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Luthor Harkon

2021-02-15T07:18:42Z

2601:CF:80:9550:90F7:372:6478:572A: /* The Legend */

[[File:Harkon.jpg|thumb|right|600px|"Fortune favors the infamous." <br>Harkon, breaking the fourth wall to directly address the viewer because the battle going on behind him isn't interesting enough, nor are the broadsides fired by ghost ships into the same battle.]]
{{Topquote|...for there is no folly of the beast of the earth which is not infinitely outdone by the madness of men.|Herman Melville, author of "Moby Dick"}}
{{Topquote| For too long I've been parched of thirst and unable to quench it. Too long I've been starving to death and haven't died. I feel nothing. Not the wind on my face nor the spray of the sea. Nor the warmth of a woman's flesh. You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner... you're in one!|Barbossa, <i>Pirates of the Caribbean</i>}}

'''Luthor Harkon''' is the primary pirate of the [[Warhammer Fantasy]] setting, dating back to the Warhammer Armies: Undead Army Book for 4th edition, having been mentioned throughout Warhammer history since.

Harkon is a [[Vampire Counts|Vampire]] pirate, leader of the Zombie Pirates faction, which is found off the eastern coast of [[Lustria]]. Thanks to being such an old character that has been touched on a lot and expanded very little, there're some substantial differences in editions between versions of Harkon. But his primary defining trait, being <strike>FUCKING CRAZY</strike>'''LUUUUTHOOOR HAAAARKON!!!''', is consistent, while the rest of the details can actually be resolved with each other using minimal mental gymnastics.

Depending on his current mood, he calls himself the Arch Grand Commodore, the King Of the Vampire Coast (or some derivative of that), or, in the End Times event, the Mortarch Of The Abyss.

Also, he's the only Warhammer character with an official themesong: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tJELpDfKU the Tattered Sails Shanty.]

==The Legend==
Luthor Harkon began life in [[Nehekhara]], as a member of a tribe called the Harkoni. At the time, he was called Lutr. He was brought into the city guard of [[Lahmia]] by [[Abhorash]], due to his skill in battle (this particular bit of lore comes from the Master Of Death novel), and appointed one of Abhorash's four primary lieutenants. Luthor guarded the harbor while his cousin [[Walak Harkon]] guarded the palace (this is a retcon used by [[Gav Thorpe]] to minimize confusion with the two having the same last name but not previously being related). Either Abhorash or Walak made him a Vampire; it's unclear which, but he's definitely a [[Blood Dragon]].

How Harkon participated in the fall of Lahmia and the second defeat of [[Nagash]] (start clicking links to read that story, its not relevant enough to retell on this page) is still vague, but we do know that he traveled with Abhorash afterwards, meaning he probably fought valiantly against the living to defend the city until there was nothing left to defend. At some point he became separated from Abhorash, instead finding refuge in [[Mourkain]] under the command of [[Ushoran]]. After that city ALSO fell (again, not relevant enough to get into here) Harkon once again left. So while he's technically a Blood Dragon, he hasn't spent time among the dynasty in a while and he's got as much in common with them as with them as with the [[Lahmian]]s and [[Strigoi]]. Between that and his... uh... state of mind, he doesn't really have the characteristics of any bloodline in particular.

None of the above actually matters, since Harkon doesn't remember his own origins and never exhibits any Bloodline traits.

During the year 876 of the Imperial Calendar an [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Empire]] merchant ship was attacked by [[Norsca|Norscan]] pirates, who stole everything aboard and slaughtered the crew. Unfortunately for the Norscans, Luthor's coffin was among the loot. We never found out how he got there; he doesn't remember it either. The ship sailed towards Lustria, and at some point Luthor turned them all into zombies. He made a home where he landed, turning all the corpses that washed up on the shore for various reasons (this is after all a setting where you can just kind of dig in random places and find pits full of skulls) into members of his zombie empire, which eventually became known as the Vampire Coast. High Elves and Norscans, the two primary naval powers of the setting, both stayed away, since Harkon managed to pull everything from Banshees (which he calls "Syreens") to ghost ships into his service. His zombies are far more impressive than what could normally be called a zombie, retaining intelligence and personality from life (although no willpower to disobey), as well as the dexterity needed for sailing and even using ranged weaponry.

