an increased pile in and the ability to fling out some extra mortal wounds. His Command Ability gives a unit wholly within 12" +1 attack. He probably functions best running with some deathriders for a spoopy cavalry wing, though having him roam around your anvils can make for some good time damage output.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulreaper-en.pdf Mortisan Soulreaper]''': (120pts) Our CC battlemage, though with his weapon the most he'll be reaping is chaff mobs. His unique spell lets him smack one unit at range, or every unit in CC with him with a few mortal wounds. Probably our worst unit, as outside of his spell-slinging, he's basically a really expensive cairn wraith from nighthaunt. Look elsewhere, unless you really love his amazing model.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Boneshaper-en.pdf Mortisan Boneshaper]''': (130pts) Probably your most included HQ, and part of the <s>glue that holds your army together</s> calcium that strengthens your bone boys. With the ability to restore 3 wounds (or 3 wounds worth of boys (raise 3 Mortek Guard, or 1 Kavalos Deathriders everything else has 4+ wounds)) to a friendly squad and sling a few spells, he feels close to auto-include, especially if you left Nagash or Arkhan at home. His unique spell lets him fling [[Awesome|BONESTORM!]] at an enemy unit, roll for each model within 18" and every 6 deals a mortal wound, a nice anti-horde spell being easy to cast on 5. Keep him out of combat and out of LoS so he can spend your whole game building bonecasts in a dark corner away from anyone else.
** Boneshapers and Immortis Guard are a good match, as they can take wounds for him and he can heal them if they take too many hits.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortisan-Soulmason-en.pdf Mortisan Soulmason]''': (140pts) The grand vizier will see you now. He's got a passable melee profile, but that's not why you take him. He's a wizard with 2 casts and unbinds and a unique spell, Soul-Guide, that gives a friendly Ossiarch Bonereapers unit the ability to reroll 1's to hit. Pretty good so far, but it gets better. At the end of your hero phase, on a 2+ cast Soul-Guide more times even if it was already attempted that turn. Basically, bring him when you're spamming catapults (or anything, really) and spread the re-rolling to hit love.
** For extra fun, his potential multiple casts force the enemy to consider whether to unbind these spells or other spells.

===Battleline===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Guard-en.pdf Mortek Guard]''': (Battleline, 130/440pts, Min:10, Max:40) Your basic skellies are a decently-protected lot with a 4+ save. Their basic weapons are 2 attacks with -1 Rend sword or a spear, both can double the hits inflicted on a 6+ to hit. The greatblade, on the other hand, trades that for a slightly better wound score, which isn't remarkable but at least keeps the sword's Rend. Their slow speed is helped by their banner giving them +1 to runs and charges, and the +3" move order mentioned above. A good choice for loadout is sword for smaller units and spears for bigger units.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': This boy is a mini-HQ that gives to your Relentless Discipline pool and keys to a lot of other things. (in big units you have to pack a lot of models very close together to have Deathless Warriors). He's only got an attack more than the base guard, but he also confers a command ability that lets his pack re-roll all saves for the combat phase - much more valuable for their survival.
** With the Petrifex Elite, you can take the spears and use the Petrifex command ability to give them rend, just save the spears for larger units of Mortek Guard.

*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Kavalos-Deathriders-en.pdf Kavalos Deathriders]''': (Battleline, 180/460pts, Min:5, Max:15) Your basic skellies, but on a horse! When compared to their foot-slogging brothers, these guys have +1 attack and 3 wounds each, the 2 extra pony swings we all know and love (actually, even their horses are on steroids, wounding on a 3+), and a whopping 12" move compared to the former's 4". Not only that, but their spears have exploding hits on a 5+ roll on the charge, giving you a bit more reason to consider selling the rend on your swords.
**'''Mortek Hekatos''': Much like the Mortek Guard, the Deathrider's hekatos has +1 attack with their weapon, but his command ability gives you some mortal wound output on the charge and a double-range pile in. FAQ'd to confirm a unit can only benefit from this once per phase.

===Hekatos===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Necropolis-Stalkers-en.pdf Necropolis Stalkers]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:6) Speedy, Re-rolling, <s>tyranid warriors </s> skeleton boys. Each turn, these massive lads pick whether they want to re-roll hits, wounds, saves, or add +1 to their weapons' Rend and Damage. While rerolling saves is nice when you get charged by something scary, you'll almost always use +1 rend and damage, as it turns your basic stalker into a stormcast blender, and your unit leader <s>into a literal monster</s> into an equally strong blender as the normal weapons, when enhanced with -1 rend and +1 dmg, are actually stronger than the special weapon, proven by Mathhammer. Their command ability that lets them re-roll run and charge rolls while also ignoring terrain as if they could fly.
** Another option is to run them with a Soulmason equipped with the Gothizzar Cartouche in support which gives +1 to wound rolls. Now, assuming you also have Katakros on the board and you can get Soul-Guide onto your Stalkers then the best Aspect to run is the Destroyer Aspect because this combo would then mean your hitting on 2's and re-rolling 1's '''AND''' wounding on 2's (with spirit blades)
** Upon testing with Mathhammer, in this precise scenario, precision still pulls far ahead if you take 3 of the normal weapons and give them all of these buffs. There is around an average damage difference of 5 per round.
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Immortis-Guard-en.pdf Immortis Guard]''': (180pts, Min:3, Max:12)The Anvil to the stalker's hammer. These guys have a lower damage output, with 2 3+/3+/-2/2 damage (though the base rend 2 is nice), and the ability to bop someone with their shields for a bit of extra damage, with the occasional mortal wound when rolling a 6. Their main draw, however, is their base 3+ save and bodyguard ability. Whenever they're within 3" of a friendly hero, on a 2+ they must eat a wound or mortal wound that would have been applied to said hero. Their command ability lets them immediately pile in and swing again after their first go, but only with their shields. Less than impressive, but nice for positioning. Having two weapons means they get more out of the Liege's extra attack command ability, and with their own on top of that the mortal wounds do become bit more reliable.
*'''Morghasts [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Archai-en.pdf Archai] & [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Morghast-Harbingers-en.pdf Harbingers]''': (190pts, Min:2, Max:6) Nagash's angels of death come in 2 flavors, with the archai having a chance to shrug off mortal wounds, and harbingers getting a 3d6 charge. Beyond those differences either one is monstrous combatants, and tough to boot, with 6 wounds 4+ armor and being Hekatos for the death save. They also have a bravery debuff as a bonus. You should always take the halberd for 3 attacks at 3+/3+/-2/3, as they will only do less damage against units with a 6+ save, shown by Mathhammer. You don't want your Morghasts engaging Chaff, as they aren't meant to be wiping chaff for you. Additionally, adding attacks to the Halberd from your Liege is much stronger than doing so to your swords.
** See the above option for Stalkers and apply to Morghasts - you'll lose out on the re-rolling wounds but up the rend to -2 and the damage to 3 (with halberds) so the Mathammer will result in more wounds on average (even if you run swords) - only real issue with this is keep up with the Morghasts on your bone throne.
** Following the Petrifex nerf, these guys just got a bit more viable. They mesh well with quite a few Legions (the Archai save against spells compliments Null Myriad spell nullifying, the Harbingers compliment the Stalliarch rules - and they're probably our best unit against the Kharadron Overlords and more).

