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Alcadizzar

2021-02-03T07:26:19Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:6C5A:997F:7D19:8B1F: /* The Birth of a Giga Chad */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The last and greatest king of Khemri, as well as Nehekhara.]]
Alcadizzar, also known as Alcadizaar the Conqueror, was a ruler of Nehekhara as well as a priest king of Khemri. He was well known for being the last priest king of Khemri, killed Nagash, being the greatest king on par with Settra, as well as doomed the entirely of Nehekhara(more on that later). Although fluff texts from the 8th edition of both vampire and tomb kings details little about Alcadizzar's personal life nor on how he achieved victory, it was completely fleshed out in the novel "Nagash Immortal" of the Time of Legend series.

In the older fluff, it stated that Alcadizzar conquered Lahmia after he slew Vashanesh (aka Vlad) whereas in the later retcon, Vashanesh was changed to Ankhat and he is but a noble attendant to Neferata instead of being her husband as well as being Nagash's distant relative and a general in black fire pass. Not much about his upbringing was known nor fleshed out however.

In the novel, he was born to a Rasetran royal bloodline, is a distant descendant of Settra, lived for over 200 years and had a strong relationship with the desert tribes.

Also his name for some reasons was refered to as Alcadizaar sometimes with an extra A instead of Z.

== Commonly known facts about Alcadizzar ==

-He was named the Conqueror after the war against Lahmia.

-He was the greatest king of Nehekhara since Settra and Nehekhara's last living king.

-Under his leadership, his army defeated Nagash's invasion force and routed them.

-He wept on his throne for not being able to save his people from Nagash's plague.

-He slew Nagash with the Fellblade.

-He went mad afterwards and took Nagash's crown with him where the shaman named Kadon found it along with his corpse.

== Background ==
After Neferata's vampirism and victory over her own cousin Khalida in a duel, she was viewed as Asaph's reincarnation by the public. Under W'soran's suggestion, she created her own cult of personality for PR and to harvest blood safely.

The cult's influence attracted many Nehekharans to Lahmia. Since the Nehekharans no longer had any direct blessing from their gods due to Nagash breaking the ancient divine treaty, having a temple and an incarnation of their gods was a comforting tradition.

The Queen of Rasetra (who was never given a name) was one of the Nehekharans who traveled to the temple, hoping she could get help there to overcome her difficult pregnancy. Since Neferata had given the city of Khemri to the Rasetran King Khept-am-shepret (due to him being descended from one of Settra's sons) over two centuries ago, this meant if her and the current Rasetra King Aten-Heru's child was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if he survived the pregnancy.

The death of Khalida had Neferata realize she'd been living in a cage her entire life (Being trapped inside the female palace ever since she was born and all). Being an immortal blood drinker was no different, as she had to hide her vampiric nature and activities from the public or they'd purge her any everything she'd built on Nagash's works.

When she suddenly told her vampire cabal she is going to save the queen's child, everyone was stunned. Her plan was giving the queen a vial of elixir distilled from her own blood, not only saving the child, but also letting other great city knew the greatness of Nefereta's miracle that is unlike Nagash's dark magic. By using her fame and some taxation deductions, she also decided to open an academy in Lahmia for every priest king's children (think of it as junior Harvard or Yale in Egypt) and have them staying there (aka kept as political hostage) until adulthood. Still, everyone in the cabal saw through her bullshit and knew the whole plan is but an excuse for Neferata to find a replacement for Khalida as her life partner, as well as wanting to openly ruled the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

=== The Birth of a Giga Chad ===

After Alcadizzar was born, he was immediately placed in Neferata's care with the former Viziar Ubaid (as well as
Neferata’s chief vampire thrall, unknown to Alcadizzar) acting as his servant. His mother died giving birth to him, removing that family tie, and Alcadizzar's father was unable to see him until he completed his training according to Neferata.

He received the best education a Nehekharan prince could get and, due to the elixir's effect, grew into a man of incredible height, musculature and tactical intellect even for his age (think of him as the warhammer's equivalent of [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Jonathan Joestar]], a buffed British guy at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only rope and his fists. His tactical skills were sharpened by games with a wise war veteran called Jabbari, developing Alcadizzar's wit and helping him learn from his mistakes.

Despite the greatness he has shown, Alcadizzar was however upset by the fact he was not yet ready to rule, for other students had already graduated and began their own ruling by the age of 18. He had a dream of enjoy a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his request to become a king has held back again and again each year. Little did the poor boy knew it was all part of Neferata's plan to create her ultimate husbando.

By the time Alcadizzar is 30 years old (at -1320 Imperial Reckoning), his uncle Khenti, a powerful yet pissed off Rasetra noble came to Lahmia and demands Neferata to hand over Alcadizzar.

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greet his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equal just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite bullcrap Alcadizzar were drilled in from his social arts on royal manners courses (which he had studied a lot of), and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his action and the reason for such warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's heart. The salty bitch was in fact look down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lessons on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leads to Settra's fifth son Amenophis, she suggests him to take another DECADES of training session at her temple of blood to truly unite Lahmia and Khemri in spirit (just as the sacred treaty demands on how the king of Khemri and the priestess of Lahmia should wed), and had Alcadizzar to decide if he wants to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. Is all up to him.

Despite Khenti's persuasion for him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accept her training course, for he believe it is ultimately for the good of Khemri and it should survive another decade without him.

And so 25 years later, Alcadizzar became the high priest of the blood temple and has been doing nothing but unknowingly drinking Neferata's elixir and playing with live snakes to show the fake Asap aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar is still looking young despite being 55 years old and yet he is still preparing to be a king and he has so many thing he wished to implemented to the city. Neferata told him to not worry however, for she will grant him as many year as he needed to make Khemri and Nehekhara great again. While strolling at the garden of the temple's inner sanctum, Naaima (Neferata's cathayan courtsan vampire friend)
appeared out of blue and delivered a dreadful message for Alcadizzar. His father, the king of Rasetra whom both never met has died (for the entirely 55 fucking years seriously). Rasetra is now ruled by his younger brother Asar, which the later beg Alcadizzar to come back for his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar doesn't seems to know how to react since he never personally knew his dad, just like his mother who had died after his birth, and was therefore unable to felt a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption from her sweet time between Alcadizzar, Neferata tell Alcadizzar to go pray at the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remain clueless to the scheme Neferata has for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He must prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion, by survive 7 day and 7 night without water, food while being tormented with pain from lashes. Kinda similar to the buddism's six cleansing, but with more leaning towards Slaanesh despite the Nehekharan never knew about chaos and Neferata probably copying the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the only type of Nehekharan weeaboo, this seems fitting). Thanks to the elixir's power as well as his own strong will, Alcadizzar survived these [[Slaanesh|painful and inhumane]] trial. On the last part, Alcadizzar needs to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all)
but lost his conscious.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frightened pale skinned face and vampire saber tooth fang like some kind of freakish monster (take note Twilight). For the first time in his life, Alcadizzar was scared and realized he had been tricked by an abomination created by Nagash. Using her unnatural strength, Neferata force Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata's face then telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and was under Neffy's control for sometimes, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar charisma even when he was young, especially just a seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and have him joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was furious that not only he torn off Ubaid with her saber tooth fang like a lion, she became ever vengeful that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it means to turn her city and into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the training and knowledge he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guard and made to the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive just so he could head back to Rasetra and warned everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For 8 month straight, Alcadizzar, a prince of Rasetra took on the name of his servant Ubaid as his alias while living in the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He rob, he steal, he drink, even go as far as to kill a person during an awful encounter with a group of sailors who were press ganging him to join them. There was even that time where he worked in a brothel as a hired muscle at the infamous red silk district. He cooperate with a gang of jewel thieves whom were planning to rob an old wealthy family, only to ended in betrayal and blood in one night. Alcadizzar had his first love here where he also had his first kiss stolen.

When his appearance was finally different enough for him to not be suspect as the wanted man ordered by Neferata to find, he slipped passed the Lahmia gate without having the guards to recognized him. Unfortunately for him, much challenges still awaits. He had tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and banits on the golden plain, but was met with refusal from its master and the guards, fearing he 1might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain. He was forced to fight for his life on more than one occasion, but his training and the lasting potency of Neferata’s elixir saw him through.

He eventually made to Lybaras (which it is now looking tattered due to Neferata's political fuckery and its famed library closed) and was hoping its king would listen to him, but was met with refusal as even its vizier refuse to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia and he finally made to Rasetra. He finally united with his uncle Khenti where he is now but a worn out old man and helped Alcadizzar to arranged a secret meeting between him and his brother. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar has told to his brother, the later remained unconvinced even demanding proof from his brother.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would required a coalition army of the great cities, yet it's just not possible for manyreasons. Firstly, war cost a lot of man power and gold, which are scarse since, once again, thanks to Nagash for taking away most of them. Neferata took up where Nagash has left off by manipulate the great city into bickering among themselves, weakening them that none were able to stood up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin after the war against Nagash and had rebuilt its powerful army, still lacked the resources for a protracted war against the Lahmians. And though many of the great cities now possessed iron weapons and armour that were the equal of Lahmia’s, none of them had a counter for the fearsome dragon staffs they wield (in reality, dragon staff's powder has long since vaporized which the Lahmian kept it's existence as a bluff to prevent the great cities from attacking them). Other than that, there was too much ambition and too little trust among the other cities to make such an alliance possible. Of the great cities, only three were strong enough to present themselves as possible rivals to Lahmia’s power: Rasetra, Zandri and Ka-Sabar, but none were willing to take the first step and risk standing alone in the face of Lahmian reprisal. An evidence of Nagash's dark art is needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

Still, Asar gave Alcadizzar the benefit of doubt for Lahmia's corruption, but a proof is still needed.

Knowing how well Lahmia guarded their vampiric secret and the lethality of its vampire agents, Alcadizzar has to risk himself to get the proof. With some supplies of gears from his uncle and some planning, Alcadizzar once again venture into the lawless land, alone.

=== Alcadizzar <s>[[Dune|Muad'Dib</s>Ubaid]] ===

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen Bhagarian, whom were abandoned by their god, Khsar, after their leader broke the covenant by surrendering to Arkhan's forces during Nagash's reign) skill at archery and horse riding, Alcadizzar decided to befriend them to survive and gain a powerful ally against the Lahmians. It was no easy task however, since the tribe at the time were secretive and clannish, making it really hard to earn their trust. Alcadizzar eventually made some progress by befriended one of its young cheiftian named Faisr al-Hashim, of the bani-al-Hashim after he saved him from a carravan raid gone bad.

As a reward for saving his life, Faisr adopted Alcadizzar into his tribe for 20 years (a crucial custom for any outsiders to join their tribe) where during that time, Alcadizzar being the badass he is saved Faisr's dirty arse three times and killed [[meme|fitty men]] (literary). During a tribal gathering, many chieftains from other tribes called out Alcadizzar for being an outsider or worse, a Lahmian spy, that is until an old woman with leonine yellow eye advocate for him and allowing Alcadizzar to become part of their tribe.

This old woman was named Suleima, a Daughter of the Sands, the bride of Khsar as well as his chosen, whom has the highest authority among the tribe. Her kind was born once in every generation and they have the power to see a man's future through their soul. Suleima was always accompanied by her successor Ophiria, a young girl of 14 year old who shared the same leonine yellow eye and Alcadizzar had already notice Ophiria's gaze towards him beforehand, meaning they already knew about Alcadizzar's plan.

25 years later, Alcadizzar led his raiders to raid a Lahmian watch-fort. He was dismay by the decline of the Lahmian military, whose soldiers are lacking leadership and were willing to surrendered their fully secured fort with many garrisoned soldiers without a fight, which would be considered unacceptable 40 years ago.

After that, Alcadizzar and the raiders were greeted with Suleima's passing. Alcadizzar spent the entire afternoon at his tent after Suleima's funeral, being iritating about the amount of duties he has to accomplish and the years he has to sacrificed before he could retired to the life he has always dreamed of. Just then, Ophiria, now a 39 years old woman barged into his tent. In one conversation, Alcadizzar told her of his true identity (which he was being very truthful with her since she can read people's mind). Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand immediately saw Alcadizzar's future and knew he is going to be a king of Khemri. Ophiria then began a to express her sorrow about her people being oathbreakers, who had broken the promise they had made with Khsar and Settra after their shameful display during the war with Nagash and are now being punished for it. She hopes Alcadizzar, as the future king of Khemri could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. With no delay, Alcadizzar sworn a new blood oath by holding Ophiria's hand with his bloodied one. As a reward, Ophiria told him of a prophecy that would led to his goal...

40 years later, Alcadizzar prepared an ambush at the north of Lahmia to finally obtain the proof of dark art he was so eager to obtain. Another sign from Ophiria's prophecy was that there will be a frigging twin-tailed comet on the sky. To many scholar and any warhammer races, it is the harbingers of conflict (as well as other important symbolism like the birth of great ruler, hope or Tzeentch's meddling). A group of six men in black cloak on steed was passing by at that point and the desert raiders made short work of them with their arrows.

Hilariously, this group of black cloaks were lead by Zurhas to act as envoy in order to form an alliance with Nagash at Nagashizzar. Around that time, W'soran had discovered Nagash's location being north of Lahmia, which gave Ushoran an idea to allied themselves with the undying king in order take over Lahmia, as well as the rest of Nekehara. In order to allow himself to not be suspect by Neferata and her underling, he met Zurhas (who was but a phantom member of the cabal that had spent his immortality on gambling) and manipulate the lowlife into doing his dirty work for him. Since traveling on sea was too noticeable, Zhuras had to travel overland north with a few companion (whose job is to help him find shelters to prevent him burning under the sun). Ushoran even thought about getting rid of Zurhas after he had rid of Neferata and the Nekeharans, and he is definitely going to be disappoint since he might've have sent him to his death and endangered their secret identities.

As soon as every black cloaks were shot down, Zurhas shown himself as a pale clawed monster under the comet's light. Zurhas had killed six raiders that was charging at him and had tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him enough time for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. After that, Alcadizzar made a confession to Faisr and revealed everything.

Oh and turns out Zurhas bought more than just his head as an evidence. The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash still walking and kicking north of Lahmia. Talk about an epic fail.

=== The Siege of Lahmia & Alcadizzar's enthronement ===

Six month after the evidences and Alcadizzar's personnel letter being delivered to Rasetra, a coalition army of the great cities was formed on the great plain within a week. Each great city bought their flavors of army]. During this time, the desert tribes too gets their shit together in order to form an army to assist Alcadizzar. A competition was held by Opelia to choose a leader among the chieftain. A week later, Fasir came out as victor and had worked tirelessly as a leader ever since.