Eventually he found an abandoned Lizardman city in the jungles, called Huatl. In the city's temple he found an undisturbed chamber, but the undead he sent to excavate it were disenchanted by the glyph protections, turning them back into lifeless corpses. Out of frustration, he tried to blast it with magic, not realizing that the protections were strong enough to keep fucking [[Daemon|Greater Daemons]] of [[Tzeentch]] out. As the glyphs began to drain the magic out of his body, the chamber began to collapse around him. Only with all of his willpower was he able to break himself free and escape with his unlife. This experience had two unique effects. The first was that it transformed him into a peculiar type of being: an undead animated by magic, but cut off from the Winds Of Magic (other than his power to animate zombies). His detachment from the Winds is so strong he exudes an anti-magic field stronger than that of an entire army of [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfs]]. The second is that it shattered his mind, resulting in Harkon gaining an extreme case of multiple personality disorder; his body plays host to twelve Harkons. At any given point his body is controlled by one of these personalities, although he occasionally lapses into a semi-comatose state when they are evenly matched, until a victor emerges to take control again. On the other hand, when mental strain becomes too much for one of his personalities, another will take control, allowing Harkon to continue on with whatever he is doing with renewed morale and focus. All of his personalities have different goals, save one; stealing Lizardmen shit, which all of them think will help them find a way to heal the split.

Having retained his ability to create undead, he continued to expand his armies, and no force that has come against him, by land or by sea, has stood a chance. Luthor has been such a major factor in Lizardmen plans that there are literal prophesies in their history that they work to ensure come true about their battles against him. In the year 930, it took both a [[Slann]] and the fucking legendary [[Kroxigor]] hero [[Nakai the Wanderer]] just to keep him from gaining an invasion route into central Lustria. In 1011, he cast a spell to draw ships from all over the world to his coasts for sixteen years, then sent the resulting undead armada of armadas to capture even more ships and bring the corpses back. By 1351 his pirate army was so enormous that he was supposedly able to sack the sacred city of Axlotl and looted everything that the Skinks weren't able to haul away (literally EVERYTHING. No stone remains in its original location). Since then, the Lizardmen have considered Harkon their most <strike>pressing</strike> annoying threat, after only [[Chaos]].

As for Harkon, he spend 400 years learning what he could from Axlotl. At the end of it, he was able to create legendary relics called "Ebony Skulls", which he sent throughout the world as gifts to pirates, raiders, and just about every other aggressive and power-hungry potential ally. When thrown at the ground the skulls grant necromantic powers to the user, but doing so enters them into a contract with Harkon whereupon their souls belong to him. These invaders now swarm Lustria as well as the rest of the world, bringing corpses and treasure alike to Harkon either by his command or simply their own greed and ruthlessness. All things that die end up on the Vampire Coast.

Oh, he also stole a Hellhammer Cannon from the Empire, the "Queen Bess", a big fucking deathgun. It's mounted on the front of his ship. Just in case the rest wasn't enough.

He also gained a second in command at some point, the dimwitted but intensely loyal Captain Drekla, who had a hook for a left hand which he lost in service to Harkon.

===[[End Times]]===
Despite being immensely powerful and insane, Harkon immediately surrendered to Nagash the moment he got word Nagash had come back to the world of the living. Why is unclear, possibly loyalty from his origins if one of his personalities remembers, possibly boredom, possibly because he thought either Nagash could cure him or could be tricked into invading Lustria. Either way Nagash granted him the title of [[Mortarch|Mortarch Of The Abyss]] for his loyalty, then commanded him and his fleets to sail up the River Mortis (Warhammer version of The Nile) and defeat the immensely powerful (but generally unused) fleet of the [[Tomb Kings]], which he accomplished easily via not only Queen Bess but also several secret weapons including fire ships made using Salamander bladders, undead sea monsters of every variety, boarding parties from civilizations who perfected naval battle over the course of history, and many more. His armada was massive and made up of ships from every nation in the world at every point of history, but large numbers of them just smashed against the rocks or beached themselves on the shore with the zombie crews shambling out to take the coastlines. Harkon met up with [[Mannfred von Carstein]] as instructed and the two made up the bulk of Nagash's armies in Nehekhara with Drekla reinforcing both as needed, although Harkon looted just about anything not nailed down along the way which slowed their progression, and everywhere he went he left zombies and Tomb King skeletons alike buried in sand and mud continuing to fight long after their masters abandoned them. At one point he secured victory with a giant swarm of bats and himself in bat form assassinating the enemy Liche Priest.

Harkon was left to his own devices after that, doing what batshit insane pirates do with their spare time, until Nagash called on him to join Mannfred in defending Sylvania against the forces of [[Nurgle]], which were lead by [[Drachenfels]] and the Daemon-possessed [[Isabella von Carstein]]. Mannfred had come to hate Luthor and generally disregarded the concept of working together while looking for an opportunity to take over Harkon's zombie apocalypse-tier army, although instead he spent the battle weakening Harkon's magic and allowing the already badly deployed force to be mulched by the Daemons.