===Behemoths===
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Gothizzar-Harvester-en.pdf Gothizzar Harvester]''': (200pts, Behemoth) Big guy has 10 wounds and a 4+ save. Has good damage potential with 4 solid ranged attacks and a BUNCH of 2 damage melee swings, with a choice between bludgeons or sickles. These weapons have the exact same melee stats, but different effects. Bludgeons do 2 mortal wounds on unmodified hits of 6 instead of normal damage, (basically giving the guy a Nighthaunt's frightful touch) while the sickles get +1 to hit against units with 5+ models. The Bludgeons are the better choice, as there are other ways to boost hit rolls and Mortal Wounds are useful whoever you're up against. More importantly than that, this guy is another source of precious calcium/healer. Each time any models (friend or foe) die within 3" of him, he can heal an Ossiarch Bonereaper unit within 6" on a 4+. The heals he gives depends on the wounds characteristic of the model slain. It's worth noting he can do this to himself, making his relatively fragile 10 wounds and 4+ save last a little longer.
**For the Crematorians, this guy makes the list even more trollish. Camp him by your Mortek Guard, and when they die and cause mortal wounds, he can heal them right back up. Free mortal wounds, anyone?
*'''[https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Warscrolls//aos-warscroll-Mortek-Crawler-en.pdf Mortek Crawler]''': (200pts, Artillery, Behemoth) The most trolltastic catapult in all of AoS. With a nice 36" range and solid durability, it starts as a remarkably strong springboard for the absolute terror of its ammo types. Once per battle, you can fire a different choice of ammo from two different options and their effects are trolltastically memeable.
**Necrotic Skulls: Your normal shots. You're getting a pretty hefty 3 2+/3+/-/variable shots that start at 5 damage, and dips down to 1 as the model takes damage. Good as a general all-rounder, but pales in comparison to what follows.
***Just to reiterate however: 3 shots at 5 damage initially. Although lack of rend hurts, this is a horde killing volley beyond compare, particularly as their hit and wound rolls are so good.
**Cauldron of Torment: the first of the meme shots. Instead of firing like normal, you roll a dice for every model in the target unit, and whenever you meet or beat their '''UNMODIFIED''' Bravery, one model is slain. "But Anon," you reply, "lots of units have high Bravery! That's not good," To which I say, sure, you're right. this isn't good against undead, Stormcast, or Chaos, but do you know what it IS good against? grots, where you wipe half of whatever squad you fire at. Or freeguild, where you gun down a third of whatever unit you want in a ghostly fog. And we're STILL not done with this bad boy.
**Cursed Stele: Does your local meta not really do hordes? Or do they just love low model-count armies with high leadership? Well, have I got a unit for you! Instead of shooting normally, pick a model within range (so, characters, banners, unit leaders, etc.) and roll 2d6. If you roll equal to or higher than their wound stat, the guy dies (with some modifiers, starting at -3 to your roll, slowly turning to +3 as you lose wounds). This right here is disgusting. With an average roll of 4, you kill support heroes about 60% of the time or get to guaranteed snipe off important banners or unit champions whenever you're feeling cheeky. Did that daemon prince swoop in and drop you to 1 wound? Wouldn't it be great if his failure meant your average roll is now a 10 and insta-gibs the winged sexy, sexy biscuit daemon? (Lovely to consider, but the 6" minimum range on the Crawler's attacks means if it's in melee it's been neutered - protect at all costs!)

===Scenery===
*'''Bone-tithe Nexus''': (0pts) Your mandatory accompanying setpiece is a giant monolith surrounded by bones upon bones. In truth it acts more like a sentry that can chuck out one of four different Punishments each turn: -1 to hit, MW Sniping, causes problem for a wizard, or Can't run and only roll 1d6 for charges. The physical footprint of this thing is BIG. You're supposed to place the terrain before defining and placing any of the game's (neutral) terrain. Placing the damn thing can therefore be problematic in organized events, where terrain is pre-set before the game starts.

==Battalions==
<big>'''Ossiarch Cohort'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''4450''')
''Katakros, Zandtos or Liege Kavalos, 1-3 Mortek Shield-Corps, 1-3 Kavalos Lances, 1 Mortisian Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1 Mortek Ballistari''
* The Super Battalion.
For putting together all that dough together your general generates 1d3 additional RDPs at the beginning of your hero phase.

<big>'''Aegis Immortal'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''1 Archai, 2 Immortis.''
The ARCHAI from this battalion has the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS ability from the Immortis Guard warscroll. In addition, if you use the SOULBOUND PROTECTORS and the roll is a 5+, the wound/MW is negated instead of allocated to a unit from this battalion. Take with Petrifex Elite to make your characters near unkillable. Solid choice, pun intended, the only drawback is if you want a more offensive playstyle since this is defensive-based.

<big>'''Katakrosian Deathglaive'''</big> 80 pts (min points: '''690''')
''2 Stalkers, 1 Morghast Harbinger''
After units are set up but before the first battleround, if all units from the btn are WHOLLY WITHIN 12" of the Harbingers, you can move any of them up to 6" The best name for a Battalion in all of AoS. Useful for strategic positioning and claiming objectives, it's a decent choice. One foe it does help against is Kharadron Overlords, positioning your Morghasts and Stalkers to better catch their fliers.

<big>'''Kavalos Lance'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''680''')
''Arch-Kavalos OR 1 Liege-Kavalos, 2 Kavalos Deathriders.''
Units from this battalion can retreat and charge if wholly within 12" of the Liege when the charge roll is made. In addition, once per turn, you can use the Deathrider Wedge CA for a unit from this battalion without spending RDP. Pretty good, especially if you bring a spellcaster with Empower Nadirite Weapons, more so if you're running Petrifex to give the weapons extra rend. Just remember it's a waste of points if you're using the Stalliarch Lords legion because they do this but better and for free.

<big>'''Mortek Ballistari'''</big> 100 pts (min points: '''760''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Mortek Guard, 2 Crawlers.''
Roll a die before you allocate a wound/MW to a Crawler from this btn while it is within 3" of the Mortek Guard unit from the same btn. Add 2 if the Crawler is within 3" of the Boneshaper from the same btn. On a 4+, it is instead allocated to the GUARD instead of the CRAWLER.

<big>'''Mortek Shield-corps'''</big> 120 pts (min points: '''630''')
''Either Volkmortian, a Boneshaper, a Soulreaper OR a Soulmason, and 3 Mortek Guard.''
Once per turn, you can use Shieldwall for one unit in the battalion without spending RDP. The cheapest option, and a decent choice, making your Mortek Guard that much more durable and freeing RDP to be spent elsewhere. Petrifex Mortek Guard will be even tougher with a free re-roll, and it's a good safety net if a unit loses their Hekatos.