Alcadizzar too finally making his debut at Khemri as its official ruler. Despite Fasir had already forgiven Alcadizzar for keeping his real name a secret and using his tribesman as his tool for his own gains, its act had already created a rift between the two that could never heal. Still Alcadizzar, no longer using Ubaid as his alias, treat the Fasir and his desert tribe like his own family, even wanting to marry one of its member as his queen (despite the tradition demands him to marry a Lahmian, which shouldn't be possible due to its corruption and its now getting its ass whooped).

Although the coalition army greatly outnumbered the Lahmian, Neferata called every vampire she knew to fight the invaders. W'soran was freed from his imprisonment and given Nagash's book to stall the Nehekharans with summoned zombie fodders. Ushoran and Ankhat was on the frontline where they inhumanly tore apart the Nehekharans with their supernatural strength. Neferata too was on the field with her vampire handmaiden who has the power of seduction to manipulate the Nekeharans, as well as their usual inhuman strength and agility to kill and chase down anything, even a cavalry.

Despite fighting such monstrosities and lost many man, the Nehekharans pressed on with Alcadizzar leading them with great courage.

While Ushoran was enjoying bathing in Nehekharans blood , the horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with oil clay flask. The arrows were specifically shot at the lord of the mask's places like feet that it rendered him immobilized, and some are even shot dangerously close to his heart. Once Ushoran was soak in oil and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman using his fabulous display of swordsmanship combine with his inhumane vampiric power. Despite doing so well, the warriors he was put in charge of commanding it were inexperience, weak, and were easily routed by the overwhelming Nehekharans forces.

W'soran has been doing well stalling the Nehekharans with zombie summons. Just as he was about to find a spell from his book to attack the newly reinforced Nehekharans, the tower he resides was hit by catapult shots, forcing him to run in terror (so much for a vampire's fearless mentality), cancelled out his ritual and putting all the zombies to rest.

It finally leaved to Neferata and her vamprie handmaidens being the only threatening thing left in the Lahmian force. They have the power to seduce anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and was dealt with by the handmaidens' claw. Still, the handmaidens were reckless enough to get trample by chariots and stroke down by dozens of arrow shot from the desert tribe archer. Neferata was able to slaughter the most elite warriors of Khemri forces and the fanatical Mahrak warriors, managed to pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out Alcadizzar. Alcadizzar, depsite with great strength and will was unable to stood against Neferata's inhuman strength and her vampire mind trick. Between the two, Neferata tried to convinced Alcadizzar to come back to her but was met with his strong refusal instead. Neferata then answered his rejection with a furious claw strike, knocking him down. Just as she was about to suck his blood (to have him "give back" all the gift she had given him), Alcadizzar struck her heart with a hidden dagger, and thus defeated her.

As soon as Neferata was defeated, Ankhat desperately ordered every military personnel to rescue her ass before she is captured. Just as the Nehekharan forces is about to swarm Neferata, Abhorash appeared in time, slaughtered many Nehekharans and allowed the vampires to escape. After that, the Nehekharans began sacking Lahmia. For seven days and seven nights, every bit of Lahmia was looted then razed to the bone and its citizens enslaved. Desptie the glorious treasury the Nehekharans has looted and were happily celebrated over it, Alcadizzar's dismay however. Not a single vampires were found and captured nor were the book of Nagash was found (W'soran had took it with him to Nagashizzar). To Alcadizzar, this battle is a total loss.

Also there were mentioning of constructs according to the rulebook, but were not mentioned in the novel. And if it were, it could kick a huge amount of vampire asses to the point of resulting the battle into a one sided slaughter.

== The King of Khemri ==

Finally 37 years later, Alcadizzar began to rule Khemri as well as the entirely of Nehekhara. Under his reign, every great cities return wealthy (since they no longer have Lahmian fucking with them on trades and taxes every year) and peace were restored. However, all the wealth he has accumulated were spent on military and defenses for the eventual return of Nagash. He also wed a girl who shared the same name as the Lybaras Queen Khalida 37 years ago, who just so happend to be Ophiria's niece and is now somewhat 67 years-ish old, ruling Khemri with him as a wise queen. They bore two sons together, named Asar and Ubaid (once again, Alcadizzar named after his former servant and his brother).

Interestingly, one of his explorer named Rahotep he had sent north had an encountered with annu-horesh (also known as the Dwarfs) whom at that time were ruled by Morgrim Blackbeard (by the time the explorer had came back, the year was -1163 Imperial Reckoning and Blackbeard was known for started a troll war at -1245). The Dwarves had treated Rahotep with respect and hospility for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar an armor and a huge two-handed khopesh that were mastercrafted, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like sunlight which it is capable of hurting dark foes and were quite light weighted, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like Sigmar's hammer, which its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledges of magic which Alcadizzar had founded sorcerer’s collegium in Khemri in order for their kins to master its power (without the help of some arrogant pointy ears too. Take that Empire!). The other cities too will follow Alcadizzar and began learning magic in order to cope without their gods' blessing (also so they could show off their superiority like every Nehekharan rulers would do). Notably, Ka-Sabar has began using its knowledge to create a small amount of enchanted gears every year. Mahrak was quite butthurt about all of this. Its Hieratic Council was suspecting Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooprate with the rest.

Despite Morgrim Blackbeard had sent his warmest invitation to the Nehekharan king, welcome him to their hold and discuss relations between their kingdom, Alcadizzar had to object for Nagash has to be dealt with first.

=== Nagash's second invasion (also known as the war of three stooges) ===

Due to the founding of sorcerer’s collegium, there were many wizards employed in each great city. They help their local rulers to telepathically sending messages like telephone to Alcadizzar without having to send envoys or travel there. With Nagash's invasion forces been sighted, many decisions were sent to him for approvals and every threats were warned as well as reports about the region's activities, whether small or large. It is of course tiresome and stressful for the poor Alcadizzar to answer all of this calls, for he had worked day and night. The real challenges comes to picking from the flood of messages and choose whether which one is them most important. Ironically, the more Alcadizzar knew, the more he worried about the things he didn’t know. Where were Nagash’s forces? How large were they? How fast were they moving? He reviewed his battle plans over and over, looking for hidden flaws that the enemy could exploit. It all paid off in the end, for the Nehekharans were one step ahead of Nagash's forces and had prepared for it with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the region position of Nagshizzar (being just north of Lahmia across the sour sea), Nagash's 10 armies size strong undead legion led by Arkhan and W'soran, immediatly took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arived across the sea. Having being alerted and united, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra were the first vanguard to challenges them. Thanks to the usage of enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans were giving W'soran, who was commanding at the time a very hard time. The Nehekharan wizard constantly dispel his spells and their soldiers cutting down each undead warriors like butters with their shiny enchanted weapon. Despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and its size is replenished through slained Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan decided to send one third of the army to interving Lybaras and Rasetra in order to prevent them from reinforcing the western Nehekhara.

Mahrak came next on the list for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors had prepare to defend the city to its death. Without the use of god's blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvement, all Mahrak had was but fanatical white robe warriors and other tier 1 shit fodders like archers and shield infantry. Under the constant attacks from the Catapults, tomb scorpion constructs climbing and attacking the garrisoned warriors on the wall, as well as magic attacks coming from Arkhan, the once mighty city that were able to hold against Nagash's army month after month was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council could consider evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of valley of kings, holding against the undead for many weeks or so and giving their people enough time to travel to Quatar and taking refuges there. Still, it was with their own mistrust and paranoia that had killed them all in the process. If that can't be helped, Alcadizzar and other great cities will have to go on without them.

Speaking of thick walls, Alcadizzar had welcomed his foe with three very strong thick walls made out of granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition to wither down the undeads, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undeads: fire arrows, flaming tar catapult and sturdy heavily armored infantries, all that good stuffs. What's more was that the walls gets taller as undeads traveled west, not even ladders could reach the top, nor could the bone giants hope to strike it down in a single blow. Not even Arkhan's destructive magic could blast it open.

Just as the third wall was about to be breached, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him, followed by a bunch of cavalries rallied behind him. They flank the undead army and dealt a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had his vampire servants to ambush him.

One of the vampire was dueling Alcadizzar's chief wizard Suleiman, who was accompanied by two archers. Suleiman did a great job hindering the vampire from unleash his spells. The vampire did however killed one archer who was charging at him with a green lightning spell, but was unable to prevent the other archer from headshot him with magic arrow. Unable to move, Alcadizzar took the chance and decapitated him.

The other vampire had seized Alcadizzar with his unnatural strength, and was ordered by W'soran to bought him back to Nagashizzar. A surviving archer from earlier came sacrificed himself for Alcadizzar and had his skull crushed by a back hand swipe from the vampire (Ankhat did that in the same novel too, as if all vampire like to show off their prowess like some yellow hair asshole, who also happened to be a vampire) which is then finished in turn by Alcadizzar, who caved the fucker's face with his blade. Then W'soran blast the vampire and Acadizzar with his magic, only to be suprised by Alcadizzar's lack of injuries since his awesome Dwarven forged armor protected him. Just as W'soran was about to take few steps closer to Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran in the eye. Before Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, in his vision, he heard W'soran made an angry howl and saw him vanished after he was swarmed by a black cloud of scarabs released from a clay jar he smashed, and fled to the northern sky.

Without the vampire's prescence, the cloud unblock the sun and Alcadizzar felt a warm sunlight while surrounded by his comrade.

=== Nagash: I'm about to ruin this man's entire career and accomplishment ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The golden chariot problem. Featuring Alcadizzar and Nagash]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at the Lahmia docks. Despite his injuries from war AND the fact he is now 189 years old, Alcadizzar decided to give chase to the undead legion on sea and hopefully to be rid of them once and for all.

Just then however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and informed him about his fate: he will died killing Nagash at Nagashizzar. Initally, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than sending Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar can already tell Ophiria had come bearing bad news to him. Ophiria was in tears for unable to change Alcadizzar's fate.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, knowing that he is going to die without ever enjoy a good retirement life, decided to abandoned the chase and immediatly gave himself a retirement, knowing that defeating Nagash's army is enough to broke him. Ophiria was never seen again.

Unknowingly to the entirely of Nehekhara, Nagash had cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar regret that one decision he has ever made.

6 years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to fail and withered, livestock dying, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar did everything he could, summon his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without any result. The lack of food forces the citizens to go on riot and turned to banditry. What's worse came as Alcadizzar's two son, Asar and Ubaid fall ill. Ubaid died painfully in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe where Alcadizzar hope the plaque has not reach the great desert, except it did not work, for Asar's illness worsen just like the retainers besides him. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Having devastated over losing his two sons, he began to falling to despair as he watches his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save him while not a symphton of the plague is found on him. Then, Khalida finally fall ill. Although her illness began long ago, she had hide it from Alcadizzar and lasted many more month than her two sons. She is merely stalling for the inevitable death however, for her stubborness has damaged her body to the point is unable to recongnized her husband, that Alcadizzar had to end her life by feeding her a cup of undiluted poppy himself. Since Alcadizzar share the same belief with Khalida about the obscurity of entombment, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite being the greatest priest king since Settra, and yet Alcadizzar was unable to let her corpse to be cremated, that he just entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a morturary priest could ressurect her and give her a golden body.

Although Alcadizzar had thought about killing himself to join his family, the news about a new waves of undead army invaded Rastria made him geared up and prepare to mustered what's remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel flee to Zandri where they would board its ship and sail to the far north and migrate to the old world. With the remaining forces, if not weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold an actual Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely hold face the undead tide in order to buying time for every citizens to escape. Alcadizza knew it was but a battle he can not win, yet he hack and slash every undead he came across with his golden blade, hoping one of them could strike him dead, that is until Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parried all his attacks and captured him.

=== Fellblade, Nagash's (first) death, the rise of the Tomb Kings & how everything came to be ===

Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up inside a cage where the undead will carry him on a long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart had carried him through the ruins of great cities, through Lahmia and eventually arrive to its cursed dock where Ophieria had told him of his fate. He was fed elixirs many times (which probably contained warpstones now that Nagash has access it and it gives out a fiery flavor) and it is able to keep Alcadizzar alive for the suffering he will face. Eventually Nagash's boney ship carried them to the northern shore where Nagashizzar locates.

When Alcadizzar finally arrive, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash. Alcadizzar's body was weak and pale, looking a lot more like a ghoul. Amused by his pathetic appearence, Nagash taking a great pleasure in mocking him, calling him "Usurper", "Alcadizzar of Khemri, lord of a dead land", claiming that last one belongs to him the moment he chose to defy Nagash, even explaining that he sent his army to destroy Nehekhara only because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (except Nagash was having a temper tantrum after the defeat of his army. Hypocrite manchild lich...).

Despite Nagash's loud boasting on how his genocide spell spare Alcadizzar just so he could made him understood the futility of his struggle, Alcadizzar remain determine despite in his weaknest state yet, telling the bone daddy that he would rather die before betray his people again.

After that claim coming from Alcadizzar, Nagash began the preparation of his new ritual by painfully carving arcane symbols on Alcadizzar. Then Nagash explain to Alcadizzar how he is going to use him as a symbol, a symbol of a great ruler in order to channel his magic and bind everyone in Nehekhara to his will, even mocking on how if he like his wife Khalida enough he will take her as his consort.

Alcadizzar was quite angry about that last one, but he so helpless that all he could do was howling in anger.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only sit on his knees, locked in place paralysing needles and the power of the great ritual.

When the ritual was finally complete, Nagash had took out the needles and thrown Alcadizzar into a dungeon cell, hope the last king could provide him some entertainment in the future.

In the cell, Alcadizzar could only thinking about dyiing, tormenting by pain and bad memories, that is until a figure of white light touch his cheek. It was actually the ghost of Neferem, the long dead queen of Khemri whom Nagash had tormented and killed long ago. Alcadizzar mistook her as his wife Khalida and so he followed figure where he reached a wooden door and two short furry rat like creature entered the door with a huge lead box. These two rats are Skavens name Eekrit and Eshreegar of the Clan Rikek, Nagash's warpstone competitor. They had planned to let Alcadizzar assassinate Nagash for them, for killing Nagash requires the power of their deadly blade: Fellblade, a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it.

Unknowing to what's happening right now, Alcadizzar opened the box anyway where the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. By just examining the green blade, Alcadizzar knew it radiate death, which he is sure the blade is so deadly, it could even kill a god, or....an undying king.

In all his dillusion, Alcadizzar had thought this was Khalida doing, telling him to make things right before it is too late. And so he did and drawn the blade. The blade was hot to hold, but it filled his body with strength nessesary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

In a similar fashion to the main character from the Gladiator movie, Alcadizzar who had lost everything to the tyrant, Nagash, and is about to kill him with the backing Nagash's traitorous allies, the skavens.