Harkon's zombie army was eventually taken over by Drachenfels, forcing him and Drekla to flee to a small inn called the Dead And Buried. Mannfred killed one of Harkon's captains and shredded his soul to keep his own Dread Abyssal mount alive after it contracted a disease from the Daemons, and in return Harkon was about to behead Mannfred until Nagash's small reinforcement force arrived and saved him. They were joined by some of the most powerful Vampires in the world in that ironically named inn, including [[Vlad von Carstein]] himself. The Vampires were overrun however, and in the battle Harkon slipped into one of his most insane personalities which attacked without thought for self-preservation and swore in barely coherent pirate ramblings. Drekla died protecting him from a Great Unclean One which Mannfred and Harkon killed together, only for Mannfred to steal it's soul to fully heal his Dread Abyssal and flee the battle to escape Isabella. Harkon attempted to hitch a ride only for Mannfred to cut his hand off and let him fall into the horde of Daemons (not because Harkon hindered his escape of course, just because Mannfred is an asshole). Harkon, alone with broken legs but at the peak of his rage, managed to hold off the literally infinite horde of Daemons until Isabella herself simply appeared before him and cut off his hand, instructed the Plaguebearers to hold him down, and via a simple touch to the cheek managed to transfer a rot that instantly killed him (despite external working around him) by melting him.

===[[Total War: WARHAMMER]]===
Because he was too awesome to stay down he was added to Total War: Warhammer 2 via the Vampire Coast DLC alongside a host of other pirates, Luthor Harkon has to battle against Lizardmen, Elves, greenskins, the forces of Chaos, and other pirates in his quest for regained sanity as well as, if he wants it, command of [[Amanar]] the [[Merwyrm]] of the High Elves. Also, fight anyone else he wants because he's fucking Luthor Harkona and he can do what he wants, besides he deserves a timeline where he doesn't end as nurglish sludge . While he certainly has multiple personalities still, the one on display in the cinematic reveal trailer for the DLC is surprisingly amiable as he cheerfully tells his life story to the corpse of a dead sailor, pausing to watch a battle between his fleet and the Empire several times, until he digs up a Lizardmen artifact.
In the TWW canon he is confirmed to have been turned into a Vampire by Abhorash and thus inherits a Blood Dragon statline, but his Strigoi influence is shown by being the only non-Strigoi who can ride a Terrorgheist outside of [[Age of Sigmar]].

You can actually succeed in restoring him to sanity by doing a quest to collect Slann Gold and unearthing a Lizardman vault in his home settlement, and if you do so the rewards are great as he regains the ability to use magic and becomes a very powerful Lore of Deeps caster. Sadly none of his in-game dialogue changes and his animations still have him spasm like a lunatic.

==[[Zombie Pirates]]==
Harkon's personal army, first introduced in White Dwarf issue #305. Unlike the zombies of the Vampire Counts, Harkon's undead are functional enough to use ranged weaponry; they favour black powder weapons. Furthermore, they aren't impeded by water hazards.

The army isn't particularly powerful, but it's wacky and fun.

As mentioned miles above this section, on November 8th, the Vampire Coast faction for [[Total War: Warhammer II]] will be launched; its roster is based primarily on this one, with some new stuff listed at the very bottom.

===Heroes===
* '''Shipwights''': Captains chosen by Harkon to be raised as wights rather than zombies. Later it was retconned that he sometimes makes people into vampires to serve as his captains, but they were still not a part of his army list.

* '''Syreen''': Banshees whose screams make you sad instead of dead. Their name is yet another curious choice of Harkon.

===Core===
* '''Deckhands Mob''': The lowest of his forces, using rusty melee weapons.

* '''Gunnery Mob''': Zombies with dakka.

* '''Bloated Corpses''': Zombies that explode when punctured, spewing out deadly gasses bacteria living inside.

* '''Scurvy Dogs''': He probably only raised these for the pun. They're zombie dogs.

===Special===
* '''Razortooth Rats''': Zombie rats. Yep, Harkon is pretty scary.

* '''Deck Droppers''': Fell Bats. Carrying a zombie to drop on the enemy. And the zombies have guns [[FAIL|(but cannot shoot them on the tabletop)]]. Fucking hell, Harkon is broken in the head. In Total War: Warhammer II, there's a variant that can drop bombs on the enemy instead.