<big>'''Mortisan Trident'''</big> 110 pts (min points: '''700''')
''1 Boneshaper, 1 Soulreaper, 1 Soulmason, 1 Harvester.''
EACH Mortisan from this battalion can attempt to cast 1 extra spell if WITHIN 18" of the harvester AND the harvester is within 3" of any enemy units.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Retinue''' </big> 120 pts (min points: '''840''')
''Volkmortian, 1 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1 Archai.''
The exclusive battalion from Feast of Bones. At the start of your hero phase, you can return 1 slain model to a unit within 8 inches of Morty.
This battalion, and it's older dreadier brother, is the armies only reliable method of bringing back dead Stalkers and Archai.

<big> '''Volkmortian’s Dread Retinue''' </big> 130 pts (min points: '''850''')
''Volkmortian, 1-3 Mortek Guard, 1 Stalker, and 1-2 Archai or Harbingers, in any configuration.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Comes with the same ability as Vokmortain's Retinue, but also gives you a start of game ability to hurt the chances of a single enemy hero hitting Vokmortian. Because you can take Harbingers instead of Archai with this battalion, which opens up returning Morghast Harbingers to play, this battalion is much better than the regular Retinue. The restriction on legion means that, of course, this cannot really be considered competitive at this time.

<big> '''Harvester Scythe Corps''' </big> 100 pts (min points: '''660''')
''2 Kavalos Deathriders and 1 Gothizzar Harvester.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion. Battalion lets you add one to wound rolls for the Harvester if within 12 of the dead ponies. Decent if you need to generate the RDP and the artefact, but if you are taking a pair of Deathriders, you might as well be taking a Liege and going for the Kavalos Lance battalion, which also doesn't restrict you out of the better legions.

<big> '''Vokmortian's Tithe Legion''' </big> 110 pts (min points: '''5640''')
''This list of other battalions: 1 Vokmortian's Dread Retinue, 1-3 Mortek Shield Corps, 1 Mortisan Trident, 1-2 Katakrosian Deathglaives, 1 Aegis Immortal, 1-3 Kavalos Lances or Harvester Scythe Corps in any configuration, 1 Mortek Ballistari, 1 Harvester Scythe Corps.''
One of the battalions from May 2020's issue of White Dwarf. This battalion must be taken with the Mortis Praetorians legion.
The boring part of this battalion is that you probably won't ever get to field it, and even if you do, the abilities from it aren't the best. You get to generate an additional D3 RDP per hero phase, and you get to take '''any number of''' Nighthaunt allies, without them counting against ally rules. Super battalions are fun, but this one means that outside of the nearly 6k points you have to spend on it, you also need Nighthaunt to make use of it. It's a good goal for a collection, though.

==Army Building==
=== Getting Started ===
When getting started with the Ossiarch Bonereapers, it's important that you understand the direction you want to take your list in. If you are going for competitive, you're going to be making the most out of Mortek Guard, while if you are going for fun and cool, you have a lot of fun and cool options.

If new to the game, look out for a Feast of Bones set half, as it can be a great start to your Ossiarch Army. Another way to start would be with a box of Mortek Guard and a Liege Kavalos, as this gives you a little bit less than a Start Collecting worth of points, but a lot of cool units to start working on.

=== Currently Competitive ===

The best lists right now center around the fact that Mortek Guard units are incredibly over-statted for their points cost. As for which Legion, following the nerfing of Petrifex, Mortis Praetorians have stepped up to top spot. Petrifex are still viable, but no longer auto-take.

==== Heroes ====

A Petrifex-aligned Liege-Kavalos is a mainstay in the General position, as the Mighty Croissant command trait and Godbone Armor artefact make it a 9 wound, ignoring first wounds of every phase monster, along with the extra RDP generation for being a liege, and a built in Mystic Shield effect making the Liege basically indestructible, as Nagash would want. The other best hero seems to be the Soulmason, as it has great casting for the points, and really fills out the support role of your army.

You can also build Nagash or Arkhan centric lists, and those typically look like Nagash/Arkhan + 40 blobs of guard and a support unit or two.

==== Battleline ====

Mortek Guard, usually a pair of 2 40 blobs are great. Then, fill out the battleline with some of those dead ponies. Seriously, Mortek Guard are only 130 points right now, can be given exploding 5+s and additional rend. They're practically the backbone of any Ossiarch army.

==== Other Models ====

Necropolis Stalkers are your can-openers, popping heavily armored units. They can also move as if flying, opening up more options, and are cheaper than the other Hekatos units.

Gothizzar harvesters can be run as a one of per blob of Guard you manage to field. This means that your Mortek Guard is going to have a 4+/6+/4+ save, which is equal to about a 13.88% (or a "1.25+" save equivalent) chance to wound. Per model. That's like having a 0.83+ save... and then you can buff the 6+ to a 5+ with "Empower Nadirite Shields".

Mortek Crawlers can be utilized to constantly rampage as your large blobs of guard gum up the board, create incredibly tough tar pits, and slow down enemy units. Another benefit is that if a cheap unit is used by your opponent to attempt to capture an objective, you might be able to wipe it out before it gains any points if you notice it soon enough and identify that part of your opponent's game plan.

==== Spells ====

There are several good spells that you can take, although overall the spell lore is kind of boring. Empower Nadirite Weapons is the best spell in the lore, mainly because most lists are running blobs of 40 Mortek Guard and the spell makes them table. Arcane Command can be taken on a second support wizard, as can Mortal Contract, depending on who you think you might be facing. Reinforce shield walls can also be a decent spell, especially if you are combining several layers of saves to make Mortek Guard the ultimate pit of bone.

==== Using Battalions ====

Because of the ability to increase RDP generation, there are some ways you can use cheap battalions to increase the amount of RDP you have, and lower the amount you need for specific units. One of the best and cheapest battalions is the Mortek Shield Corps battalion, which requires one of your 3 Mortisans or Vokmortian and 3 units of 10 Mortek Guard, allowing you to use one of the CAs on the Mortek Guard for free, once per turn. It also presents you with an additional RDP per turn. The shield wall ability allows you to reroll saves, which means that your 4+/6+ save turns into a 4+/4+/6+ save. Now, add in one of those Harvesters, meaning that you have a 4+/4+/4+/6+ save, or a 10% chance to fail incoming non-rend armor saves. That means that for every 20 armor saves, less than three should convert to a wound.

The Kavalos Lance battalion makes use of a pair of the fantastically modelled (by Nagash or GW) Kavalos Deathriders, and a Liege Kavalos. This battalion allows you to make up some of the difficulties of movement that the Ossiarch are presented with, and the additional RDP are always great for the +3" movement.