While Nagash was distracted by Neferem, Alcadizzar was closing in. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke. From it, Nagash saw Alcadizzar charging in with rage. Nagash had tried to defend from the blade with his gauntlet hand, but the blade cut through his metaled wrist clean like a butter. In reteliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (when it was acutally a seer of the councils of thirteen protected him, and died for it). Alcadizzar then proceed to cut through Nagash's spine. Despite being a lich, Nagash felt pain and his power being leeched away by the blade's every strike. Had enough, Nagash choke Alcadizzar by the throat to the point of bleeding, which he then decides to crush Alcadizzar's spine. Just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he used his last strength and finished off Nagash by cut down his last arm, then his head.

As Nagash is killed, he let out a hideous scream echoing through the halls, and his spell came undone. The dead priest kings, began seizing the undead to serve him now that they were freed from Nagash's control, result in the tomb kings we are knew and love.

After several aimless hacking frenzy at Nagash's remain along with his wooden throne to pieces for many minutess after his death, Alcadizzar finally stops and let go of the blade (which was later recovered by Eekrit and Eshreegar and hidden somewhere in Nagashizzar). The last king of Khemri, who has now completely lost his mind, clinging onto Nagash's crown while trying to find Khalida for redemption. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar, then out into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemptions.

== Legacy ==

Although Alcadizzar and his people are dead, he did not die without any legacy left behind. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named Kadon, who could recongnize the corpse as a Nehekharan king and ordered the construction of a large barrow for him. In an unfortunate move, Kadon decided to wear Nagash's crown and was corrupted by Nagash for it. Under Nagash influence, he had construct a wall city called Mourkhain around Alcadizzar's barrow and have the king's spirit bind to the city's stone for all eternity. Guess Nagash still has the last laugh now since Alcadizzar will stuck there forever. Although the city was later destroyed by the Greenskins, it is unknown if Alcadizzar's spirit was freed after this or continue to stuck in its stone.

Nagash's crown passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (with exceptions to [[Azhag the Slaughterer|orcs]] and [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to ressurect Nagash.

In the Sigmar novel, Sigamr had called upon every scribe to gather any informations about Nagash after a vampire named Khaled al Muntasir came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown. One of the scribe named Eoforth came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara. One of the manuscripts tells the tale of how Al-Khadizzar (not Alcadizzar or Alcadizaar, whom was referenced as a warrior, not a king btw) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced to how Nagash destroyed Nehekhara in a single night. Just how or whom was able to witness these event and documented these manuscripts, when EVERYONE WAS FUCKING DEAD at that time is beyond anybody's mind. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (although about Neferata, her being a consort of Nagash was an old canon. In the current canon, she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript doesn't knew a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer saw it in their clairvoyance mind and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the Zandri ship should be able to remembered the tale of Neferata? but not the skaven or Alcadizzar?

Still, Alcadizaar made no mentioned in the end times despite it shows a lot of dead characters coming back to life. However, Nagash had bind the winds of Shyish to himself and control every dead spirits over the world and it is possible Alcadizzar among those souls. Even if he wasn't controlled by Nagash, he would still be freed in the end, where the Chaos gods managed to emerged from the warp rift caused by Archaon's doomsday device and destroy the world. It is also possible for him to be become a [[Stormcast Eternals]] in age of Sigmar or continue to be tormented by Nagash at the realm of Shyish? who knows.

== An alternative point of view ==
So what if Alcadizzar decided to go after Nagash? could things go differently? with all his forces equipping with rune weaponry, the use of wizard against the pathetic numbers of undead army leftover from the invasion, there might be a chance. Not even Nagash had could simply fight them off despite being hulk up on warpstones and wearing new gears.

Even if Alcadizzar had chose to fight Nagash at full strength but died, Nehekhara might enter a new golden age with the Dwarfs, where they would demolish the greenskins in the wasteland and hunt down the remaining vampire menance together. Nehekharan Empire would be so big that by the time Sigmar was born, he would be worshipping Ptra instead (Although it is unknown if Nehekharan allow the worship of foreign human god like Ulric).

Still, all that promises died the moment Alcadizzar made his decision. Perhaps it was part of Khsar's test? He is a pitiless cruel god who only give challenges and the reward often has to do with what the mortal has gained from his challenges, yet Alcadizzar has failed, which has robbed him of his everything. Could Tzeentch also be involved in his suffering too? afterall, there were a twin tailed comet shining above Alcadizzar. Could this be part of his grand plan to see him suffer? along with the entirely of Nehekhara?

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]] [[Category:Tomb Kings]]

Dune

2021-02-03T07:07:29Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:6C5A:997F:7D19:8B1F: /* Influence on Warhammer 40k */

[[Image:Dune_RPG.jpg|right|200px]]
:''For the board game, see [[Rex: Final Days of an Empire]], the reissue name.''
'''Dune''' is the best selling science fiction/fantasy novel of all time. Written by Frank Herbert in 1965, it won several prestigious awards, including the very first Nebula Award for Best Novel, and went on to become an incredibly influential classic of the genre. Since then, it's been adapted to all sorts of media, including board games, video games, two mini-series, and a movie. Surprisingly, [[/tg/|we]] are not all that obsessed with it, but we do respect Dune for all it's done for sci-fi.

== Overall Setting ==
Dune is ''weird''. Really, really weird. You might think a fantasy series is weird because the elves are grown in tree pods or something, but that's nothing compared to Dune. Think about, for example, ''Alf'': a by the books formulaic 1980s sitcom in which a suburban American family has a goofy alien living in their home, cue zany hi-jinks and canned laughter. A stock mundane set up with one moderately fantastic element. That's not Dune. That's about as far from Dune as you could get and still be called sci-fi. Dune is a drug-filled trip following strange characters in a world highly removed from our own, navigating a foreign political landscape in which we get to see their strange motivations marching to its own rules and internal logic. Some people love it for its weirdness, others hate it for its weirdness. Regardless, weirdness is the name of the game going into Dune.

In the distant future, human civilization relies on "spice", a drug that expands its user's perceptions and triples the lifespan. Because electronic computers are taboo, even over ten thousand years after the Butlerian Jihad against thinking machines, interstellar travel relies on spice-using [[Navigator]]s to plot safe paths through space and Mentats use spice to increase their cognitive abilities, becoming human computers able to process vast amounts of data. You could buy a mansion on a core Imperial world for a deciliter of spice. Its most unpleasant withdrawal symptom is inevitable death. Naturally, "the spice must flow" is a common sentiment. Basically spice acts as [[skub|plot device]] to explain the politic struggle in the books and to explain all sorts of magic-like stuff in the dune universe, without quite leaving the field of sci-fi.

Spice cannot be synthesized and is found on only one planet: Arrakis, a bone-dry dustball where enormous sandworms produce it as part of their life cycle. Imperial citizens only live there to extract, process, and export spice, living in fear of their overseers, the sandworms, and the human natives called the Fremen. Whoever controls Arrakis has a stranglehold on the whole of human civilization, and so when a conspiracy to hide this fact breaks down multiple factions fight each other for control of it or to use it against their enemies.

The six books of the original series (''Dune'', ''Dune Messiah'', ''Children of Dune'', ''God-Emperor of Dune'', ''Heretics of Dune'', and ''Chapterhouse Dune'') principally follow the scions of House Atreides as their futures become inextricably tied to Arrakis, the spice, and the future of humanity.

Dune is probably one of the most in-depth science fiction books ever written, considering the utter detail that goes into sociological, ecological, political, and economic elements that are added so neatly. It's like a textbook, only far cooler. Opinion on the later books in the series is split, with some feeling it's a continuous decline in quality through to the end, an increase in crap until you're four books in when you notice you're reading a doorstop chiefly composed of Leto whining that turning into a sandworm is haaaard, while others feel the next three books are crucial to understanding the themes Herbert started to explore in the original '''Dune''' (especially the damaging effects of hero worship on society). Still, everyone agrees that the prequels and sequels written after his death by his son are irredeemably bad, so avoid those unless you're a [[Society of Sensation|sensate]] trying to experience the whole spectrum of human emotion and the next thing on your list is mind-numbing disappointment and boredom.

===The Politics===

With a new movie coming out, it's worth breaking down the politics of the first book. Here are the major factions and their motivations:

* '''House Atreides:''' Duke Leto rules the planet Caladan and the Emperor has named him the next ruler of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit had meanwhile foisted a concubine on him, Jessica, and ordered her to give him a daughter; but the couple ended up in love with each other so Jessica gave him a son - Paul - instead of a daughter whom the Bene Gesserit could have actual use for. Leto then legitimated his ''fitz'' as his heir thus pushing useful marriage alliances to that next generation. Leto has amassed a formidable council of advisors: Gurney Halleck, an escaped Harkonnen slave who rose through the ranks to become warmaster (played by Picard himself, Patrick Stewart); Thufir Hawat, Mentat and his master of assassins; Duncan Idaho, also an escaped slave and now a swordmaster of the Ginaz school and the Atreides House champion; and Wellington Yueh, a medical doctor of the Suk school conditioned to be unable to kill. Paul is a prime candidate to marry the Emperor's daughter Irulan, but Leto's motivations are simply to keep his house safe.
* '''House Harkonnen:''' For the last century, the Harkonnen have held fief over Arrakis, and their term is ending. The Harkonnen have had a family feud with the Atreides for millennia. The Siridar Baron, Vladimir Harkonnen, has no children (as far as we know at the beginning), but rather two nephews, Rabban (the Beast) and Feyd-Rautha (the pretty one, played by Sting). He and his advisor, a Twisted Mentat named Piter de Vries, want to settle all accounts: wipe out the Atreides, reclaim Arrakis, marry Feyd to Princess Irulan, and take control of the Empire.
* '''House Corrino:''' The house of the Padishah Emperor. Claims to rule all of space. Emperor Shaddam IV has several daughters but no sons through his Bene Gesserit wife. He sees the potential end of his line and what could happen to his house. He knows that Leto is immensely popular and has amassed a formidable army, trained almost to the level of his own elite Sardaukar, and that represents a threat to his power that he cannot ignore. Shaddam conspires with the Harkonnens to lure Leto and his house into a trap on Arrakis and wipe them out.
* '''The Bene Gesserit:''' A religious order of battle nuns and courtesans with psychometabolic powers. The sisterhood is nearing the culmination of thousands of years of selective breeding to produce a superman, but their plans were thrown into disorder when Jessica gave birth to a son instead of a daughter. To salvage their project they need either Paul or Feyd to survive and have a child, preferably through Irulan (although losing either one will be a setback).
* '''The Bene Tleilax:''' Also known as "Tleilaxu" (the first L is silent), this patriarchal, isolationist group contains the universe's premier genetic engineers. Their clients view them as both useful and borderline [[Heresy|heretics]] for how closely they skirt the letter of the Butlerian taboos. We don't actually meet any Tleilaxu agents until the events of ''Dune Messiah''.
* '''The Spacing Guild:''' An order of mutants who control all interstellar travel, as their Navigators are the only safe way to travel between stars without forbidden computers. The Guild is the real power behind the Emperor: they want stability on Arrakis and will work with whoever can promise that... and against anyone who threatens their supply of spice. The spice must flow.
* '''The Fremen:''' The "natives" of Arrakis, the Fremen are the descendants of the Zensunni Wanderers who ended their pilgrimage on Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit then sent the Missionaria Protectiva to mess with their heads and subvert their religion for a millennia-long gamble. The Fremen know the desert and how to survive it better than any off-worlder, so a Great House that rules the planet must deal with them in one fashion or another. The Harkonnen tried to kill them to no avail, but Duke Leto believes he can win their allegiance through cunning and diplomacy.

Into all this, add partial precognition (among other psychic talents) on the part of the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild, both with self-acknowledged serious blind spots, and that Leto's son Paul is far more important than ''anybody'' realizes at the start of the first book, and you have yourself a recipe for a grade-A nuclear clusterfuck of politics.