* '''Carronade''': A small, portable cannon (and therefore the most accurate thing in Harkon's aresenal), manned by zombies. Inferior to those of the Empire, except for it's points cost where it's little more than half the price.

* '''Animated Hulks''': Zombie Ogres. Less scary than they should be given zombification seems to work more like normal compared to Harkon's usual intelligent zombies. Although its still a fucking zombie Ogre commanded by Luthor fucking Harkon. In Total War: Warhammer II these are Bloated Corpses 'adjusted' by necromancers instead, but they fill the same role. The TW:W2 version has them armed with either anchors as melee weapons, or with cannons strapped to their arm.

* '''Deck Gunners''': Swivel cannon gunners. It's still zombies taking aim, so you're probably safe. Until you get a zombie dropped on you by a giant bat, anyway.

===Rare===
* '''Rotting Leviathan''': It's a seamonster of some kind, like a giant crab called a [[Promethean]] or a sea dragon. A dead one that's been turned into a zombie anyway. In Total War: Warhammer II, these are all big Prometheans, and have multiple riflemen on the crow's nest atop the monster.

* '''Queen Bess''': Stolen at some point from the Empire, nobody knows when or from where. Its type was counted among the number of the biggest cannon in the world before Harkon modified it during one of the events of what is apparently an engineer personality taking over which included reducing its size. Normally mounted on his flagship, he's not above bringing it into any battle he feels she's needed in. The TW:W2 version [[wat|is a mortar instead of a cannon]] that causes units caught in the blast radius to take a movement penalty, making them vulnerable to follow-up attacks.

===Additonal Units===
The following units were added by Creative Assembly to help round out the faction. No official rules exist for them, but since we’re assuming you’re reading this article because you were inspired by the DLC, they’re included for completeness. Many of them are poached from [[Dreadfleet]], the [[Monstrous Arcanum]], or elsewhere in Warhammer lore. The Zombie Deckhands and Gunnery Mobs also have a few new options in terms of kit, such as polearms, rifles, blunderbusses, grenades, and so on. The pre-launch roster information is [https://www.totalwar.com/blog/curse-of-the-vampire-coast-roster-reveal here] and [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQFDYPfcqGU here].

*'''Depth Guard''': Heavy infantry vampires armed with axes or polearms. Their armor resembles that of the Blood Knights, but the closed helmets and general colors make them look like antique diving suits. Functionally similar to the Vampire Counts' Grave Guard; however, they have sacrificed their ability to hold for the ability to deal more damage and as Vampires they have independence by themselves before they start to disintegrate. They also don't have shields, making them vulnerable to missile fire. In general though, the Coast's playstyle is being about doing a shitload of damage very quickly; the entire army doesn't have much staying power. These guys are to the other infantry forces the same as Blood Knights are to Black Knights and Hexwraiths.

*'''Rotting Promethean''': CA decided to create a smaller version of the Leviathan to allow the army to field more tanky units to shore up the otherwise relatively weak zombies. Comes either naked or with a two-man crew of gunners on their backs. They also have charge defense vs. large, so you can use them to protect your artillery and missile troops against those pesky lancers.

*'''[[Mourngul]]''': Take the wendigo of Algonquian legend, cut it in half, and give it the Warhammer treatment. What you’ve got left is a terrifying beast that is disembowled from the waist down, and a mouth full of needle-like teeth. This beast works well as a [[DISTRACTION CARNIFEX]], since they are fast, scary, and can heal themselves while engaged in melee - most likely by devouring its victims. The model is still sold by [[Forgeworld]]. Listed for the Vampire Coast since dying of exposure, hunger, and cannibalism at sea is just as likely as it is in mountain wildernesses.

*'''Necrofex Colossus''': Do you like pirate ships, but hate that you can’t take them with you on land? Now you can! The Colossus is almost like the vampiric equivalent of a [[Daemon Engine]]; to power the construct, it has a core of undead corpses in the center of its hull, allowing it to walk and use its weapons. Speaking of weapons, this thing uses four cannons strapped together for devastating long-range attacks. Oh, and when something finally knocks it down to half health, some of those corpses fall out and start biting at whoever was stupid enough to get within melee range. Sadly it never got a model. The fanbase was obsessed with trying to figure out how it reloads itself, then CA showed it in a video, animation and all, which demonstrates once again they are boss. If you want one for the tabletop, Reaper Miniatures sells a decent proxy [https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/golem/latest/77627 here].