Another interesting battalion to consider taking is the Mortisan Trident Battalion, which would be how you go about building a strong Magical Ossiarch Bonereapers army. With the current state of Tzeentch, however, this army might be a bit rough to play. This battalion requires you to take all three Mortisans, as well as a Harvester, allowing you additional spell casts, when close to the harvester. That battalion and an Arkhan would allow you some crazy amounts of spells, and if you can take full advantage of that, you might end up thrashing a lot of armies that can't deal with heavy spell usage. Sadly, a lot of your spells work much better when you have a lot of your points in Mortek Guard, who are core to any army you create.

Other battalions can be taken solely for RDP generation and the artefacts you can take, seeing as your first artefact will generally have to be the Petrifex Elite artefact, Godbone Armor. Both Boneshapers and Soulmasons have decent "tools" for their artefacts, but they are not necessary, so don't feel forced to take a battalion for some bad models.

==Tactics==

===Mr. Arkhan’s Wild Ride===
Take Arkhan the Black as your general, along with two Gothizzar Harvesters and a buttload of Mortek Guard. Finally put them all under the Crematorians legion. Your boney boys will proceed to explode in the faces of the enemy and then be brought back to un-life from the ashes thanks to the Mortarch and Harvesters’ restoration abilities. Is this trolling? Yes. Is it fun? ''Oh yes.'' Also take a Mortisan Boneshaper as a cherry on top for extra heals and bring an Endless Spell or two; cast with Arkhan to laugh off that casting penalty.
* Nerfed slightly in December 2019 Errata. Now Gothizzar Harvester ability only triggers "each time a model is slain within 3" of any models with this ability." No double dipping on the Gothizzar heals anymore by choosing to remove a model within 3" of both. Personally, I'd say this is a good thing since this formation would be pretty much unbeatable without enough ranged firepower/artillery to snipe the 10 wound Gothizzars out of the Mortek blob (and in a single shooting phase to prevent 6 wound auto-heal from Arkhan and the Boneshaper).

===Trolling with Catapults===
Take a Soulmason as your general and put him in a massive blob of 60 Mortek Guard with 4 Mortek Crawlers behind. With some amazing dice rolls (which can be helped by using the Soul Resevoir artefact) the Soulmason can give all 4 Crawlers rerollable hits of 1. The Guard can block any incoming attackers whilst the catapults bombard your enemies from across the table. Even if your skellie dudes are taken out and the enemy damages your Centipedes of Doom it just means that their characters are more likely to be decimated by the most trolling shot in AoS, the Cursed Stele. So just sit back, relax and watch your enemies die before they even reach you.

Alternatively, take 2 of Ballistari battalions. Lose the Soulmason but gain some mad defenses.

=== Feast of Bones upgrades ===

If you started with the Feast of Bones kit, there are several ways to build the army. The first is the (maybe subjectively) best, which is to go with the Rule of Cool - buy the cool models. Run 3x10 Mortek Guard to get Battleline out of the way, and then take advantage of how cool Morghasts are to scare your opponents.

Starting with Vokmortian, 10x Mortek Guard, 3x Necopolis Stalkers, and 2x Morghasts, and the Vokmortian's Retinue battalion, you can instead use the Dread Retinue Battalion, to use Morghast Harbingers instead of Archai. Or, get a second unit of Stalkers and create the objectively coolest battalion, the Katakrosian Deathglaive. Add in some more guard or Kavalos Deathriders, and whatever else you want that you like. That's it. It's the rule of cool. With Morghasts - the coolest rule of cool unit.

The other way is to move to a more competitive list, but sadly, the Feast of Bones units aren't great. Vokmortian is pretty bad, as are Morghasts, relative to what is offered in the army, although they can be used as a tool. You can run Vokmortian as a Boneshaper, especially if you figure out a cool conversion for it. Then, add in a Soulmason and another support HQ or Liege, and a lot of Mortek Guard. Add in a few Gothizzar Harvesters and/or Crawlers, and you have the fundamentals to a competitive list.

==Allied Armies==
No Allies. Nope, none. Nighthaunt hate your guts. Legions of Nagash hate your attitude. Not even the Flesh Eater Courts is crazy enough to be your friend. Don't like it? Go play Stormcast, and go fuck yourself while you're at it.

There is...one however...

*'''Big Drogg Fort-Kicka''': A Gatebreaker Mega-Gargant available to all Death factions as an ally. Functions like Gotrek in the Order factions where he uses up your whole allies allowance in exchange for a very destructive monster of a unit. His most important feature is the ability to destroy terrain, including faction terrain. He also has a unique breath attack that attacks one unit within 3" at the end of the combat phase; roll a dice for each model in the unit and deal 1MW on a 6+.

{{Age_of_Sigmar_Tactics}}

Magical realm

2021-02-20T07:38:11Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* See Also */

{{sick|Dare you enter my Magical Realm?}}
[[File:Magical realm.png|200px|thumb|left|Well, do you?]]
[[File:The Whizzard.png|200px|thumb|right|The original comic.]]
An individual's '''Magical Realm''' is the domain of their sexual fetishes, especially in relation to [[roleplaying game]]s. When a game starts developing or introducing elements of the player or [[GM]]'s [[/d/|fetishes]], either accidentally or deliberately, it is said to be entering their ''magical realm''.

The origin of the phrase is the skit "[http://gunshowcomic.com/471 Piss World]" from KC Green's webcomic ''Gunshow'', where the players of a tabletop RPG react violently to their GM repeatedly trying to get them to play to his urine fetish. A panel has an [[NPC]] (presumably a [[DMPC]]) called the "Whizzard" asks "Dare you enter my magical realm?" The skit ends with the players [[RAGE|punching him out]]. Amusingly, the "Whizzard" looks a bit like [[Ed Greenwood]], who is notorious for doing this in his writings and has a Magical Realm self-insert in [[Elminster]].

When the phrase "Magical Realm" is used to describe a work (usually a setting or adventure module), the implication is that the author either let their fetishes bleed into the work sufficiently to make it ''very'' obvious what gets them off, or even created the work entirely for the sole purpose of sexual gratification without explicitly saying so. Bonus points if they insist otherwise despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Similarly, it is possible for a player or DM to try and force their magical realm onto a setting by acting upon their fetishes, or having particular reactions to something as mundane as, say, [[lizardfolk]]. A more basic version is simply hitting on every tavern wench from [[Golarion|Mendev to Absalom]] in an attempt to get laid in a way that the player cannot in real life. This is considered [[That Guy|bad form]] because it puts the gratification of their fetish before the fun of the rest of the group. A DM who habitually forces his Magical Realm upon the players is called a [[/d/M]].

==Drawing the Line==

It is inevitable that DM's being DM's, storytellers, will let their desires and loves bleed into a narrative without trying to get off. A horse loving DM may not constantly pump centaurs with big dicks or beautiful female bodies, but he will very likely pay great attention to mount mechanics and try to sneak in a centaur character or two to the game, or in the very least, make many horse references. These are ''not'' the DM's that have a magical realm.