===Influence on Warhammer 40k===
Being a highly successful series with an unique and interesting universe it is obvious that [[Games Workshop]] <s>stole</s> took inspiration from Dune more than an Blood Raven in an unlocked reliquary. While this topic is up for [[Skub|debate]] the following were most likely borrowed from the Dune universe:
* '''Close combat / Melee''': The Dune universe is close-combat-heavy because the Holtzman effect changed the face of warfare. The effect can be utilized to generate a man-sized field that can deflect matter that travels beyond a certain speed. This means that bullets are useless against people equipped with shields; this also means that air molecules can't pass through the shield, so you'd better get your fighting over with before you collapse from heatstroke and/or suffocate on your own CO2. "But there's [[lasgun]]s in Dune!" Yes, Timmy, there are, but when a laser beam hits a shield, [[Exterminatus|the shooter, the target, and the surrounding landscape are deleted in a massive explosion]], so nobody tries it (although "accidents" do happen). Swordsmanship has come back into style due to the high risk of using laser weapons leading to a reliance on melee combat. This story element was due to author appeal, as Herbert wanted close combat in the story.
:*As a side note, one of the reasons why House Atrides is so dangerous is that they discovered a workaround; based on the “Weirding Way” of the Bene Gesserit, soldiers can use “Killing words” to shoot sonic blasts into enemies, strong enough to crush stone with a single word. In the films it’s aided with the help of a handheld device, but in the novels it’s more of a kung-fu technique. Now as for the former; a sound-based weapon that ignores armor and delivers bone-crushing injuries, [[Sonic Weaponry|where have we heard that one]]?
* '''[[Navigator|Navigators]]''': The Dune universe has [[Navigator|Navigators]] which are ''slightly'' similar to their 40k counterparts. Only source of ship travel? Check. Highly mutated? Check. Mutation worsens over time? Check. Some sort of magical powers, but somehow different from everyone else's? Check. Living outside of all political powers? Check. Having their own political agendas? Check. Secretive? Double fucking check. Basically they are the exact same thing with the small exceptions that they need spice to live. Also, Herbert may have cribbed them from the 1950 Cordwainer Smith story [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain "Scanners Live in Vain"].
* '''No AI allowed''': Basically the same story, AI goes bad, tries to conquer humanity, gets its virtual arse kicked, and is subsequently forbidden. While the backstory is a little different, the outcome is still the same. However, Dune is a little bit more restrictive when it comes to [[Cogitator|Cogitators]] or [[Servitor|Servitors]] and uses humans hyper-trained from birth (and fucked up on drugs) known as "Mentats" as supercomputers instead.
* '''Progress = Bad''': As an extension of the previous point, technology is a constant subject of paranoid suspicion, while science is slowed to a crawl. Humanity mined spice on Arrakis for THOUSANDS of years without ever bothering to research what was creating it (not helped by the facts that Arrakis is so dangerous and the Fremen know the source but are actively keeping it secret).
* '''[[Death World|Death Worlds]]:''' Dune has two of them, Arrakis and the Emperor's nuked-out hellhole Salusa Secundus. Like in 40K, death worlds are places where virtually everything, from the life to the landscape, is out to kill you, and anyone who manages to grow up there is operating on an entire different level from the rest of humanity and are ''also'' generally out to kill you. The Emperor uses Salusa to train his elite army and his advisor Count Fenring fears that someone will make an army out of the Fremen.
* '''[[God-Emperor of Mankind| The mother-fucking God-Emprah]]''': While the idea of a galactic Emperor is nothing new, Dune was [[Skub|debatably]] the first setting which implemented a ''de facto'' immortal god-emperor. Decades of worshiping the 40k [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Empra]] is likely to make those fans think Dune's Leto II is some pathetic false-Emperor (just look how they treat [[Star Wars|Palpatine]]) but make no mistake: while he might not crush tanks with his brain, God-Emperor Leto II earned his worship after turning himself into an immortal giant worm with precognitive powers. And unlike Palpatine's narcissist attitude, Leto is secretly altruistic to his subjects like his 40k counterpart despite some... questionable ethical choices regarding tyranny, free will, and bloodshed.
* '''Feudalism IN SPACE!:''' Under the "faufreluche" system, the Houses were de facto autonomous states, with the [[High Lords of Terra|Landsraad]] functioning as a space UN for the Houses to conduct business and address grievances with each other. The rules of the Great Convention prevented the Padishah Emperor from taking sides in any case of House-to-House warfare and defined the rules of "kanly," how two Houses may go to war with each other without endangering innocent bystanders. The Imperium of Man's organization is similar to this system, where a central authority figure is distant and difficult to contact, which means that the various jurisdictions that ostensibly answer to it are generally left to fend for themselves unless a major threat appears.
*'''Super-soldiers:''' Before the [[Space Marines]], there were the Sardaukar. Taken to a death world at a tender age and subjected to absurdly-harsh training that kills roughly half of the initiates, the Sardaukar are superior to the forces that the Great Houses could raise against them. The only other warriors in the Imperium said to be on the same level are the top-level Ginaz Swordmasters, but the Ginaz are duelists and bodyguards, not grunt soldiers.
*'''[[Daemonculaba|Tleilaxu Axolotl Tanks]]''': ''SPOILERS FOR DUNE AHEAD'' one of the factions in Dune's universe, [[Dark Mechanicus|the Tleilaxu (who are masters of biotechnology)]], are very, very secretive when it comes to their women. In fact, throughout almost three books we have only met their men, and heard vague stories about all their women being kept on their home planet. At the same time it is widely known that the Tleilaxu can breed [[Undead|gholas]] (living men made out of dead flesh) in their axolotl tanks... Three books in some Bene Gesserit witch adds two and two together, asks the right person all the wrong (from his POV) questions and confirms that [[Rape|the tanks are actually what's left of the Tleilaxu females]]. Basically, once a Tleilaxu female reaches the age of puberty they [[grimdark|destroy her brain]], cyber her up and use her to pump out gholas and [[Profit|whatever else they need.]]

== The books ==
* '''''Dune''''' - The original novel. <del>The [[Lord of the Rings]] of sci-fi.</del> Very influential? Yes! Defining the Genre the way Tolkien did? No. Don't forget that sci-fi helped shape modern Fantasy where pre-modern Fantasy helped shape sci-fi (eg; fairies and elves = aliens, alchemy = chemistry). The first book serves as a stand-alone story in the style of a traditional epic and a follows typical dramatic structure (the sequels... eh). It reads well, and each chapter centers around a particular character or topic without feeling disjointed. You know the plot. Paul controls the spice and controls the universe.
* '''''Dune Messiah''''' - Detailing Paul's jihad and rule of the Imperium. While Dune is a story on its own, this sequel was hacked off of the first book when it became too long and turned into a sequel. If you at least agree that the first book was good, then problems start to show here but not by much.
* '''''Children of Dune''''' - Detailing the rise of Paul's children. The third book and the end of the first trilogy, except it and ''Messiah'' are half the length of ''Dune'' and ''God Emperor'' making it feel like the second book of a trilogy. Paul is gone and the story switches to his son Leto II as he struggles with the prescience powers he inherited from his father on the inside and everyone and their sister trying to get his place and/or influence him on the outside. This book reads like the main character is high and does not know where he is for most of the story (which is actually fine, considering he's an 8 year old kid struggling with becoming almost omniscient, people trying to kill him, and he is both high and kidnapped), and it is disjointed enough that the reader feels the same (which is not, because a constant [[meme|"WTF am I reading?"]] feeling as one wrestles through the book makes for a poor reading experience).
* '''''God Emperor of Dune''''' - Leto II of the House of Atreides has fused with the last sandworm and become immortal in what is probably the most iconic thing outside of the first book. Disappointed in the mildness of his father's jihad, he creates the most oppressive regime that he can to tap into humanity's basest and darkest instincts so that a eugenics program can strengthen humanity to the point where it can never go extinct, followed by them scattering away from his empire and becoming completely decentralized throughout the universe. That is the 'Golden Path' thing. The entire book started off as a continuous monologue by the main character with the rest written in later and it shows. What were the characters actually doing again? Killing one another?
* '''''Heretics of Dune''''' - Humanity has scattered away from known space after being oppressed for so long, and no one thing can kill them now... maybe. ''God Emperor'' was actually the start of a trilogy centered around a girl named Sheeana and the clones (or gholas, because the cells started off dead) of Duncan Idaho. The Bene Gesserit take center stage and they and the reader must deal with their inability to be anything but clandestine antagonists.
* '''''Chapterhouse: Dune''''' - The Bene Gesserit make one of their primary planets into a new Dune because they need the spice to use their abilities. The Honored Matres, worse Bene Gesserit returned from the Scattering, have conquered pretty much everything with mind-control sex and regular violence. Can our heroes thwart them? No one knows, as Duncan calculates/foresees something that neither he or the readers know about and flies a ship off to who-knows-where, followed by Frank Herbert's death.

=== The others ===
* '''''Hunters of Dune''''' and '''''Sandworms of Dune''''' - Based on the rough draft for the unfinished ''Dune 7'', these two works function as a direct sequel to ''Chapterhouse: Dune''. If you really want the series to have an ending... this is what you get. Requires reading ''Legends of Dune''.
* Prelude to Dune series: A prequel series set right before the events of the first novel when all the adults from that book were the age that buys young adult novels. Not that bad, but all the villains are evil sadists and all the heroes are good people.
* Legends of Dune series: A prequel series that shows the Butlerian Jihad not as a conflict where religious Luddites win, but as a war where wargame-loving hacker teens take over mankind's servant robots and cause a robot war that overthrows the Old Empire on Earth and enslaves humanity. The League of Nobles (note that unlike the pages of justification for original Imperium, feudalism just seems to naturally happen at this point in human history) rallies around manufactured religious zealotry to eventually win at great cost (like ''losing 1% of our fleet every jump'' cost).
* Heroes of Dune series: A series of interquels about this and that.

== The Movies ==
Alejandro Jodorowsky,a French-Chilean director that made balls-to-the-walls experimental movies, was slated to direct a film adaptation with set design from H.R. Giger, effects by Dan O'Bannon, conceptual art by comic book artist Moebius, music from Pink Floyd and Magma, and starring Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, David Carradine, and Mick Jagger, though sadly it ran out of money in pre-production. Even if it has never been realized, it has a cult following for just the possibilities of "what could've been", even though it would take the already psychadelic book and rump the weirdness up to eleven and it would have been at least 14 to 20 hours long. The failed production would also very influential in later science fiction, Giger and O'Bannon, for example would go on to contribute to the production of ''Alien'', and many of sets were recycled by George Lucas in ''[[Star Wars]]''.

The David Lynch movie absolutely sucked in that it managed to make an already very weird book into an even weirder movie(<s>saying this out loud is a good way to troll hipsters</s> Not really. Even Lynch knew it sucked, as evidenced by the fact he had his name removed from the television cut). If you want a good laugh I'd suggest you watch it -- it's not often that you'll see a fetal manatee shit/barf lasers. It's a classic case of Hollywood taking an amazing work of art and deciding "the audience" won't like it, so they got rid of the parts they didn't understand. If you've read the book, the butchery is even more <s>hilarious</s> <s>cringe-worthy</s> full of [[lulz]], though I suggest you don't watch the movie first. Who, after all, would want to read ''The Odyssey'' after seeing the movie? I'd suggest you see the movie as well, as it is also <s>''that bad''</s> awesome. Good soundtrack though. The film is still a worthwhile experience just for the setting, but absolutely fails at making the narrative compelling.

The Sci-Fi Channel produced two six-hour mini-series based on the first three books. Though low-budget (it has the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' problem of painfully crude CGI), they do manage to touch on each of the important plot points from those books and there's no skimping on the action to make "weirding module" toys to be sold as merchandise. Worth watching for what it is, and not ironically like the abortion above. If you watch both you can imagine how much better it would have been with the budget and actors Lynch had at his disposal. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShlhYT4FxGI Also the soundtrack for the second installment is dope; same guy who did Thor:Dark World.]

Denis Villeneuve, of ''Arrival'' and ''Sicario'' fame, is now slated to helm a new adaptation. As of fall 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xhJrPXop4 the trailer is up] and it's... ehhhhhhhhhhh. At first glance it looks like the mini-series done with a respectable effects budget and better actors, but we won't know if this is the one until it hits the screens. Using a grimdark mix of ''Dark Side of the Moon'' was a nice nod to the Jodorowsky project, but it means we don't know much about the actual score, and Dune movies kinda rely on the music to be up to the epicness of the footage.

== As an RPG Setting ==
Frank Herbert went into SO MUCH DETAIL in his novels, you've got plenty of material to use as a campaign setting. You've got politics, fightan, more politics, space travel, enough politics to give Machiavelli a headache, and room for quasi-magic shit. Go nuts.

There was an official Dune RPG, "Chronicles of the Imperium," but it got mired in legal bullshit, [[WOTC|Wizards]] bought it out, did a 'Limited Edition' run of 3000 books, and then the high masters at Hasbro said "no more licensed property" and eighty-sixed the game so nobody would see it ever again. Assholes.

* [http://www.squaremans.com/?p=242 The only adventure module], unpublished even for an unpublished game.

Someone made a homebrew [[GURPS]] Dune splatbook which can be found [https://mega.nz/#!eBFhBTRJ!FMVGywUtRaO845ZxboOcplc3R0wwpxFx01LZtGMyTTk right here].

There is also a [https://www.modiphius.net/pages/discover-dune-roleplaying-game Modiphius RPG] coming in 2021, from the looks of it.

== The Games ==
The first video game adaptation of Dune was what can best be described as a Visual Novel mixed with a little Risk Boardgame. You play as Paul Atreides and it roughly follows the events of the original book. The goal is to recruit Fremen and eventually kick the Harkonnen from the planet.

The videogame many oldfags remember fondly, however, is [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dune-ii-the-building-of-a-dynasty Dune 2], hailed as the first "true" RTS game that got it right and paved the way for all the others. It's widely-accredited as putting Westwood on the map. While it was set in the universe, it did not actually take place during the time of the books, instead much earlier. It was remade in 1998 as part of a renovation attempt, and the resulting game, [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dune-2000 Dune 2000], was a fun if somewhat off-centered RTS boasting fairly decent balance and was great fun to play in multiplayer LAN games, but it was hindered by the fact that the bulk of its gameplay had been lifted from ''Command and Conquer - Tiberian Dawn'' and ''Red Alert'', creating a sort of hybrid that (justifiably in some cases) pissed off fans of both franchises. Then again, it had fucking [[The Lord of the Rings|Gimli]] as an Atreides Mentat, a kickass robo-Mentat that gets progressively more drugged out for the Ordos, and a good atmosphere and set design readily conscious of the curious, or least unique aspects of the Lynch film's asthetics, so even then it has some good qualities. It was quite clearly produced with love of the universe, and emphasized the game was taking place in an earlier time, so as not to fuck with the books' canon.

Westwood later did one of the first 3D RTS's not soon after, ''Emperor - Battle for Dune''. Though the game ditched a standard campaign progression with the now familiar Risk-style campaign, it still had unique missions and a unique campaign for all three sides. The story took off right after the events of the last game (namely, Padishah-Emperor Corrino is dead with no one to succeed him) and thus the Spacing Guild and the Sisters avert a civil war by holding that whichever House can win a limited War of Assassins on Arrakis will be crowned Padishah-Emperor of the Known Universe. Contains all sorts of surprising twists and turns (like everyone gloriously violating galactic law, and '''IT'S A T-gmphmmhmhhhhhhh!!!!'''), and the cinematics and cast were quite nicely done as well. Especially since it's live action. This, sadly, would not be the last Dune video game.

You see, there's also ''Frank Herbert's Dune'', action-adventure game based on the mini-series. How good was it? Well, just think for a brief moment about ''why'' didn't you hear about it before you read this article.

There are three boardgames worth mentioning that were based on Dune. The first and best remembered is the 1979 Avalon Hill game made by the same guys that made [[Cosmic Encounter]]; it's one of the crown jewels of the Avalon Hill body of work. The game property was bought by Final Flight Games, but the owners of the Dune trademarks said "no," so FFG published the game using their [[Twilight Imperium]] setting as a prequel to that wargame. See more about both games at [[Rex: Final Days of an Empire]]. A reprint of the Avalon Hill game is now available from Gale Force Nine, as is 2 faction expansion pack with the Ixians & Tleilaxu. Get your crysknifes ready, because it's gonna be a slaughterfest.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121 BoardgameGeek link to the Avalon Hill game]
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104363 BoardgameGeek link to the FFG remake]
* [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune BoardgameGeek Link to the reprint]

There was a trashy tie-in merchandise boardgame based on the David Lynch movie. Paper pasted on cardboard, roll-and-move race game, typical [[Ameritrash]]. The less said about that, the better.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/680 you don't want to know]

There is a free print-and-play game "Dune Express." You can use simple coloured dice, Skittles for your armies, and draw the map on the back of a pizza box, and yet it will still feel like great houses fighting over Arrakis. A decent beer-and-preztels game without being hurr durr dumb.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42617 BoardgameGeek link to Dune Express]

Dire Wolf has now managed to get their claws onto a license to do Dune game as well, Dune: Imperium. From the initial reviews it looks like a German style resource race meeple game.