*'''Gunnery Wight''': Not actually a Wight, apparently. Carries a very large rifle, which it can use surprisingly effectively given it's a zombie, but its really marketable skill is that it can refill the ammunition of nearby units. Since Vampire Coast missile units get a damage buff when their ammo levels are over a certain threshold which is when the army makes or breaks a battle, this is a pretty big deal.
<gallery>
Image:Creative-assembly-cst-vampire-fleet-gunnery-wight.jpg|When you're still a rotting corpse enslaved by a lunatic, but still have a damn fine suit and hat.
</gallery>

*'''Death Shriek [[Terrorgheist]]''': You know this thing from the Vampire Counts army list. Big undead bat-thing that scares people and also eats people. There's nothing particularly unique about it. One is also a mount for Harkon, and at this point its shocking he didn't decide to ride a Deck Dropper like a surfboard and throw Scurvy Dogs like bombs.

*'''Mortars''': They send rounds up, and then the rounds come back down again. Hopefully on top of an enemy unit, and not one of your own, but crewing these things with zombies means shouldering some amount of risk. Supposed to be good in conjunction with Queen Bess, since in Total War she slows down anything she hits. In practice this is best as a campaign tactic, since the cost of loading up Mortars AND the Queen in battle leaves you with not a lot else in case your opponent can react fast enough.

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Old Harkon.jpg|An older piece of art that was later implied to be depicting Harkon, by [[Adrian Smith]].
Image:Harkon Blanche.jpg|A [[John Blanche]] piece depicting Harkon.
Image:End Times Harkon Drekla.jpg|Harkon and Drekla in End Times.
Image:TWW Harkon.png|Harkon in Total War: WARHAMMER, hey Nagash, can you resurrect him in AoS so we can have a mini?
Image:M1610043 99060207182 ColSartosanVam.jpg|The generic "Sartosan Vampire" mini. Used twice, first in White Dwarf and later in End Times: Glottkin to represent Harkon on the tabletop. It's the closest he has to an official miniature...
Image:Harkon Conversion.png|...aside from this miniature, a conversion featured in a republishing of his army list in [[Warhammer Chronicle]].
Image:Norba Harkon.png|The [[Norba Miniatures]] version of Harkon, because 3p do what official don't.
Image:Disneys Pirates Of Warhammer.png
Image:Giant Enemy Crab.jpg
Image:LuthorArmyComp.jpg|An entirely expectable strategy from a vampire who gets zombies to perform drive-bys by being carried by Fell Bats
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Vampire Counts]]
[[Category:Vampire Coast]]

Vampire Counts

2021-02-15T07:10:36Z

2601:CF:80:9550:90F7:372:6478:572A: /* Vampire Bloodlines */

[[Image:WHFBVampire.jpg|right|thumb|400px|Let us go out this evening for pleasure... The night is still young!]]
{{Topquote|Death is the one predator we can't escape. But vampires have found the loophole so many of us crave. I think that's the allure of vampirism.|Sherrilyn Kenyon}}
{{Topquote|A great deal of struggle and sorrow in the world comes from misguided feelings of pride of ownership and possessiveness.|Bryant H McGill}}
{{Topquote|He roused from a joyous dream of feasting, of drinking blood and sucking warm marrow from the bone. His sons and daughters swarmed like ants upon the surface of the Earth, ripe in their terror, delectable in their anguish. He swept them into his mouth and their insides ran in black streams between his lips and matted his beard. This sweet dream rapidly slipped away as he stretched and assessed his surroundings. He shambled forth from the great cavern in the mountain that had been his home for so long.|Laird Barron}}

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTKRDZ_8Qek I reject my humanity!].

The '''Vampire Counts''' are the [[Tomb Kings|non-Egyptian]] Undead of [[Warhammer Fantasy]]. Due to them being..."heavily inspired" by the boom of [[Vampire: The Masquerade]] in the early '90s, the 1994 release of the 4th edition <strike>bit off</strike> borrowed the use of Vampiric "families" leading back to a sole "ancestor". The idea was <strike>sucked up by</strike> popular among the Warhammer community and as a result Vampires split from the mummies in 5e 1999 with the first Vampire Counts Army Book.