A [[/d/M]] is someone who ''only'' dotes on the concepts that get him (let's be honest, they are almost always male) off, and try to draw other players to appreciate his fetishes via quests and requests. (see the piss comic above)

On the other side of the "published author" line, one of the problems with defining "magical realm" is that, sometimes, legitimate aspects of the setting can sound really, really fucked up when discussed casually.

Due to many cases of both, a lot of threads about magical realms on /tg/ are anons trying to find the precise line when something goes from "fantastical" to "perverse". As with debates regarding furries, [[beastfolk]] [[Furry#Monstergirls_vs._Furries|and monstergirls]], the primary keys are context, context, context, and the sanity with which the concept is approached. Intent also goes a long way, naturally: the DM might describe a sewer's horrible smell in-depth not because he's a fart fetishist, but because he wants to improve the group's immersion and not have the characters jump in the sludge without a care.

For a specific example, take [[Empire of the Petal Throne]], in which one of the potential PC races are the ''Mihalli'': shapeshifting alien [[wizard]]s whose "default" form is [[furry|a humanoid lion with 4-6 breasts]] and who are reputed to be [[dickgirl|hermaphroditic]]. And, to be honest, "multi-tittied herm lioness wizard" sounds like [[Chakat|something straight out of a stereotypical furry's magical realm...]] but here they are treated as just an ordinary, mundane aspect of life on Tekumel.

A quick comparison to the other races of the setting makes it clear that the hermaphrodite thing is just a case of contextually appropriate weirdness (assuming it's even true, given the Mihalli's reproductive practices aren't exactly documented): all the non-human PC races are similarly strange in one way or another. One species faces four directions at once and has eight biological sexes (and funnily enough, their reproduction methods aren't well know to outsiders, either); another has members who resemble glass sculptures and act as a eusocial hivemind. The Mihalli are almost certainly intended to be aliens that actually '''feel''' alien, and are neither [[Star Trek|aliens whose only difference from a stock human is that they have funny ridges on their foreheads]], nor aliens whose shtick is [[Chakat|summarized by the phrase "they're like that because It Gets Me Off™"]] -- in particular, they lack the usual [[Mary Sue]] bullshit that is a distinguishing feature of the latter. For example, the main reason they're a minor race? They lost a large scale war against the humans when their capital city got nuked, resulting in them having to flee into the shadows.

==See Also==
* [[/d/]]
* [[Forgotten Realms]], the original Magical Realm of [[Ed Greenwood]]. It seems tame today, but back in the days it had good-aligned life/agriculture deities blessing married couples having sex in the fields, rampant bisexuality, public orgies, rampant incest (okay, those two turn people away even today) and lots of NSFW festivals.
* [[Monster Girl Encyclopedia]], for an example of a setting that qualifies and isn't ''mindbogglingly'' awful, but still plenty [[skub]]by beyond that to put it very generously. Fans usually make tamer spin-offs.
* [[FATAL]], for an example of a game system that qualifies, and '''''is''''' mindbogglingly awful.
* [[Book of Erotic Fantasy]], for an example of a work that doesn't probably quite qualify as a "magical realm", for reasons of being too openly and explicitly about sex.
* [[Maid RPG]], for an example of a self-aware Magical Realm.
* [[Wraeththu RPG]], for an example of a work that qualifies as a Magical Realm twice over, being one reader's Magical Realm RPG version of an already existing Magical Realm series of novels, and an excellent example of what happens when you go two Magical Realms deep, i.e. sheer horror.
* [[Magical Realm CYOA]], a popular CYOA that can be overlapped with the /tg/ meaning of "Magical Realm", but also can just be taken in a non-sexualised direction.
* [[FAPP]], a furry tabletop game about what happens when the magical realm enters ''you''.
* [[CthulhuTech]], for its copious uses of rape and romance railroading in its adventures (read: getting raped by furries), along with the uber hedonistic society of the NEG. Still, NEG enacts these things out of necessity, whatever takes off your mind of risks of being mindraped and soul-annihilated by eldritch horrors of Lovecraft.
* Anything by Chris A. Field, particularly [[Black Tokyo]].
* [[Lamentations of the Flame Princess]]. The original author has a very creepy obsession with putting cannibalism and other disturbing sex content into all his books.

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:The Whizzard Indulged.jpg|What a [[/d/M]]s goal is when introducing the Magical Realm.
File:DemonicFortress.png|[[Rogal Dorn]] dared. But then again, he's a [[Imperial Fists|masochist]] like that.
Dare_you_enter_my_bomarr_monastery.png|Boonta's mercy upon those that enter the temple of scum and villainy.
File:Sorcerers and Spermlords The mundane reality.jpg|A Magical Realm in action. Note the [[/d/M]], complete with a quote from the original comic.
File:Transcendent One's Realm.png
</gallery>
</center>

[[Category:Roleplaying]][[Category:Gamer Slang]][[Category:Meme]]

Monster Girl Encyclopedia

2021-02-20T07:36:50Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:69DE:813B:736D:4582: /* The Gods */

{{Promotions}}
{{Monstergirls}}
The '''Monster Girl Encyclopedia''' is a [[NSFW]] encylopedia fleshing out a setting of [[monstergirls]] written and impressively illustrated by Japanese hentai creator Kenkou Cross. The artwork is great (if somewhat contentious in content). Some of the premises are as interesting as they are [[/d/|"enjoyable"]].

So what's the problem?

Well, while everyone more or less likes the entries themselves, the setting around them is pure [[skub]], built on a mixture of fetishized [[rape]] and [[loli|other such sketchiness]], along with the sort of unintentional [[grimdark]] only a [[/d/M]] [[Magical Realm|building a world entirely for his penis to the exclusion of all other cocks]] could create. That didn't stop it from getting an English-translated hardcover first volume printed thanks to [[Life With Monstergirls]]. Time will tell if that was a mistake or not.

The first encyclopedia is written from the perspective of a human, a nameless Wandering Scholar. The second one is written by Saphirette Spherica, a formerly human monster girl. Whether or not this change in author actually results in a change in editorial viewpoint is... debatable. Kenkou Cross has tried to claim that the first paints the monsters in a harsher light due to faulty information, and the second in a more favorable light thanks to being written by one, but considering the first volume has nary a good thing to say about the monsters' enemies, stops just shy of all-but urging the reader to go fuck a monster right now, and is actually revealed to be cursed by a succubus at the end, well... doesn't really hold water upon any kind of inspection. Not to mention the idea that the monstergirl would not be biased in her writing is inherently stupid.

But, we're getting ahead of ourselves...

==The Setting==
A brief summary is pretty simple. A Succubus has become Monster Lord, god-like ruler of all monsters. Taking the throne for herself, the Succubus has enacted a plan to bring about her vision of peace upon the world: transforming all monsters into lusty monstergirls, known in universe as mamono, and setting them out to score themselves human husbands. Peace through mutually-ensured copulation, you might say. She even convinces the Hero who is sent to slay her to join her in her rebellion against the Chief God and become her husband.