* [https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316554/dune-imperium BoardgameGeek]

[[category: Literature]]

Dune

2021-02-03T07:03:31Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:6C5A:997F:7D19:8B1F: /* The Politics */

[[Image:Dune_RPG.jpg|right|200px]]
:''For the board game, see [[Rex: Final Days of an Empire]], the reissue name.''
'''Dune''' is the best selling science fiction/fantasy novel of all time. Written by Frank Herbert in 1965, it won several prestigious awards, including the very first Nebula Award for Best Novel, and went on to become an incredibly influential classic of the genre. Since then, it's been adapted to all sorts of media, including board games, video games, two mini-series, and a movie. Surprisingly, [[/tg/|we]] are not all that obsessed with it, but we do respect Dune for all it's done for sci-fi.

== Overall Setting ==
Dune is ''weird''. Really, really weird. You might think a fantasy series is weird because the elves are grown in tree pods or something, but that's nothing compared to Dune. Think about, for example, ''Alf'': a by the books formulaic 1980s sitcom in which a suburban American family has a goofy alien living in their home, cue zany hi-jinks and canned laughter. A stock mundane set up with one moderately fantastic element. That's not Dune. That's about as far from Dune as you could get and still be called sci-fi. Dune is a drug-filled trip following strange characters in a world highly removed from our own, navigating a foreign political landscape in which we get to see their strange motivations marching to its own rules and internal logic. Some people love it for its weirdness, others hate it for its weirdness. Regardless, weirdness is the name of the game going into Dune.

In the distant future, human civilization relies on "spice", a drug that expands its user's perceptions and triples the lifespan. Because electronic computers are taboo, even over ten thousand years after the Butlerian Jihad against thinking machines, interstellar travel relies on spice-using [[Navigator]]s to plot safe paths through space and Mentats use spice to increase their cognitive abilities, becoming human computers able to process vast amounts of data. You could buy a mansion on a core Imperial world for a deciliter of spice. Its most unpleasant withdrawal symptom is inevitable death. Naturally, "the spice must flow" is a common sentiment. Basically spice acts as [[skub|plot device]] to explain the politic struggle in the books and to explain all sorts of magic-like stuff in the dune universe, without quite leaving the field of sci-fi.

Spice cannot be synthesized and is found on only one planet: Arrakis, a bone-dry dustball where enormous sandworms produce it as part of their life cycle. Imperial citizens only live there to extract, process, and export spice, living in fear of their overseers, the sandworms, and the human natives called the Fremen. Whoever controls Arrakis has a stranglehold on the whole of human civilization, and so when a conspiracy to hide this fact breaks down multiple factions fight each other for control of it or to use it against their enemies.

The six books of the original series (''Dune'', ''Dune Messiah'', ''Children of Dune'', ''God-Emperor of Dune'', ''Heretics of Dune'', and ''Chapterhouse Dune'') principally follow the scions of House Atreides as their futures become inextricably tied to Arrakis, the spice, and the future of humanity.

Dune is probably one of the most in-depth science fiction books ever written, considering the utter detail that goes into sociological, ecological, political, and economic elements that are added so neatly. It's like a textbook, only far cooler. Opinion on the later books in the series is split, with some feeling it's a continuous decline in quality through to the end, an increase in crap until you're four books in when you notice you're reading a doorstop chiefly composed of Leto whining that turning into a sandworm is haaaard, while others feel the next three books are crucial to understanding the themes Herbert started to explore in the original '''Dune''' (especially the damaging effects of hero worship on society). Still, everyone agrees that the prequels and sequels written after his death by his son are irredeemably bad, so avoid those unless you're a [[Society of Sensation|sensate]] trying to experience the whole spectrum of human emotion and the next thing on your list is mind-numbing disappointment and boredom.

===The Politics===

With a new movie coming out, it's worth breaking down the politics of the first book. Here are the major factions and their motivations:

* '''House Atreides:''' Duke Leto rules the planet Caladan and the Emperor has named him the next ruler of Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit had meanwhile foisted a concubine on him, Jessica, and ordered her to give him a daughter; but the couple ended up in love with each other so Jessica gave him a son - Paul - instead of a daughter whom the Bene Gesserit could have actual use for. Leto then legitimated his ''fitz'' as his heir thus pushing useful marriage alliances to that next generation. Leto has amassed a formidable council of advisors: Gurney Halleck, an escaped Harkonnen slave who rose through the ranks to become warmaster (played by Picard himself, Patrick Stewart); Thufir Hawat, Mentat and his master of assassins; Duncan Idaho, also an escaped slave and now a swordmaster of the Ginaz school and the Atreides House champion; and Wellington Yueh, a medical doctor of the Suk school conditioned to be unable to kill. Paul is a prime candidate to marry the Emperor's daughter Irulan, but Leto's motivations are simply to keep his house safe.
* '''House Harkonnen:''' For the last century, the Harkonnen have held fief over Arrakis, and their term is ending. The Harkonnen have had a family feud with the Atreides for millennia. The Siridar Baron, Vladimir Harkonnen, has no children (as far as we know at the beginning), but rather two nephews, Rabban (the Beast) and Feyd-Rautha (the pretty one, played by Sting). He and his advisor, a Twisted Mentat named Piter de Vries, want to settle all accounts: wipe out the Atreides, reclaim Arrakis, marry Feyd to Princess Irulan, and take control of the Empire.
* '''House Corrino:''' The house of the Padishah Emperor. Claims to rule all of space. Emperor Shaddam IV has several daughters but no sons through his Bene Gesserit wife. He sees the potential end of his line and what could happen to his house. He knows that Leto is immensely popular and has amassed a formidable army, trained almost to the level of his own elite Sardaukar, and that represents a threat to his power that he cannot ignore. Shaddam conspires with the Harkonnens to lure Leto and his house into a trap on Arrakis and wipe them out.
* '''The Bene Gesserit:''' A religious order of battle nuns and courtesans with psychometabolic powers. The sisterhood is nearing the culmination of thousands of years of selective breeding to produce a superman, but their plans were thrown into disorder when Jessica gave birth to a son instead of a daughter. To salvage their project they need either Paul or Feyd to survive and have a child, preferably through Irulan (although losing either one will be a setback).
* '''The Bene Tleilax:''' Also known as "Tleilaxu" (the first L is silent), this patriarchal, isolationist group contains the universe's premier genetic engineers. Their clients view them as both useful and borderline [[Heresy|heretics]] for how closely they skirt the letter of the Butlerian taboos. We don't actually meet any Tleilaxu agents until the events of ''Dune Messiah''.
* '''The Spacing Guild:''' An order of mutants who control all interstellar travel, as their Navigators are the only safe way to travel between stars without forbidden computers. The Guild is the real power behind the Emperor: they want stability on Arrakis and will work with whoever can promise that... and against anyone who threatens their supply of spice. The spice must flow.
* '''The Fremen:''' The "natives" of Arrakis, the Fremen are the descendants of the Zensunni Wanderers who ended their pilgrimage on Arrakis. The Bene Gesserit then sent the Missionaria Protectiva to mess with their heads and subvert their religion for a millennia-long gamble. The Fremen know the desert and how to survive it better than any off-worlder, so a Great House that rules the planet must deal with them in one fashion or another. The Harkonnen tried to kill them to no avail, but Duke Leto believes he can win their allegiance through cunning and diplomacy.

Into all this, add partial precognition (among other psychic talents) on the part of the Bene Gesserit and the Spacing Guild, both with self-acknowledged serious blind spots, and that Leto's son Paul is far more important than ''anybody'' realizes at the start of the first book, and you have yourself a recipe for a grade-A nuclear clusterfuck of politics.

===Influence on Warhammer 40k===
Being a highly successful series with an unique and interesting universe it is obvious that [[Games Workshop]] <s>stole</s> took inspiration from Dune more than an Blood Raven in an unlocked reliquary. While this topic is up for [[Skub|debate]] the following were most likely borrowed from the Dune universe:
* '''Close combat / Melee''': The Dune universe is close-combat-heavy because the Holtzman effect changed the face of warfare. The effect can be utilized to generate a man-sized field that can deflect matter that travels beyond a certain speed. This means that bullets are useless against people equipped with shields; this also means that air molecules can't pass through the shield, so you'd better get your fighting over with before you collapse from heatstroke and/or suffocate on your own CO2. "But there's [[lasgun]]s in Dune!" Yes, Timmy, there are, but when a laser beam hits a shield, [[Exterminatus|the shooter, the target, and the surrounding landscape are deleted in a massive explosion]], so nobody tries it (although "accidents" do happen). Swordsmanship has come back into style due to the high risk of using laser weapons leading to a reliance on melee combat. This story element was due to author appeal, as Herbert wanted close combat in the story.
:*As a side note, one of the reasons why House Atrides is so dangerous is that they discovered a workaround; called the “Weirding Way,” soldiers can use “Killing words” to shoot sonic blasts into enemies, strong enough to crush stone with a single word. In the films it’s aided with the help of a handheld device, but in the novels it’s more of a kung-fu technique. Now as for the former; a sound-based weapon that ignores armor and delivers bone-crushing injuries, [[Sonic Weaponry|where have we heard that one]]?
* '''[[Navigator|Navigators]]''': The Dune universe has [[Navigator|Navigators]] which are ''slightly'' similar to their 40k counterparts. Only source of ship travel? Check. Highly mutated? Check. Mutation worsens over time? Check. Some sort of magical powers, but somehow different from everyone else's? Check. Living outside of all political powers? Check. Having their own political agendas? Check. Secretive? Double fucking check. Basically they are the exact same thing with the small exceptions that they need spice to live. Also, Herbert may have cribbed them from the 1950 Cordwainer Smith story [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanners_Live_in_Vain "Scanners Live in Vain"].
* '''No AI allowed''': Basically the same story, AI goes bad, tries to conquer humanity, gets its virtual arse kicked, and is subsequently forbidden. While the backstory is a little different, the outcome is still the same. However, Dune is a little bit more restrictive when it comes to [[Cogitator|Cogitators]] or [[Servitor|Servitors]] and uses humans hyper-trained from birth (and fucked up on drugs) known as "Mentats" as supercomputers instead.
* '''Progress = Bad''': As an extension of the previous point, technology is a constant subject of paranoid suspicion, while science is slowed to a crawl. Humanity mined spice on Arrakis for THOUSANDS of years without ever bothering to research what was creating it.
* '''[[Death World|Death Worlds]]:''' Dune has two of them, Arrakis and the Emperor's nuked-out hellhole Salusa Secundus. Like in 40K, death worlds are places where virtually everything, from the life to the landscape, is out to kill you, and anyone who manages to grow up there is operating on an entire different level from the rest of humanity and are ''also'' generally out to kill you. The Emperor uses Salusa to train his elite army and his advisor Count Fenring fears that someone will make an army out of the Fremen.
* '''[[God-Emperor of Mankind| The mother-fucking God-Emprah]]''': While the idea of a galactic Emperor is nothing new, Dune was [[Skub|debatably]] the first setting which implemented a ''de facto'' immortal god-emperor. Decades of worshiping the 40k [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Empra]] is likely to make those fans think Dune's Leto II is some pathetic false-Emperor (just look how they treat [[Star Wars|Palpatine]]) but make no mistake: while he might not crush tanks with his brain, God-Emperor Leto II earned his worship after turning himself into an immortal giant worm with precognitive powers. And unlike Palpatine's narcissist attitude, Leto is secretly altruistic to his subjects like his 40k counterpart despite some... questionable ethical choices regarding tyranny, free will, and bloodshed.
* '''Feudalism IN SPACE!:''' Under the "faufreluche" system, the Houses were de facto autonomous states, with the [[High Lords of Terra|Landsraad]] functioning as a space UN for the Houses to conduct business and address grievances with each other. The rules of the Great Convention prevented the Padishah Emperor from taking sides in any case of House-to-House warfare and defined the rules of "kanly," how two Houses may go to war with each other without endangering innocent bystanders. The Imperium of Man's organization is similar to this system, where a central authority figure is distant and difficult to contact, which means that the various jurisdictions that ostensibly answer to it are generally left to fend for themselves unless a major threat appears.
*'''Super-soldiers:''' Before the [[Space Marines]], there were the Sardaukar. Taken to a death world at a tender age and subjected to absurdly-harsh training that kills roughly half of the initiates, the Sardaukar are superior to the forces that the Great Houses could raise against them. The only other warriors in the Imperium said to be on the same level are the top-level Ginaz Swordmasters, but the Ginaz are duelists and bodyguards, not grunt soldiers.
*'''[[Daemonculaba|Tleilaxu Axolotl Tanks]]''': ''SPOILERS FOR DUNE AHEAD'' one of the factions in Dune's universe, [[Dark Mechanicus|the Tleilaxu (who are masters of biotechnology)]], are very, very secretive when it comes to their women. In fact, throughout almost three books we have only met their men, and heard vague stories about all their women being kept on their home planet. At the same time it is widely known that the Tleilaxu can breed [[Undead|gholas]] (living men made out of dead flesh) in their axolotl tanks... Three books in some Bene Gesserit witch adds two and two together, asks the right person all the wrong (from his POV) questions and confirms that [[Rape|the tanks are actually what's left of the Tleilaxu females]]. Basically, once a Tleilaxu female reaches the age of puberty they [[grimdark|destroy her brain]], cyber her up and use her to pump out gholas and [[Profit|whatever else they need.]]

== The books ==
* '''''Dune''''' - The original novel. <del>The [[Lord of the Rings]] of sci-fi.</del> Very influential? Yes! Defining the Genre the way Tolkien did? No. Don't forget that sci-fi helped shape modern Fantasy where pre-modern Fantasy helped shape sci-fi (eg; fairies and elves = aliens, alchemy = chemistry). The first book serves as a stand-alone story in the style of a traditional epic and a follows typical dramatic structure (the sequels... eh). It reads well, and each chapter centers around a particular character or topic without feeling disjointed. You know the plot. Paul controls the spice and controls the universe.
* '''''Dune Messiah''''' - Detailing Paul's jihad and rule of the Imperium. While Dune is a story on its own, this sequel was hacked off of the first book when it became too long and turned into a sequel. If you at least agree that the first book was good, then problems start to show here but not by much.
* '''''Children of Dune''''' - Detailing the rise of Paul's children. The third book and the end of the first trilogy, except it and ''Messiah'' are half the length of ''Dune'' and ''God Emperor'' making it feel like the second book of a trilogy. Paul is gone and the story switches to his son Leto II as he struggles with the prescience powers he inherited from his father on the inside and everyone and their sister trying to get his place and/or influence him on the outside. This book reads like the main character is high and does not know where he is for most of the story (which is actually fine, considering he's an 8 year old kid struggling with becoming almost omniscient, people trying to kill him, and he is both high and kidnapped), and it is disjointed enough that the reader feels the same (which is not, because a constant [[meme|"WTF am I reading?"]] feeling as one wrestles through the book makes for a poor reading experience).
* '''''God Emperor of Dune''''' - Leto II of the House of Atreides has fused with the last sandworm and become immortal in what is probably the most iconic thing outside of the first book. Disappointed in the mildness of his father's jihad, he creates the most oppressive regime that he can to tap into humanity's basest and darkest instincts so that a eugenics program can strengthen humanity to the point where it can never go extinct, followed by them scattering away from his empire and becoming completely decentralized throughout the universe. That is the 'Golden Path' thing. The entire book started off as a continuous monologue by the main character with the rest written in later and it shows. What were the characters actually doing again? Killing one another?
* '''''Heretics of Dune''''' - Humanity has scattered away from known space after being oppressed for so long, and no one thing can kill them now... maybe. ''God Emperor'' was actually the start of a trilogy centered around a girl named Sheeana and the clones (or gholas, because the cells started off dead) of Duncan Idaho. The Bene Gesserit take center stage and they and the reader must deal with their inability to be anything but clandestine antagonists.
* '''''Chapterhouse: Dune''''' - The Bene Gesserit make one of their primary planets into a new Dune because they need the spice to use their abilities. The Honored Matres, worse Bene Gesserit returned from the Scattering, have conquered pretty much everything with mind-control sex and regular violence. Can our heroes thwart them? No one knows, as Duncan calculates/foresees something that neither he or the readers know about and flies a ship off to who-knows-where, followed by Frank Herbert's death.