The Vampire Counts are your classic, blood-sucking Slavic fiends and total fucking badasses who almost took over the entire fucking Old World (Warhammer Europe) multiple times before the armies of [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|mankind]] and their [[Dwarfs (Warhammer Fantasy)|Dwarfish]] allies got their shit together. Ruthless, intelligent, strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Ogres and evil as hell (except for a few questionably neutral characters), most of the Vampire Counts in the Warhammer universe long to plunge the entire world into a holocaust of darkness and despair, ensuring that the entire land is wholly under their thumb and the foolish mortals know their place as slaves and food. Others pursue dark knowledge for its own sake, like a Lich with a good (but not great) moisturizer; some want to control the entire planet in the shadows like a far more efficient Illuminati, or simply want to tear down the motherfuckers who have it better than themselves. Regardless of motives or behavior, all Vampires suffer from a strong sense of pride and possession; servants and allied are belongings, either as tools or luxury items/pets, and a sense of camaraderie with any other being is extremely rare. But on the plus side all Vampires are free from the cycle of death (as with the right ritual ANY Vampire can be resurrected and there's plenty of downtrodden mortals clamoring to become a powerful Vampire's favorite servant) and [[Chaos]] (which can provide them blessings if served willingly but cannot actually interact with their soul; but given the aforementioned pride and entitlement, few Vampires would revere even a Chaos God as their superior and pledge any loyalty to it).

Basically, it's an entire army of Gothic Horror Vampire lords, seeking to kill and conquer nations not just to appease their own massive egos and pride, but to ensure their all-encompassing need to feed. The classic intelligent monsters and consummate overlords of evil, WHFB's Vampire Counts are pretty much the best of what Vampires can be, and sure as fuck a welcome departure from [[Twilight|this shit]].

==History==
[[Image:Nagash.jpg|left|thumb|300px|Three thousand years later, still a pain in the ass. ([[Mark Gibbons|MG]])]]
A long-as-hell time ago, even by Warhammer Fantasy standards since most human history is in the living memory of Dwarfs and Elves but this story begins alongside THEIR prehistory, there was a powerful Priest of Khemri named [[Nagash]], who was such a thorough badass that he became not only the first Necromancer in Warhammer Fantasy's universe, but literally created the first undead. He learned his Dark Arts from a trio of Dark Elven Sorceresses, who taught him how to manipulate the energies of [[Chaos]] using dark rituals involving heresy and human sacrifice. He killed them in a magical duel, poisoning one, ripping another to shreds, and crushing the third before consuming their souls; many on [[/tg/]] would say this is ''the'' way to deal with an [[Elf]].

After this, there was no stopping the guy - he communed with Daemons and the spirits of the dead, seized the kingdom for himself from his brother, and used his Necromantic magic to greatly expand his own lifespan. During his tenure as King of Khemri, Nagash decided it would be an awesome idea to run the kingdom as a real-life version of [[Dwarf Fortress]], [[Grimdark|and all that it implies]]. He soon had the idea for the creation of a massive megaproject: a necropolis made of pure [[Warpstone]] AKA evil magic meth plutonium that came to be known as the Black Pyramid, so named for the black Warpstone that made it up. Suffice to say, his blatant evil scared the shit out of the other kingdoms around Khemri, and -undoubtedly jealous of his epic pyramid- they attempted to kill him. Hell, Nagash was so damn terrifying that the Skaven all united against him, which is probably the only time in history the paranoid little freaks have ever been completely united for any cause at all. Despite having an army of the dead and loyal followers like [[Arkhan the Black]], Nagash was finally deposed, though he fled and would eventually emerge once more as the first Lich, continuing to, as many threats in the Warhammer universe have, be a constant thorn in the side of the armies of man forever until the [[End Times|end of fucking time]]...[[Age of Sigmar|and beyond]].

After the fall of Nagash, the Black Pyramid went undisturbed for years, since nobody wanted anything to do with a giant monolith that was related to an insane necromancer who pretty much came within striking distance of ruling all the desert kingdoms. Eventually a spoiled princess from one of the neighboring kingdoms named [[Neferata]] who had been put in charge of interrogating Nagash's sidekick Arkhan channeled her inner Tomb Raider, breaking in and making off with some of Nagash's magic books, which were later called the Nine Books of Nagash (guess how many there were). Delving into the corrupt lore she found within the tome, Neferata discovered a recipe for the Elixir of Life, a blood-draught that would extend one's lifespan. Doing her own research on it and "refining" it alongside the now-infatuated Arkhan, she eventually created a new version of the Elixir -called the Elixir of Damnation using venom from the scorpion tails of Sphinxes- and then downed it. It almost killed her (permanently) until with Arkhan she managed to overcome the sickness and became an unliving nigh-demigod.