==The Factions==
===Monster Lord===
The aforementioned Big Chief Succubus, her human husband, their daughters, and pretty much every freaking mamono in the world. Want to bring about peace between humans and monsters by making human man/monstergirl relationships the norm of the world. To be fair, though, the vast majority of "normal" mamono don't really have a lot of ideological indoctrination so much as help her goals by trying to find someone to slip 'em the d - the Monster Lord basically leeches off of their "mamono mana", which increases when they fuck, to boost her own strength.

Thanks to [[Mary Sue|blatant creator favoritism]], the Monster Lord has so many ludicrously-overblown advantages piled up on her side it's honestly more incredible she hasn't instantly won the conflict seconds after starting it. And the fact that her ideal world would look like ''Brave New World'' as run by a particularly sick combination of [[Nurgle]] and [[Slaanesh]] is something of a turn-off for a lot of readers. Seriously, go read [[Chakat|this page]], mentally find and replace all the furry stuff with this-setting stuff, and see how accurate all the descriptions still are.

Part of her eventual endgame involves causing monsters to have male incubus children, in addition to their own female offspring. Again, most monsters have no interest in actively conquering human lands so complete assimilation of humans into the "new humanity consisting of incubi and monster girls" will, probably, take a while. It's been a few centuries now and things are still in a relative stalemate, though every once in a while something dramatic happens, especially since lately one of her daughters, Derulla, has taken it upon herself to probe the human kingdoms for weak links, and has already destroyed the nation of Lescatier by exploiting its internal flaws and transforming its various heroines into ravenous and evangelical monster girls by exploiting their neuroses.

====Sabbath====
A sub-faction under the Monster Lord's banner, led by baphomet mamono and primarily staffed by cults of witches, many of whom joined for "eternal youth" without reading the side effects too closely. This group is comprised entirely of [[loli]] mamono and is dedicated to spreading lolidom (in both senses of the word) over the world. Or, in other words, they want to convert women into loli mamono, convert non-loli mamono into loli form, and convert human men into "Big Brothers" (lolicons). They're the monster's primary source of R&D for various weird and sexy inventions. While each branch of the Sabbath is run by a baphomet, the organization as a whole is led by the strongest baphomet of all. This same baphomet also leads the Mamono Lord's army and holds considerable influence in the world of monsters. Surprisingly, she is noted to still be single, perhaps because baphomet normally only marry men who can beat them in battle, but more-probably so the lolicons in the audience can still hold onto hope of tappin' dat semi-jailbait ass.

====Zipangu====
The not!Japan of the setting, not technically loyal to the Monster Lord but still held up as the shining example of what she wants to achieve, with humans and monstergirls living together relatively peacefully, though often with monsters dominating humanity in the bargain. Would be [[Mary Sue]] if they had a bigger role in the world instead of being in the ass end of nowhere, but what do you expect when the creator is Japanese? Often a source of various "[[weeaboo|Eastern]]" versions of already-released mamono. Whether this is a bad thing really depends on your perspective, as well as the degree to which they successfully differentiate themselves from their predecessors.

Supposedly has clans of exorcists who fight monsters with about the same success as the Order, but are tolerated since some vicious monsters really do need clearing out.

====The Land of Mists====
Like Zipangu, only not!Chinese instead of not!Japanese.

===Pandemonium===
A faction operating out of a timeless demiplane. Allied to a high tier god called "the Fallen God", they're basically extremists on the Monster Lord's plan who seek to convert men and women to go to a dimension (Pandemonium) that consists essentially of one eternal, never-ending orgy. KC only made three profiles for this faction - the Dark Angel, Dark Valkyries and the Dark Priest - and often doesn't touch it for ages between profiles, probably because they tended to be the biggest fuel for the "anti-mamono interpretation" of the setting in the early days due to the rather limited lifestyle they subject their converts to. Hilariously, compared to the Monster Lord, they're practically vanilla: since none of them seem to go in for rape when "conversion" is much more fun. Moreover, since they have their own dimension, they aren't all that interested in altering the rest of the world, instead seeking converts to leave with them for Pandemonium.

Of course, the featured Fallen God-aligned maiden in Lescatier went and raped a couple little girl orphans she'd been caring for immediately after converting to its worship (with some prodding by Derulla), then pimped out all the other orphan children to random perverts in the street, so maybe not ''as'' vanilla as many would like...

===The Gods===
The original masters of the world, led by a Chief God, who was gravely injured by the Monster Lord and her husband while trying to kill them both to stop their plans. Currently split between those who support the Monster Lord's plan and those who support the Chief God in trying to slay the Monster Lord and return things to the original cycle. Mentioned goddesses in the first faction include Poseidon, Eros, Ares, and Dionysus. Hilariously, [[Derp|the English translations refer to every single god thus far as a goddess, and most of them are named after a deity that was originally male]].

In all honesty, some fans find the Chief God (who isn't the ''original'' Chief God) far more sympathetic than the Monster Lord. Yes, she wants to bring back the old cycle, which is bad, but otherwise she doesn't really work as a villain and is written too sympathetically to be truly hateable. KC has admitted that she was a rookie, and she ''knows'' this and that she's over her head. She's still hurt from a thwarted attempt at smiting the current Monster Lord and her husband, and she has no idea what she's doing, but she's trying to do a good job and set things "right" as far as she understands it, because that's what's expected of her. She's so ineffectual as an antagonist, especially with how stacked things are in the Monster Lord's favor, that some fans want to comfort her rather than see her lose.

To try and counter this, KC has put out new lore that it's officially fact that the Chief God will accept nothing less than the restoration of the old cycle, and doing so will result in countless grisly deaths as every former-mamono reverts to a man-eating monster and devours her spouse. Unfortunately, rather than instantly silence his critics, it has only made the setting look like a [[Grimdark|"you're fucked either way"]] sort of deal. (Pun semi-intended.)

====The Order====
The chief religion of the setting and a fairly standard [[weeaboo]] take on Medieval semi-Christianity. Dedicated to the Chief God first and foremost, their duty is to ensure humanity lives safe, moral lives. To this end, they train divinely-empowered Heroes to go out and fight monsters. It's kind of unclear as to whether they don't know that the new Monster Lord wants to end the cycle, if they even know there ''is'' a cycle, or if they know everything and are deliberately lying to the general populace so they still believe that all mamono want to kill and eat them. The Wandering Scholar is worried he'll be killed if they catch him, and the original Encyclopedia had a warning about people being punished for being caught with it, but, well... remember how it ends with a call to arms for everyone to go out and become or fuck a monster, then with a ''second'' reveal that it's actually a cursed book that's either turned you into a monster or sent you off to stick your dick in the nearest one?