=== The others ===
* '''''Hunters of Dune''''' and '''''Sandworms of Dune''''' - Based on the rough draft for the unfinished ''Dune 7'', these two works function as a direct sequel to ''Chapterhouse: Dune''. If you really want the series to have an ending... this is what you get. Requires reading ''Legends of Dune''.
* Prelude to Dune series: A prequel series set right before the events of the first novel when all the adults from that book were the age that buys young adult novels. Not that bad, but all the villains are evil sadists and all the heroes are good people.
* Legends of Dune series: A prequel series that shows the Butlerian Jihad not as a conflict where religious Luddites win, but as a war where wargame-loving hacker teens take over mankind's servant robots and cause a robot war that overthrows the Old Empire on Earth and enslaves humanity. The League of Nobles (note that unlike the pages of justification for original Imperium, feudalism just seems to naturally happen at this point in human history) rallies around manufactured religious zealotry to eventually win at great cost (like ''losing 1% of our fleet every jump'' cost).
* Heroes of Dune series: A series of interquels about this and that.

== The Movies ==
Alejandro Jodorowsky,a French-Chilean director that made balls-to-the-walls experimental movies, was slated to direct a film adaptation with set design from H.R. Giger, effects by Dan O'Bannon, conceptual art by comic book artist Moebius, music from Pink Floyd and Magma, and starring Salvador Dali, Orson Welles, David Carradine, and Mick Jagger, though sadly it ran out of money in pre-production. Even if it has never been realized, it has a cult following for just the possibilities of "what could've been", even though it would take the already psychadelic book and rump the weirdness up to eleven and it would have been at least 14 to 20 hours long. The failed production would also very influential in later science fiction, Giger and O'Bannon, for example would go on to contribute to the production of ''Alien'', and many of sets were recycled by George Lucas in ''[[Star Wars]]''.

The David Lynch movie absolutely sucked in that it managed to make an already very weird book into an even weirder movie(<s>saying this out loud is a good way to troll hipsters</s> Not really. Even Lynch knew it sucked, as evidenced by the fact he had his name removed from the television cut). If you want a good laugh I'd suggest you watch it -- it's not often that you'll see a fetal manatee shit/barf lasers. It's a classic case of Hollywood taking an amazing work of art and deciding "the audience" won't like it, so they got rid of the parts they didn't understand. If you've read the book, the butchery is even more <s>hilarious</s> <s>cringe-worthy</s> full of [[lulz]], though I suggest you don't watch the movie first. Who, after all, would want to read ''The Odyssey'' after seeing the movie? I'd suggest you see the movie as well, as it is also <s>''that bad''</s> awesome. Good soundtrack though. The film is still a worthwhile experience just for the setting, but absolutely fails at making the narrative compelling.

The Sci-Fi Channel produced two six-hour mini-series based on the first three books. Though low-budget (it has the ''[[Babylon 5]]'' problem of painfully crude CGI), they do manage to touch on each of the important plot points from those books and there's no skimping on the action to make "weirding module" toys to be sold as merchandise. Worth watching for what it is, and not ironically like the abortion above. If you watch both you can imagine how much better it would have been with the budget and actors Lynch had at his disposal. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShlhYT4FxGI Also the soundtrack for the second installment is dope; same guy who did Thor:Dark World.]

Denis Villeneuve, of ''Arrival'' and ''Sicario'' fame, is now slated to helm a new adaptation. As of fall 2020, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9xhJrPXop4 the trailer is up] and it's... ehhhhhhhhhhh. At first glance it looks like the mini-series done with a respectable effects budget and better actors, but we won't know if this is the one until it hits the screens. Using a grimdark mix of ''Dark Side of the Moon'' was a nice nod to the Jodorowsky project, but it means we don't know much about the actual score, and Dune movies kinda rely on the music to be up to the epicness of the footage.

== As an RPG Setting ==
Frank Herbert went into SO MUCH DETAIL in his novels, you've got plenty of material to use as a campaign setting. You've got politics, fightan, more politics, space travel, enough politics to give Machiavelli a headache, and room for quasi-magic shit. Go nuts.

There was an official Dune RPG, "Chronicles of the Imperium," but it got mired in legal bullshit, [[WOTC|Wizards]] bought it out, did a 'Limited Edition' run of 3000 books, and then the high masters at Hasbro said "no more licensed property" and eighty-sixed the game so nobody would see it ever again. Assholes.

* [http://www.squaremans.com/?p=242 The only adventure module], unpublished even for an unpublished game.

Someone made a homebrew [[GURPS]] Dune splatbook which can be found [https://mega.nz/#!eBFhBTRJ!FMVGywUtRaO845ZxboOcplc3R0wwpxFx01LZtGMyTTk right here].

There is also a [https://www.modiphius.net/pages/discover-dune-roleplaying-game Modiphius RPG] coming in 2021, from the looks of it.

== The Games ==
The first video game adaptation of Dune was what can best be described as a Visual Novel mixed with a little Risk Boardgame. You play as Paul Atreides and it roughly follows the events of the original book. The goal is to recruit Fremen and eventually kick the Harkonnen from the planet.

The videogame many oldfags remember fondly, however, is [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dune-ii-the-building-of-a-dynasty Dune 2], hailed as the first "true" RTS game that got it right and paved the way for all the others. It's widely-accredited as putting Westwood on the map. While it was set in the universe, it did not actually take place during the time of the books, instead much earlier. It was remade in 1998 as part of a renovation attempt, and the resulting game, [http://www.mobygames.com/game/dune-2000 Dune 2000], was a fun if somewhat off-centered RTS boasting fairly decent balance and was great fun to play in multiplayer LAN games, but it was hindered by the fact that the bulk of its gameplay had been lifted from ''Command and Conquer - Tiberian Dawn'' and ''Red Alert'', creating a sort of hybrid that (justifiably in some cases) pissed off fans of both franchises. Then again, it had fucking [[The Lord of the Rings|Gimli]] as an Atreides Mentat, a kickass robo-Mentat that gets progressively more drugged out for the Ordos, and a good atmosphere and set design readily conscious of the curious, or least unique aspects of the Lynch film's asthetics, so even then it has some good qualities. It was quite clearly produced with love of the universe, and emphasized the game was taking place in an earlier time, so as not to fuck with the books' canon.

Westwood later did one of the first 3D RTS's not soon after, ''Emperor - Battle for Dune''. Though the game ditched a standard campaign progression with the now familiar Risk-style campaign, it still had unique missions and a unique campaign for all three sides. The story took off right after the events of the last game (namely, Padishah-Emperor Corrino is dead with no one to succeed him) and thus the Spacing Guild and the Sisters avert a civil war by holding that whichever House can win a limited War of Assassins on Arrakis will be crowned Padishah-Emperor of the Known Universe. Contains all sorts of surprising twists and turns (like everyone gloriously violating galactic law, and '''IT'S A T-gmphmmhmhhhhhhh!!!!'''), and the cinematics and cast were quite nicely done as well. Especially since it's live action. This, sadly, would not be the last Dune video game.

You see, there's also ''Frank Herbert's Dune'', action-adventure game based on the mini-series. How good was it? Well, just think for a brief moment about ''why'' didn't you hear about it before you read this article.

There are three boardgames worth mentioning that were based on Dune. The first and best remembered is the 1979 Avalon Hill game made by the same guys that made [[Cosmic Encounter]]; it's one of the crown jewels of the Avalon Hill body of work. The game property was bought by Final Flight Games, but the owners of the Dune trademarks said "no," so FFG published the game using their [[Twilight Imperium]] setting as a prequel to that wargame. See more about both games at [[Rex: Final Days of an Empire]]. A reprint of the Avalon Hill game is now available from Gale Force Nine, as is 2 faction expansion pack with the Ixians & Tleilaxu. Get your crysknifes ready, because it's gonna be a slaughterfest.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/121 BoardgameGeek link to the Avalon Hill game]
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104363 BoardgameGeek link to the FFG remake]
* [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/283355/dune BoardgameGeek Link to the reprint]

There was a trashy tie-in merchandise boardgame based on the David Lynch movie. Paper pasted on cardboard, roll-and-move race game, typical [[Ameritrash]]. The less said about that, the better.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/680 you don't want to know]

There is a free print-and-play game "Dune Express." You can use simple coloured dice, Skittles for your armies, and draw the map on the back of a pizza box, and yet it will still feel like great houses fighting over Arrakis. A decent beer-and-preztels game without being hurr durr dumb.
* [http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42617 BoardgameGeek link to Dune Express]

Dire Wolf has now managed to get their claws onto a license to do Dune game as well, Dune: Imperium. From the initial reviews it looks like a German style resource race meeple game.

* [https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/316554/dune-imperium BoardgameGeek]

[[category: Literature]]

Alcadizzar

2021-02-03T06:49:08Z

2406:3400:20F:FFC0:6C5A:997F:7D19:8B1F: /* The Prince of Persia Rasetra */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The last and greatest king of Khemri, as well as Nehekhara.]]
Alcadizzar, also known as Alcadizaar the Conqueror, was a ruler of Nehekhara as well as a priest king of Khemri. He was well known for being the last priest king of Khemri, killed Nagash, being the greatest king on par with Settra, as well as doomed the entirely of Nehekhara(more on that later). Although fluff texts from the 8th edition of both vampire and tomb kings details little about Alcadizzar's personal life nor on how he achieved victory, it was completely fleshed out in the novel "Nagash Immortal" of the Time of Legend series.

In the older fluff, it stated that Alcadizzar conquered Lahmia after he slew Vashanesh (aka Vlad) whereas in the later retcon, Vashanesh was changed to Ankhat and he is but a noble attendant to Neferata instead of being her husband as well as being Nagash's distant relative and a general in black fire pass. Not much about his upbringing was known nor fleshed out however.

In the novel, he was born to a Rasetran royal bloodline, is a distant descendant of Settra, lived for over 200 years and had a strong relationship with the desert tribes.

Also his name for some reasons was refered to as Alcadizaar sometimes with an extra A instead of Z.

== Commonly known facts about Alcadizzar ==

-He was named the Conqueror after the war against Lahmia.

-He was the greatest king of Nehekhara since Settra and Nehekhara's last living king.

-Under his leadership, his army defeated Nagash's invasion force and routed them.

-He wept on his throne for not being able to save his people from Nagash's plague.

-He slew Nagash with the Fellblade.

-He went mad afterwards and took Nagash's crown with him where the shaman named Kadon found it along with his corpse.

== Background ==
After Neferata's vampirism and victory over her own cousin Khalida in a duel, she was viewed as Asaph's reincarnation by the public. Under W'soran's suggestion, she created her own cult of personality for PR and to harvest blood safely.

The cult's influence attracted many Nehekharans to Lahmia. Since the Nehekharans no longer had any direct blessing from their gods due to Nagash breaking the ancient divine treaty, having a temple and an incarnation of their gods was a comforting tradition.

The Queen of Rasetra (who was never given a name) was one of the Nehekharans who traveled to the temple, hoping she could get help there to overcome her difficult pregnancy. Since Neferata had given the city of Khemri to the Rasetran King Khept-am-shepret (due to him being descended from one of Settra's sons) over two centuries ago, this meant if her and the current Rasetra King Aten-Heru's child was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if he survived the pregnancy.

The death of Khalida had Neferata realize she'd been living in a cage her entire life (Being trapped inside the female palace ever since she was born and all). Being an immortal blood drinker was no different, as she had to hide her vampiric nature and activities from the public or they'd purge her any everything she'd built on Nagash's works.

When she suddenly told her vampire cabal she is going to save the queen's child, everyone was stunned. Her plan was giving the queen a vial of elixir distilled from her own blood, not only saving the child, but also letting other great city knew the greatness of Nefereta's miracle that is unlike Nagash's dark magic. By using her fame and some taxation deductions, she also decided to open an academy in Lahmia for every priest king's children (think of it as junior Harvard or Yale in Egypt) and have them staying there (aka kept as political hostage) until adulthood. Still, everyone in the cabal saw through her bullshit and knew the whole plan is but an excuse for Neferata to find a replacement for Khalida as her life partner, as well as wanting to openly ruled the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

=== The Birth of a Giga Chad ===

After Alcadizzar was born, he was immediately placed in Lahmia's care with the former Lahmia Viziar Ubaid (as well as
Neferata’s chief vampire thrall, unknown to Alcadizzar) acting as his servant while received the best education a Nehekharan prince could received. His mother died at preganancy however, being the most unmemorable background character, ever.

Due to the elixir's effect, he grown up becoming a man of incredible height with muscular body and displayed signs of great tactical intellect even for his age (think of him as the warhammer's equivlent of [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Jonathan Joestar]], a buffed British guy at the age of 19).
For example, he beat up four armored instructors (older but not taller than him btw) posing as enemies with tactics such as the use of rope trap and his fist alone in a chaotic mock battle. In a tabletop wargaming lesson between a wise war veteran called Jabbari, Alcadizzar displayed the best use of his wit through decisions as well as learning from his mistake after the battle.

Despite the greatness he has shown, Alcadizzar was however upset by the fact he was not yet ready to rule, for other students had already graduated and began their own ruling by the age of 18. He had a dream of enjoy a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his request to become a king has held back again and again each year. Little did the poor boy knew it was all part of Neferata's plan to create her ultimate husbando.