Later she shared it with many of her court (after killing her douchebag brother and taking the throne) which created the very first Vampires, most of whom would found their own Bloodlines by turning mortals which then inherited their strengths, weaknesses, and predilections (how generations after the first are turned isn't known, although it involves drinking the blood of their "parent" and something else since without that something else they either just become a feral brute with a short lifespan or get a pleasurable high; volume of Vampire blood drunk may be the difference). Unfortunately we don't know for certain how many or what the names of most of the other Vampire originals are since each time a complete list was given it mostly consisted of a different number of entirely different names. We know the captain of the guard [[Abhorash]] was turned and that he founded the [[Blood Dragons]], her high priest [[W'soran]] who would found the [[Necrarchs]] was turned and began to worship Nagash as a god, her younger brother [[Ushoran]] who was a diplomancing seducer was turned and would create the [[Strigoi]], her husband [[Vlad von Carsteim|Vashanesh]] (although another version names him Ankhat and states he was her attendant) was turned with him founding the [[Von Carsteins]], and Neferata herself created the [[Lahmians]]. She had a [[Cathay|Cathayan AKA not-Chinese]] Vampire who she sent on the Warhammer Silk Road to give her control of the east, and in most versions had a female attendant turned for some classic Vampire bisexual fun.

The additional Vampires in the first batch are possibly: [[Maatmeses]], [[Naamia]], [[Prince Xian Ha Feng]], [[Harakhte]], [[Zhuras]].
Maatmeses and Harakhte have their own Bloodlines, the [[Maatmasi]] and [[Jade-Blooded]] respectively which were created for the [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] supplement [[Night's Dark Masters]], but did not make it into the book and instead were released later individually; whether or not this is canon is debatable since the founders are canon to [[Black Library]]. Another unnamed seven were created after the first, and two vials were sent with Prince Xian Ha Feng to Cathay <strike>to give players a blank check to make OC Bloodlines</strike> for unknown reasons.

Naturally, this massive population boom in immortal superpowerful bloodsuckers led to problems. The seeming eternal youthfulness of Neferata and her ilk were hard enough to ignore, but the rampant feeding of their followers quickly became too much to turn a blind eye to. When confronted Neferata herself tried to forcefully convert her cousin, [[Khalida]], and failed. Suffice to say, the other armies of the desert kingdoms of Nehekhara eventually fell upon the vampires of Lahmia like sacks of thunder, and they wound up scattering, regrouping only when they met up with the now-undead Nagash in his new undead warpstone Dwarf Fortress megaproject of Nagashizzar. The Vampires quickly became generals of Nagash's armies, and, with the overpowering forces they added to Nagash's cause, turned on the combined armies of Nehekhara in vengeance, poisoning the land itself, transforming it into a realm of eternal death and began to systematically usher in what would have led to a global zombie apocalypse if not for the intervention of [[Skaven]]-brand dickery. With Nagash out of the picture -albeit temporarily- the Vampires swiftly turned to in-fighting and scattered to the far corners of the world.

But not being one to let death keep him down for long, Nagash came back, weakened, but still 1,000 years more pissed off than last time. Losing was ''not'' fun to Nagash, and so he went skele-balls deep into Reclaim Fortress Mode to retake Nagashizzar in a single night. But all of his cool artifacts, their craftundeadship being of the highest quality, had been stolen while he has napping. Marshaling another huge undead army to repossess everything that had been pilfered, he sent out word to his Vampire peeps that he was going to fuck up the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|Empire]] next. This advance was short-lived - as [[Sigmar]] showed up, and, when Nagash called for their aid, the Vampires were too arrogant to actually help out, and Sigmar smashed him down in short order. In retaliation for this double-dickery, Nagash laid out a curse on the Vampires for this offense: for their refusal to come to his aid, they would forever be weak against the power of Sigmar, being vulnerable to sunlight and all sorts of bizarre shit that came in the undead mind of that autistic manchild. The Undead advance fell apart quicker than [[Boatmurdered]], and the bulk of the Vampires retreated to the lands of Sylvania, where the various Vampires would continue to follow their own agendas, not unlike [[Orks|several]] [[Dark Eldar|unrelated]] [[Chaos Space Marines|groups]] in the [[Warhammer 40,000]] universe.

There they continued to menace the armies of man with periodic invasions of undead, death, and horror for over 2,500 years. With potentially eternal life to bide their time, all they had to do was quit fucking each other over and amass their forces to wait for a [[Nagash#The End Times|supreme leader]] to unite the [[Undead_Legion|armies of undeath]] under one banner once more. I mean, [[Warhammer:_Age_of_Sigmar|what could possibly go wrong?]]