A lot of fans like to portray them as essentially a fantasy take on the [[Imperium of Man]], but, really, that particular interpretation doesn't hold much water. If nothing else they aren't racist, having been on excellent terms with a number of non-human races before current events left humankind alone. Shit, settings material outright states that monsters are always ''happy'' when the Order comes crusadin', because it means they're about to enjoy the fantasy equivalent of a massive speed dating party. Due to the very nature of their teachings, the Order's men are such good people that most of them can't bring themselves to actually hurt a mamono when they meet one. Consequently, mamono consider Order men damn fine husbando material, and are eager to capture and "convert" them when they show up.

There are Order soldiers and heroes who will kill monsters readily of course, but given monsters will still fight and even kill to defend themselves it's dangerous work. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on one's perspective), the goddess of war protects both side of the war, and getting killed in battle is rare, so lots of beaten knights just end up getting convinced "[[rape| the hard way]]" after a fight.

==(Unintentional) Grimdarkness==
The original Chief God created humans, but was worried about overpopulation for reasons. So it created monsters to slaughter humans in sufficient numbers to cull them, before eventually creating the program of the Heroes and the Monster Lord: the Heroes get empowered when humans are too weak to disrupt the monsters' attack by killing their demigod leader, the Monster Lord, throwing monsterkind into disarray so that humanity has time to recover, and then eventually a new Monster Lord rises up and starts the same shit over again once humanity is waxing in strength. Said Chief God also forced the other gods to get in on this - Poseidon supports the new Monster Lord because she's sick of having to kill people with tidal waves, storms, and sea monster attacks.

Think the new Monster Lord is any better? Only if you don't mind the fact that she's bungling her job, and so mamono have swapped "kill and eat humans" for "kidnap and rape" humans. It would be a relatively tolerable subjugation were it not the fact her stated goal is to drive human women ''extinct'' so human men '''would have to''' marry monstergirls, and so she is actively seeking to convert (physically and mentally transform) all women into mamono. Someone teach that succubus about "sustainability", but we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Also, a lot of the time when KC writes profiles he focuses ''so goddamn much'' on the aspect of how the men that monsters catch react sexually and how women caught by monsters end up going "Oh noes, how embarrassing, everyone can see my sexual repression!" that he forgets to ''actually write the profile'', causing several monsters to come across as significantly more horrible than he intended. Though this is still absolutely a rod this idiot has made for his own back, and he deserves your scorn rather than your pity for it. (Significant mentions include the matango, which as written was in everyone's "least favorite" category for years, thanks to, in a reference to a classic Japanese horror picture, seeming more like a plague of mindless fuckmushrooms than a fun monster, the mind flayer, where he got so wrapped up in masturbating over how the mind flayer can make a woman slutty that he forgot to clarify basic facts like a man's ability to go back and forth between squid-monster form and human form and that women don't ''actually'' turn into lobotomized corpses after being fed on, and the atlach-nacha, which, in addition to being a [[DFC|loli]], and therefore [[heresy]], also fails to clarify that the human being they turn into their spider body can turn back in favor of going on and on about random minutae. There are many other examples; these are merely the most infamous.)

Kenkou Cross has disagreed with observations on his setting's grimdarkness. According to him, the encyclopedia descriptions were exaggerating both the nymphomania of the monstergirls and the intentions of the Monster Lord - the unintended grimdarkness was in fact the product of shoddy translation work. As a result, he forced the most popular website supporting of his work to cease hosting translated versions of his material when a user for there harassed him personally, among other reasons.

He also supposedly likes to argue that the "blame" lies squarely on his Western fandom, since they don't get the overworked-Japanese-salaryman mindset (because apparently a love of pedophilia/body horror/mindrape is a side effect of stress now?) that apparently makes his setting such a paradise. So if he didn't want it to be grimdark, he shouldn't have written himself into a corner where grimdarkness was the only logical explanation for how everything was still working. Though, admittedly, his attitude wasn't helped by Western anti-fans sending him hate-mail and death threats.

Oh, a reminder by the way: if the Chief God wins, then all those sexy monstergirls? They immediately revert back to being hideous monsters, and the mamono mindset of "love humans" will be forced to return to "kill humans" and most monsters will not be able to resist it. So a Chief God victory means restarting the original cycle, and anyone who has a mamono lover, is going to wind up being '''killed and eaten by his wife'''. And this time it isn't hyperbole, that's plain and explicit ''fact'', straight from KC, so that's one bit of grimdarkness he's actively promoting, to make the Monster Lord seem the better choice than the old status quo.

The paradox is perhaps best exemplified by the infamous "Fallen Maidens" series, from a side book about the human kingdom of Lescatier, and a selection of unhappy heroines who got turned into monsters by a lilim before all going after the boy they collectively like. KC's ''intent'' was to present a pallet of girls who were essentially incapable of finding happiness as humans... but, in the process, he made them deeply fucked-up people, and had them carry the scars of their fucked-up lives into their new existences as monsters. The tomboy soldier with a complex about her own womanhood thanks to her abusive mother that ran out on her family and caused her father to undergo a possibly-lethal breakdown becomes an obsessive pregnancy-fetishist who wants to force everyone to become like her and doesn't even think about her dad anymore. The half-elf with species-angst becomes a nearly-feral wolfgirl who leads "wild hunts" of forced transformation to feed her own sense of liberation-through-animalism. The two princesses, one a heroine put on an impossible pedestal and the other ignored and overlooked due to a weak constitution, find joy in almost literally screaming "fuck you got mine!" and abandoning all concern for the rest of humanity besides than her beau and in transforming into a [[/d/| massive tentacle-queen]] and turning the entire castle into her mind-controlled sex slaves, respectively. The list goes on. Rather than actually finding happiness and peace, or acknowledging the ways in which their problems were all in their heads, the Fallen Maidens continue to unhealthily project their issues onto the world rather than healing from them, and their trauma creates such extremist monstergirls that it makes them almost impossible to like or relate to.

This is probably why later stories, set in the same continuity, heavily tone down both the wild debauchery of post-lilim Lescatier and the severe mental issues of the post-conversion Maidens into something much more palatable.

[https://allthetropes.org "All The Tropes Wiki"] (an uncensored fork of TvTropes that hosts all the PROMOTIONS the advertising companies threw a shitfit over) theorizes the grimdark is actually intentional after all, a sort of saccharine-flavored crapsack world where the glass is only half full (as opposed to Warhammer 40k, where the glass is half empty with holes drilled along the bottom). It's not a nice place to live, rape and kidnapping are so common on the frontiers almost everyone is desensitized to it, and roving packs of [[Amazon]]s and [[Drow|Dark Elf]] slavers aren't sugarcoated at all... but there's plenty of people living decent lives and there's still plenty of ways things can get better.

''Maybe.''

...maybe not.

As an aside, many also criticize KC because his girls look like mundane cosplayers, but A) it's not necessarily exclusive to him, B) there's definitely plenty of more 'creative' monstergirl designs in his world too, and C) that's honestly like criticizing the [[Nazi]]s for their fixation on leather and jackboots. It's valid, sure, but ultimately rings as a jaywalking charge amongst the arson-murder orgy that is everything ''else'' wrong with the setting.