By the time Alcadizzar is 30 years old (at -1320 Imperial Reckoning), his uncle Khenti, a powerful yet pissed off Rasetra noble came to Lahmia and demands Neferata to hand over Alcadizzar.

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greet his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equal just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite bullcrap Alcadizzar were drilled in from his social arts on royal manners courses (which he had studied a lot of), and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his action and the reason for such warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's heart. The salty bitch was in fact look down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lessons on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leads to Settra's fifth son Amenophis, she suggests him to take another DECADES of training session at her temple of blood to truly unite Lahmia and Khemri in spirit (just as the sacred treaty demands on how the king of Khemri and the priestess of Lahmia should wed), and had Alcadizzar to decide if he wants to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. Is all up to him.

Despite Khenti's persuasion for him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accept her training course, for he believe it is ultimately for the good of Khemri and it should survive another decade without him.

And so 25 years later, Alcadizzar became the high priest of the blood temple and has been doing nothing but unknowingly drinking Neferata's elixir and playing with live snakes to show the fake Asap aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar is still looking young despite being 55 years old and yet he is still preparing to be a king and he has so many thing he wished to implemented to the city. Neferata told him to not worry however, for she will grant him as many year as he needed to make Khemri and Nehekhara great again. While strolling at the garden of the temple's inner sanctum, Naaima (Neferata's cathayan courtsan vampire friend)
appeared out of blue and delivered a dreadful message for Alcadizzar. His father, the king of Rasetra whom both never met has died (for the entirely 55 fucking years seriously). Rasetra is now ruled by his younger brother Asar, which the later beg Alcadizzar to come back for his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar doesn't seems to know how to react since he never personally knew his dad, just like his mother who had died after his birth, and was therefore unable to felt a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption from her sweet time between Alcadizzar, Neferata tell Alcadizzar to go pray at the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remain clueless to the scheme Neferata has for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He must prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion, by survive 7 day and 7 night without water, food while being tormented with pain from lashes. Kinda similar to the buddism's six cleansing, but with more leaning towards Slaanesh despite the Nehekharan never knew about chaos and Neferata probably copying the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the only type of Nehekharan weeaboo, this seems fitting). Thanks to the elixir's power as well as his own strong will, Alcadizzar survived these [[Slaanesh|painful and inhumane]] trial. On the last part, Alcadizzar needs to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all)
but lost his conscious.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frightened pale skinned face and vampire saber tooth fang like some kind of freakish monster (take note Twilight). For the first time in his life, Alcadizzar was scared and realized he had been tricked by an abomination created by Nagash. Using her unnatural strength, Neferata force Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata's face then telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and was under Neffy's control for sometimes, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar charisma even when he was young, especially just a seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and have him joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was furious that not only he torn off Ubaid with her saber tooth fang like a lion, she became ever vengeful that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it means to turn her city and into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the training and knowledge he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guard and made to the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive just so he could head back to Rasetra and warned everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For 8 month straight, Alcadizzar, a prince of Rasetra took on the name of his servant Ubaid as his alias while living in the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He rob, he steal, he drink, even go as far as to kill a person during an awful encounter with a group of sailors who were press ganging him to join them. There was even that time where he worked in a brothel as a hired muscle at the infamous red silk district. He cooperate with a gang of jewel thieves whom were planning to rob an old wealthy family, only to ended in betrayal and blood in one night. Alcadizzar had his first love here where he also had his first kiss stolen.

When his appearance was finally different enough for him to not be suspect as the wanted man ordered by Neferata to find, he slipped passed the Lahmia gate without having the guards to recognized him. Unfortunately for him, much challenges still awaits. He had tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and banits on the golden plain, but was met with refusal from its master and the guards, fearing he 1might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain. He was forced to fight for his life on more than one occasion, but his training and the lasting potency of Neferata’s elixir saw him through.

He eventually made to Lybaras (which it is now looking tattered due to Neferata's political fuckery and its famed library closed) and was hoping its king would listen to him, but was met with refusal as even its vizier refuse to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia and he finally made to Rasetra. He finally united with his uncle Khenti where he is now but a worn out old man and helped Alcadizzar to arranged a secret meeting between him and his brother. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar has told to his brother, the later remained unconvinced even demanding proof from his brother.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would required a coalition army of the great cities, yet it's just not possible for manyreasons. Firstly, war cost a lot of man power and gold, which are scarse since, once again, thanks to Nagash for taking away most of them. Neferata took up where Nagash has left off by manipulate the great city into bickering among themselves, weakening them that none were able to stood up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin after the war against Nagash and had rebuilt its powerful army, still lacked the resources for a protracted war against the Lahmians. And though many of the great cities now possessed iron weapons and armour that were the equal of Lahmia’s, none of them had a counter for the fearsome dragon staffs they wield (in reality, dragon staff's powder has long since vaporized which the Lahmian kept it's existence as a bluff to prevent the great cities from attacking them). Other than that, there was too much ambition and too little trust among the other cities to make such an alliance possible. Of the great cities, only three were strong enough to present themselves as possible rivals to Lahmia’s power: Rasetra, Zandri and Ka-Sabar, but none were willing to take the first step and risk standing alone in the face of Lahmian reprisal. An evidence of Nagash's dark art is needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

Still, Asar gave Alcadizzar the benefit of doubt for Lahmia's corruption, but a proof is still needed.

Knowing how well Lahmia guarded their vampiric secret and the lethality of its vampire agents, Alcadizzar has to risk himself to get the proof. With some supplies of gears from his uncle and some planning, Alcadizzar once again venture into the lawless land, alone.

=== Alcadizzar <s>[[Dune|Muad'Dib</s>Ubaid]] ===

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen Bhagarian, whom were abandoned by their god, Khsar, after their leader broke the covenant by surrendering to Arkhan's forces during Nagash's reign) skill at archery and horse riding, Alcadizzar decided to befriend them to survive and gain a powerful ally against the Lahmians. It was no easy task however, since the tribe at the time were secretive and clannish, making it really hard to earn their trust. Alcadizzar eventually made some progress by befriended one of its young cheiftian named Faisr al-Hashim, of the bani-al-Hashim after he saved him from a carravan raid gone bad.

As a reward for saving his life, Faisr adopted Alcadizzar into his tribe for 20 years (a crucial custom for any outsiders to join their tribe) where during that time, Alcadizzar being the badass he is saved Faisr's dirty arse three times and killed [[meme|fitty men]] (literary). During a tribal gathering, many chieftains from other tribes called out Alcadizzar for being an outsider or worse, a Lahmian spy, that is until an old woman with leonine yellow eye advocate for him and allowing Alcadizzar to become part of their tribe.

This old woman was named Suleima, a Daughter of the Sands, the bride of Khsar as well as his chosen, whom has the highest authority among the tribe. Her kind was born once in every generation and they have the power to see a man's future through their soul. Suleima was always accompanied by her successor Ophiria, a young girl of 14 year old who shared the same leonine yellow eye and Alcadizzar had already notice Ophiria's gaze towards him beforehand, meaning they already knew about Alcadizzar's plan.

25 years later, Alcadizzar led his raiders to raid a Lahmian watch-fort. He was dismay by the decline of the Lahmian military, whose soldiers are lacking leadership and were willing to surrendered their fully secured fort with many garrisoned soldiers without a fight, which would be considered unacceptable 40 years ago.

After that, Alcadizzar and the raiders were greeted with Suleima's passing. Alcadizzar spent the entire afternoon at his tent after Suleima's funeral, being iritating about the amount of duties he has to accomplish and the years he has to sacrificed before he could retired to the life he has always dreamed of. Just then, Ophiria, now a 39 years old woman barged into his tent. In one conversation, Alcadizzar told her of his true identity (which he was being very truthful with her since she can read people's mind). Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand immediately saw Alcadizzar's future and knew he is going to be a king of Khemri. Ophiria then began a to express her sorrow about her people being oathbreakers, who had broken the promise they had made with Khsar and Settra after their shameful display during the war with Nagash and are now being punished for it. She hopes Alcadizzar, as the future king of Khemri could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. With no delay, Alcadizzar sworn a new blood oath by holding Ophiria's hand with his bloodied one. As a reward, Ophiria told him of a prophecy that would led to his goal...

40 years later, Alcadizzar prepared an ambush at the north of Lahmia to finally obtain the proof of dark art he was so eager to obtain. Another sign from Ophiria's prophecy was that there will be a frigging twin-tailed comet on the sky. To many scholar and any warhammer races, it is the harbingers of conflict (as well as other important symbolism like the birth of great ruler, hope or Tzeentch's meddling). A group of six men in black cloak on steed was passing by at that point and the desert raiders made short work of them with their arrows.

Hilariously, this group of black cloaks were lead by Zurhas to act as envoy in order to form an alliance with Nagash at Nagashizzar. Around that time, W'soran had discovered Nagash's location being north of Lahmia, which gave Ushoran an idea to allied themselves with the undying king in order take over Lahmia, as well as the rest of Nekehara. In order to allow himself to not be suspect by Neferata and her underling, he met Zurhas (who was but a phantom member of the cabal that had spent his immortality on gambling) and manipulate the lowlife into doing his dirty work for him. Since traveling on sea was too noticeable, Zhuras had to travel overland north with a few companion (whose job is to help him find shelters to prevent him burning under the sun). Ushoran even thought about getting rid of Zurhas after he had rid of Neferata and the Nekeharans, and he is definitely going to be disappoint since he might've have sent him to his death and endangered their secret identities.

As soon as every black cloaks were shot down, Zurhas shown himself as a pale clawed monster under the comet's light. Zurhas had killed six raiders that was charging at him and had tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him enough time for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. After that, Alcadizzar made a confession to Faisr and revealed everything.

Oh and turns out Zurhas bought more than just his head as an evidence. The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash still walking and kicking north of Lahmia. Talk about an epic fail.

=== The Siege of Lahmia & Alcadizzar's enthronement ===

Six month after the evidences and Alcadizzar's personnel letter being delivered to Rasetra, a coalition army of the great cities was formed on the great plain within a week. Each great city bought their flavors of army]. During this time, the desert tribes too gets their shit together in order to form an army to assist Alcadizzar. A competition was held by Opelia to choose a leader among the chieftain. A week later, Fasir came out as victor and had worked tirelessly as a leader ever since.

Alcadizzar too finally making his debut at Khemri as its official ruler. Despite Fasir had already forgiven Alcadizzar for keeping his real name a secret and using his tribesman as his tool for his own gains, its act had already created a rift between the two that could never heal. Still Alcadizzar, no longer using Ubaid as his alias, treat the Fasir and his desert tribe like his own family, even wanting to marry one of its member as his queen (despite the tradition demands him to marry a Lahmian, which shouldn't be possible due to its corruption and its now getting its ass whooped).

Although the coalition army greatly outnumbered the Lahmian, Neferata called every vampire she knew to fight the invaders. W'soran was freed from his imprisonment and given Nagash's book to stall the Nehekharans with summoned zombie fodders. Ushoran and Ankhat was on the frontline where they inhumanly tore apart the Nehekharans with their supernatural strength. Neferata too was on the field with her vampire handmaiden who has the power of seduction to manipulate the Nekeharans, as well as their usual inhuman strength and agility to kill and chase down anything, even a cavalry.

Despite fighting such monstrosities and lost many man, the Nehekharans pressed on with Alcadizzar leading them with great courage.

While Ushoran was enjoying bathing in Nehekharans blood , the horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with oil clay flask. The arrows were specifically shot at the lord of the mask's places like feet that it rendered him immobilized, and some are even shot dangerously close to his heart. Once Ushoran was soak in oil and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman using his fabulous display of swordsmanship combine with his inhumane vampiric power. Despite doing so well, the warriors he was put in charge of commanding it were inexperience, weak, and were easily routed by the overwhelming Nehekharans forces.

W'soran has been doing well stalling the Nehekharans with zombie summons. Just as he was about to find a spell from his book to attack the newly reinforced Nehekharans, the tower he resides was hit by catapult shots, forcing him to run in terror (so much for a vampire's fearless mentality), cancelled out his ritual and putting all the zombies to rest.

It finally leaved to Neferata and her vamprie handmaidens being the only threatening thing left in the Lahmian force. They have the power to seduce anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and was dealt with by the handmaidens' claw. Still, the handmaidens were reckless enough to get trample by chariots and stroke down by dozens of arrow shot from the desert tribe archer. Neferata was able to slaughter the most elite warriors of Khemri forces and the fanatical Mahrak warriors, managed to pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out Alcadizzar. Alcadizzar, depsite with great strength and will was unable to stood against Neferata's inhuman strength and her vampire mind trick. Between the two, Neferata tried to convinced Alcadizzar to come back to her but was met with his strong refusal instead. Neferata then answered his rejection with a furious claw strike, knocking him down. Just as she was about to suck his blood (to have him "give back" all the gift she had given him), Alcadizzar struck her heart with a hidden dagger, and thus defeated her.

As soon as Neferata was defeated, Ankhat desperately ordered every military personnel to rescue her ass before she is captured. Just as the Nehekharan forces is about to swarm Neferata, Abhorash appeared in time, slaughtered many Nehekharans and allowed the vampires to escape. After that, the Nehekharans began sacking Lahmia. For seven days and seven nights, every bit of Lahmia was looted then razed to the bone and its citizens enslaved. Desptie the glorious treasury the Nehekharans has looted and were happily celebrated over it, Alcadizzar's dismay however. Not a single vampires were found and captured nor were the book of Nagash was found (W'soran had took it with him to Nagashizzar). To Alcadizzar, this battle is a total loss.

Also there were mentioning of constructs according to the rulebook, but were not mentioned in the novel. And if it were, it could kick a huge amount of vampire asses to the point of resulting the battle into a one sided slaughter.

== The King of Khemri ==

Finally 37 years later, Alcadizzar began to rule Khemri as well as the entirely of Nehekhara. Under his reign, every great cities return wealthy (since they no longer have Lahmian fucking with them on trades and taxes every year) and peace were restored. However, all the wealth he has accumulated were spent on military and defenses for the eventual return of Nagash. He also wed a girl who shared the same name as the Lybaras Queen Khalida 37 years ago, who just so happend to be Ophiria's niece and is now somewhat 67 years-ish old, ruling Khemri with him as a wise queen. They bore two sons together, named Asar and Ubaid (once again, Alcadizzar named after his former servant and his brother).