==...What? You're still here?==
Oh, so you wanna know about the monstergirls we keep insisting prop the whole thing up?

* [https://monstergirlencyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Monster_Girl_Encyclopedia Here, look at their wiki.]
* [https://www.amazon.com/Monster-Girl-Encyclopedia-Vol-1/dp/1626923612 Or go buy it, you /d/egenerate]

Also, specific answers from Kenkou Cross's [https://ask.fm/k_cross Q&A site], which briefly hint at the future of Monster Girl Encyclopedia world:
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/114716374101 The Order and the Chief God are, as anyone following the source material is unsurprised to learn, fated to lose, or at least never to win.]
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/127378863701 The plan to have mamono give birth to incubus children is going to succeed within one lifetime, so complete extinction is not on the table.]
* [https://ask.fm/k_cross/answers/117249680981 Even after completely defeating the Chief God, the Monster lord will not kill her.]

New profiles have been on temporary hiatus for a while while he slaps together his first game. You can look it up and support him on Patreon if you want; but he updates sparingly, being older than the current internet system of content creator support. (That said, his Twitter is apparently pretty active.)

==So Why Is This Here?==
You may be asking just why this page is here, and what possible relevance it has to /tg/. Well, there's a couple of reasons.

Firstly, /tg/ loves [[monstergirls]], plain and simple - the average fa/tg/uy has grown up with plenty of media featuring settings where humans lived alongside other non-human sentient beings, and for all its many faults, the MGE is a widely recognized and well-detailed MG setting which both has consistently appealing artwork ''and'' does not shit it up with some of the more hardcore [[/d/]] fetishes, like vore. Whilst the MGE's setting could definitely be better, it could very, ''very'' easily be a lot worse than it is. Deviantart is full of artists who add cannibalism, hard bondage and slavery being common to monster-rich fantasy settings, and Kenkou, though misguided, still has a vague semblance of 'decency' in form of the monster wargods preventing death on both sides, so the victor can fuck/love the defeated to their hearts' content.

Secondly, every so often, a thread pops up on /tg/ about adapting the setting in some way. Sexuality aside there are good idea among the smut for interesting takes on monsters, spirits and other D&D creatures. If it's not anons asking how they can stat up a given mamono race as either PCs or NPCs, it's a thread asking how you might rework the setting for use in running your own campaigns, or even a simple "your last character/party gets dumped into the MGE world; what happens?" idle chatter-thread. In fact, this happened so loften that there is now a pretty much permanent [[/mgw/|"Monster Girl Worldbuilding"]] thread that has been running for months - in the grand tradition of /tg/ getting shit done, it's even produced four sets of homebrew rules for running a game in the setting:
*One using the WHFRP 2e system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-khJ4fE5v2MyrumyZoauEJ4VIucMO-kP1MGHNVtaDkc/edit
*One using the Genesys system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/166447sk679VFybDfLoNwilCfYmtHZbCt3626u6BWPG0/edit
*One using the Dungeon World system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tnxUNkYKWeDtVtyPk8sYAiTsfwBwcNeC1DKg_0GTb8U/edit?usp=sharing
*One original system: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tMoWhMeJ4I6eonyao4GB-kGXzO4CGN4NpbyyXIvwyeo/edit#heading=h.er3da2rqdt3

Thirdly, 4chan's wanna-be rival [[8chan]] has the board /monster/, for which this setting is basically their bible: all [[monstergirl]]s that don't follow KC's rules of sexuality and morality are banned from the site, with the virtually dead board /chaos/ existing as a gathering for those few fans of monstergirls who aren't MGE-vanilla, monsterboys and monsterfutas.

==/tg/ Races==
Being a Monstergirl Fantasy World, it's natural that a lot of the entries in the Encyclopedia correspond to various races and monsters present in more mainstream works.

* [[Amazon]]
* [[Angel]]
* [[Basilisk]]
* [[Beholder]]
* [[Catfolk]]
* [[Centaur]]
* [[Chimera]]
* [[Cockatrice]]
* [[Cyclops]]
* [[Demon]]
* [[Dhampir]]
* [[Doppelganger]]
* [[Dragon]]
* [[Drider]]
* [[Dryad]]
* [[Dwarf]]
* [[Elemental]]
* [[Elf]]
* [[Fairy]]
* [[Familiar]]
* [[Ghost]]
* [[Ghoul]]
* [[Girtablilu]]
* [[Gnome]]
* [[Goblin]]
* [[Golem]]
* [[Gremlin]]
* [[Griffon]]
* [[Harpy]]
* [[Hellhound]]
* [[Illithid]]
* [[Incubus]]
* [[Jiangshi]]
* [[Kappa]]
* [[Kitsune]]
* [[Kobold]]
* [[Kraken]]
* [[Lamia]]
* [[Lich]]
* [[Lizardfolk]]
* [[Manticore]]
* [[Medusa]]
* [[Merfolk]]
* [[Mimic]]
* [[Minotaur]]
* [[Mummy]]
* [[Nightmare]]
* [[Ogre]]
* [[Oni]]
* [[Orc]]
* [[Pixie]]
* [[Ratfolk]] (the Large Mouse in particular is based on the [[Giant Rat]])
* [[Redcap]]
* [[Roper]]
* [[Sahuagin]]
* [[Salamander]]
* [[Satyr]]
* [[Scylla]]
* [[Selkie]]
* [[Shoggoth]]
* [[Siren]]
* [[Skeleton]]
* [[Slime]]
* [[Sphinx]]
* [[Succubus]]
* [[Tanuki]]
* [[Therianthrope]]
* [[Troll]]
* [[Unicorn]]
* [[Vampire]]
* [[Werewolf]]
* [[Wight]]
* [[Will-o-Wisp]]
* [[Witch]]
* [[Yeti]]
* [[Yuki-onna]]
* [[Zombie]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
File:MGE Large Mouse.jpg
File:MGE Dormouse.jpg
File:MGE Hinezumi.jpg
File:MGE Holstaur.jpg
File:MGE Gyobu Danuki.jpg
File:MGE Sphinx.jpg
File:MGE Minotaur.jpg
File:MGE Hakutaku.jpg
File:MGE Ogre.jpg
File:MGE Red Oni.jpeg
File:MGE Blue Oni.jpg
File:MGE Slime.jpg
File:MGE Red Slime.jpg
File:MGE Bubble Slime.jpg
File:MGE Dark Slime.jpg
File:MGE Slime Queen.jpg
File:MGE Orc.jpg
File:MGE Dragon.jpg
File:MGE Dragon Zombie.jpg
File:MGE Jabberwock.jpg
File:MGE Otohime.jpg
File:MGE Ryu.jpg
File:MGE Wurm.jpg
File:MGE Wyvern.jpg
File:MGE Jiangshi.jpg
File:MGE Cheshire Cat.jpg
File:MGE Ocelomeh.png
</gallery>
</center>

[[Category:NSFW]]