Interestingly, one of his explorer named Rahotep he had sent north had an encountered with annu-horesh (also known as the Dwarfs) whom at that time were ruled by Morgrim Blackbeard (by the time the explorer had came back, the year was -1163 Imperial Reckoning and Blackbeard was known for started a troll war at -1245). The Dwarves had treated Rahotep with respect and hospility for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar an armor and a huge two-handed khopesh that were mastercrafted, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like sunlight which it is capable of hurting dark foes and were quite light weighted, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like Sigmar's hammer, which its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledges of magic which Alcadizzar had founded sorcerer’s collegium in Khemri in order for their kins to master its power (without the help of some arrogant pointy ears too. Take that Empire!). The other cities too will follow Alcadizzar and began learning magic in order to cope without their gods' blessing (also so they could show off their superiority like every Nehekharan rulers would do). Notably, Ka-Sabar has began using its knowledge to create a small amount of enchanted gears every year. Mahrak was quite butthurt about all of this. Its Hieratic Council was suspecting Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooprate with the rest.

Despite Morgrim Blackbeard had sent his warmest invitation to the Nehekharan king, welcome him to their hold and discuss relations between their kingdom, Alcadizzar had to object for Nagash has to be dealt with first.

=== Nagash's second invasion (also known as the war of three stooges) ===

Due to the founding of sorcerer’s collegium, there were many wizards employed in each great city. They help their local rulers to telepathically sending messages like telephone to Alcadizzar without having to send envoys or travel there. With Nagash's invasion forces been sighted, many decisions were sent to him for approvals and every threats were warned as well as reports about the region's activities, whether small or large. It is of course tiresome and stressful for the poor Alcadizzar to answer all of this calls, for he had worked day and night. The real challenges comes to picking from the flood of messages and choose whether which one is them most important. Ironically, the more Alcadizzar knew, the more he worried about the things he didn’t know. Where were Nagash’s forces? How large were they? How fast were they moving? He reviewed his battle plans over and over, looking for hidden flaws that the enemy could exploit. It all paid off in the end, for the Nehekharans were one step ahead of Nagash's forces and had prepared for it with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the region position of Nagshizzar (being just north of Lahmia across the sour sea), Nagash's 10 armies size strong undead legion led by Arkhan and W'soran, immediatly took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arived across the sea. Having being alerted and united, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra were the first vanguard to challenges them. Thanks to the usage of enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans were giving W'soran, who was commanding at the time a very hard time. The Nehekharan wizard constantly dispel his spells and their soldiers cutting down each undead warriors like butters with their shiny enchanted weapon. Despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and its size is replenished through slained Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan decided to send one third of the army to interving Lybaras and Rasetra in order to prevent them from reinforcing the western Nehekhara.

Mahrak came next on the list for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors had prepare to defend the city to its death. Without the use of god's blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvement, all Mahrak had was but fanatical white robe warriors and other tier 1 shit fodders like archers and shield infantry. Under the constant attacks from the Catapults, tomb scorpion constructs climbing and attacking the garrisoned warriors on the wall, as well as magic attacks coming from Arkhan, the once mighty city that were able to hold against Nagash's army month after month was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council could consider evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of valley of kings, holding against the undead for many weeks or so and giving their people enough time to travel to Quatar and taking refuges there. Still, it was with their own mistrust and paranoia that had killed them all in the process. If that can't be helped, Alcadizzar and other great cities will have to go on without them.

Speaking of thick walls, Alcadizzar had welcomed his foe with three very strong thick walls made out of granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition to wither down the undeads, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undeads: fire arrows, flaming tar catapult and sturdy heavily armored infantries, all that good stuffs. What's more was that the walls gets taller as undeads traveled west, not even ladders could reach the top, nor could the bone giants hope to strike it down in a single blow. Not even Arkhan's destructive magic could blast it open.

Just as the third wall was about to be breached, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him, followed by a bunch of cavalries rallied behind him. They flank the undead army and dealt a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had his vampire servants to ambush him.

One of the vampire was dueling Alcadizzar's chief wizard Suleiman, who was accompanied by two archers. Suleiman did a great job hindering the vampire from unleash his spells. The vampire did however killed one archer who was charging at him with a green lightning spell, but was unable to prevent the other archer from headshot him with magic arrow. Unable to move, Alcadizzar took the chance and decapitated him.

The other vampire had seized Alcadizzar with his unnatural strength, and was ordered by W'soran to bought him back to Nagashizzar. A surviving archer from earlier came sacrificed himself for Alcadizzar and had his skull crushed by a back hand swipe from the vampire (Ankhat did that in the same novel too, as if all vampire like to show off their prowess like some yellow hair asshole, who also happened to be a vampire) which is then finished in turn by Alcadizzar, who caved the fucker's face with his blade. Then W'soran blast the vampire and Acadizzar with his magic, only to be suprised by Alcadizzar's lack of injuries since his awesome Dwarven forged armor protected him. Just as W'soran was about to take few steps closer to Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran in the eye. Before Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, in his vision, he heard W'soran made an angry howl and saw him vanished after he was swarmed by a black cloud of scarabs released from a clay jar he smashed, and fled to the northern sky.

Without the vampire's prescence, the cloud unblock the sun and Alcadizzar felt a warm sunlight while surrounded by his comrade.

=== Nagash: I'm about to ruin this man's entire career and accomplishment ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The golden chariot problem. Featuring Alcadizzar and Nagash]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at the Lahmia docks. Despite his injuries from war AND the fact he is now 189 years old, Alcadizzar decided to give chase to the undead legion on sea and hopefully to be rid of them once and for all.

Just then however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and informed him about his fate: he will died killing Nagash at Nagashizzar. Initally, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than sending Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar can already tell Ophiria had come bearing bad news to him. Ophiria was in tears for unable to change Alcadizzar's fate.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, knowing that he is going to die without ever enjoy a good retirement life, decided to abandoned the chase and immediatly gave himself a retirement, knowing that defeating Nagash's army is enough to broke him. Ophiria was never seen again.

Unknowingly to the entirely of Nehekhara, Nagash had cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar regret that one decision he has ever made.

6 years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to fail and withered, livestock dying, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar did everything he could, summon his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without any result. The lack of food forces the citizens to go on riot and turned to banditry. What's worse came as Alcadizzar's two son, Asar and Ubaid fall ill. Ubaid died painfully in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe where Alcadizzar hope the plaque has not reach the great desert, except it did not work, for Asar's illness worsen just like the retainers besides him. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Having devastated over losing his two sons, he began to falling to despair as he watches his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save him while not a symphton of the plague is found on him. Then, Khalida finally fall ill. Although her illness began long ago, she had hide it from Alcadizzar and lasted many more month than her two sons. She is merely stalling for the inevitable death however, for her stubborness has damaged her body to the point is unable to recongnized her husband, that Alcadizzar had to end her life by feeding her a cup of undiluted poppy himself. Since Alcadizzar share the same belief with Khalida about the obscurity of entombment, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite being the greatest priest king since Settra, and yet Alcadizzar was unable to let her corpse to be cremated, that he just entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a morturary priest could ressurect her and give her a golden body.

Although Alcadizzar had thought about killing himself to join his family, the news about a new waves of undead army invaded Rastria made him geared up and prepare to mustered what's remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel flee to Zandri where they would board its ship and sail to the far north and migrate to the old world. With the remaining forces, if not weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold an actual Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely hold face the undead tide in order to buying time for every citizens to escape. Alcadizza knew it was but a battle he can not win, yet he hack and slash every undead he came across with his golden blade, hoping one of them could strike him dead, that is until Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parried all his attacks and captured him.

=== Fellblade, Nagash's (first) death, the rise of the Tomb Kings & how everything came to be ===

Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up inside a cage where the undead will carry him on a long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart had carried him through the ruins of great cities, through Lahmia and eventually arrive to its cursed dock where Ophieria had told him of his fate. He was fed elixirs many times (which probably contained warpstones now that Nagash has access it and it gives out a fiery flavor) and it is able to keep Alcadizzar alive for the suffering he will face. Eventually Nagash's boney ship carried them to the northern shore where Nagashizzar locates.

When Alcadizzar finally arrive, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash. Alcadizzar's body was weak and pale, looking a lot more like a ghoul. Amused by his pathetic appearence, Nagash taking a great pleasure in mocking him, calling him "Usurper", "Alcadizzar of Khemri, lord of a dead land", claiming that last one belongs to him the moment he chose to defy Nagash, even explaining that he sent his army to destroy Nehekhara only because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (except Nagash was having a temper tantrum after the defeat of his army. Hypocrite manchild lich...).

Despite Nagash's loud boasting on how his genocide spell spare Alcadizzar just so he could made him understood the futility of his struggle, Alcadizzar remain determine despite in his weaknest state yet, telling the bone daddy that he would rather die before betray his people again.

After that claim coming from Alcadizzar, Nagash began the preparation of his new ritual by painfully carving arcane symbols on Alcadizzar. Then Nagash explain to Alcadizzar how he is going to use him as a symbol, a symbol of a great ruler in order to channel his magic and bind everyone in Nehekhara to his will, even mocking on how if he like his wife Khalida enough he will take her as his consort.

Alcadizzar was quite angry about that last one, but he so helpless that all he could do was howling in anger.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only sit on his knees, locked in place paralysing needles and the power of the great ritual.

When the ritual was finally complete, Nagash had took out the needles and thrown Alcadizzar into a dungeon cell, hope the last king could provide him some entertainment in the future.

In the cell, Alcadizzar could only thinking about dyiing, tormenting by pain and bad memories, that is until a figure of white light touch his cheek. It was actually the ghost of Neferem, the long dead queen of Khemri whom Nagash had tormented and killed long ago. Alcadizzar mistook her as his wife Khalida and so he followed figure where he reached a wooden door and two short furry rat like creature entered the door with a huge lead box. These two rats are Skavens name Eekrit and Eshreegar of the Clan Rikek, Nagash's warpstone competitor. They had planned to let Alcadizzar assassinate Nagash for them, for killing Nagash requires the power of their deadly blade: Fellblade, a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it.

Unknowing to what's happening right now, Alcadizzar opened the box anyway where the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. By just examining the green blade, Alcadizzar knew it radiate death, which he is sure the blade is so deadly, it could even kill a god, or....an undying king.

In all his dillusion, Alcadizzar had thought this was Khalida doing, telling him to make things right before it is too late. And so he did and drawn the blade. The blade was hot to hold, but it filled his body with strength nessesary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

In a similar fashion to the main character from the Gladiator movie, Alcadizzar who had lost everything to the tyrant, Nagash, and is about to kill him with the backing Nagash's traitorous allies, the skavens.

While Nagash was distracted by Neferem, Alcadizzar was closing in. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke. From it, Nagash saw Alcadizzar charging in with rage. Nagash had tried to defend from the blade with his gauntlet hand, but the blade cut through his metaled wrist clean like a butter. In reteliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (when it was acutally a seer of the councils of thirteen protected him, and died for it). Alcadizzar then proceed to cut through Nagash's spine. Despite being a lich, Nagash felt pain and his power being leeched away by the blade's every strike. Had enough, Nagash choke Alcadizzar by the throat to the point of bleeding, which he then decides to crush Alcadizzar's spine. Just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he used his last strength and finished off Nagash by cut down his last arm, then his head.

As Nagash is killed, he let out a hideous scream echoing through the halls, and his spell came undone. The dead priest kings, began seizing the undead to serve him now that they were freed from Nagash's control, result in the tomb kings we are knew and love.

After several aimless hacking frenzy at Nagash's remain along with his wooden throne to pieces for many minutess after his death, Alcadizzar finally stops and let go of the blade (which was later recovered by Eekrit and Eshreegar and hidden somewhere in Nagashizzar). The last king of Khemri, who has now completely lost his mind, clinging onto Nagash's crown while trying to find Khalida for redemption. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar, then out into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemptions.

== Legacy ==

Although Alcadizzar and his people are dead, he did not die without any legacy left behind. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named Kadon, who could recongnize the corpse as a Nehekharan king and ordered the construction of a large barrow for him. In an unfortunate move, Kadon decided to wear Nagash's crown and was corrupted by Nagash for it. Under Nagash influence, he had construct a wall city called Mourkhain around Alcadizzar's barrow and have the king's spirit bind to the city's stone for all eternity. Guess Nagash still has the last laugh now since Alcadizzar will stuck there forever. Although the city was later destroyed by the Greenskins, it is unknown if Alcadizzar's spirit was freed after this or continue to stuck in its stone.

Nagash's crown passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (with exceptions to [[Azhag the Slaughterer|orcs]] and [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to ressurect Nagash.

In the Sigmar novel, Sigamr had called upon every scribe to gather any informations about Nagash after a vampire named Khaled al Muntasir came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown. One of the scribe named Eoforth came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara. One of the manuscripts tells the tale of how Al-Khadizzar (not Alcadizzar or Alcadizaar, whom was referenced as a warrior, not a king btw) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced to how Nagash destroyed Nehekhara in a single night. Just how or whom was able to witness these event and documented these manuscripts, when EVERYONE WAS FUCKING DEAD at that time is beyond anybody's mind. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (although about Neferata, her being a consort of Nagash was an old canon. In the current canon, she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript doesn't knew a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer saw it in their clairvoyance mind and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the Zandri ship should be able to remembered the tale of Neferata? but not the skaven or Alcadizzar?

Still, Alcadizaar made no mentioned in the end times despite it shows a lot of dead characters coming back to life. However, Nagash had bind the winds of Shyish to himself and control every dead spirits over the world and it is possible Alcadizzar among those souls. Even if he wasn't controlled by Nagash, he would still be freed in the end, where the Chaos gods managed to emerged from the warp rift caused by Archaon's doomsday device and destroy the world. It is also possible for him to be become a [[Stormcast Eternals]] in age of Sigmar or continue to be tormented by Nagash at the realm of Shyish? who knows.

== An alternative point of view ==
So what if Alcadizzar decided to go after Nagash? could things go differently? with all his forces equipping with rune weaponry, the use of wizard against the pathetic numbers of undead army leftover from the invasion, there might be a chance. Not even Nagash had could simply fight them off despite being hulk up on warpstones and wearing new gears.

Even if Alcadizzar had chose to fight Nagash at full strength but died, Nehekhara might enter a new golden age with the Dwarfs, where they would demolish the greenskins in the wasteland and hunt down the remaining vampire menance together. Nehekharan Empire would be so big that by the time Sigmar was born, he would be worshipping Ptra instead (Although it is unknown if Nehekharan allow the worship of foreign human god like Ulric).

Still, all that promises died the moment Alcadizzar made his decision. Perhaps it was part of Khsar's test? He is a pitiless cruel god who only give challenges and the reward often has to do with what the mortal has gained from his challenges, yet Alcadizzar has failed, which has robbed him of his everything. Could Tzeentch also be involved in his suffering too? afterall, there were a twin tailed comet shining above Alcadizzar. Could this be part of his grand plan to see him suffer? along with the entirely of Nehekhara?

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]] [[Category:Tomb Kings]]