==Here be Sparkles==
[[Image:VampFB.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Fuck yes.]]
One important thing about WHFB vampires is that being turned into one does not automatically turn you evil. It does crank all your personality traits to eleven, almost to a caricature level, so for example a [[Abhorash|noble warrior]] turns into a combat maniac with a stick so deep in his ass it could be seen when he smiles, a [[Konrad von Carstein|petty bully with insecurity issues]] becomes a sadistic psychopath murder machine who does whack shit like having his own mother executed for giving birth to him without his permission, and a [[Neferata|slick politician]] turns into Machiavelian schemer who wraps entire nations in her web of multi-layered intrigues. Similarly a [[Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné|good person]] given the blood kiss may as well turn into unbearably saintly do-gooder going beyond reason to fight the Thirst and help innocent people. Of course vampirism does not grant the immunity to character development, and feeding on humans, having magical powers, superhuman strength, speed and immortality eventually change ''most'' to the worst, pretty much the same way normal people get mad with power. Still, if one just wants to live peacefully with human society, nothing stops him, providing they have the self discipline to resist the rampant thirst or substitute human blood with animal blood, which can do the job even if it is not as invigorating, or at least get human blood through a second hand market, such as mortuaries. Well, there are also Witch Hunters and angry mobs with torches and pitchforks, so it could take a bit of finesse to hide your vampirism. There are hundreds of vampires living peacefully in the Empire and pretty much all other human nations (except Norskans and Kurgan) - and in some places they even built their own secret societies with a thriving blood market. These vampires are not actually the part of the Vampire Count factions, and some of the bloodlines view them as traitors to vampire cause, adding one more reason for them to lay low. According to the WHFRP supplement Night's Dark Masters, becoming a vampire also makes a person more prone to violence, [[/b/|since it essentially makes you immune to being traumatized by blood, gore and death.]]

Even when it comes to the "evil" vampires, most of them have much more humanity left in them than your average Chaos Lord, and are capable of acts of true selflessness and compassion, especially if it concerns their loved ones or faithful subjects. Neferata herself originally did all that fucked up shit she did out of love for her motherland, as did Ushoran, and Vlad von Karstein even sacrificed himself to save his wife. This does not, however, change the fact that they see humans as pets at best and would not mind slaughtering thousands of them to further their own goals. Still, even Mannfred, who's most undoubtedly the most irredeemably evil vampire ever, is nowhere close to the kinds of evil Nagash did while he was still human.

== Vampire Bloodlines ==
* '''[[Von Carstein]]'''
The Von Carsteins are your old-school Vampires of the Dracula-inspired "I VANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOD!" "ZEEE CHIIILLLDREEN OF THE NIIGHTTT VAT SVEET MUZIC DEY MAKE" variety, and their members are more or less parodies of nobility. Since their roots are very recent as opposed to the other major bloodlines which all began at the beginning of the vampire race, they're sort of the nouveau riche of the vampires. [[Vlad von Carstein]], the head of the family, was the one who first tainted the human aristocracy of [[Old World|Sylvania]] with undeath leading them to become the badass European Vampires they'd eventually become. Vlad took a wife (willingly) named [[Isabella von Carstein]] and set out on the first vampire offensive to conquer the [[Empire]]. The Von Carsteins are kind of unusual in that they realized that keeping the living populace safe meant easier meals. This didn't mean they eased up on being badass, however - instead, Vlad, and [[Konrad von Carstein|two]] [[Mannfred von Carstein|of]] his "sons" violently and/or politically brought a lot of the rebellious nobles in line and actually managed to unify much of Sylvania's vampire nobility for a while during their reigns. When Vlad himself was killed by Wilhelm the Third, his wife Isabella killed herself because she didn't want to be without him, most of their vampiric get squabbled until Konrad, who is in many respects analogous to a WHFB version of [[Kharn]] [[Skub|(but completely and utterly stupid in a number of ways)]], took power and quickly caused the advance to grind to a screeching halt. Konrad eventually got killed (ridiculously), and Mannfred arose, and managed to come back after two major defeats and continue trying to claim the Empire- before changing his mind and resurrecting Nagash, becoming one of his Mortarchs. Von Carsteins use all Vampire Count models in their army, making them the default faction.

* '''[[Lahmian]]'''
The Lahmians, named for the monster that drinks the blood of Children, are an almost entirely-female (although there ARE males) vampire clan, who descended from [[Queen Neferata]], the woman who started the vampires off in the first place. They are the spy bloodline, keeping humans as happy pets and living in comfortable heated estates instead of crumbling castles. They don't tend to be directly involved in big events, primarily spending their time controlling every government in the world through spies and politics and focusing on maintaining the status quo of happy, stupid, pretty humans. Having pissed off just about every other Vampire clan due to their involvement with this nonsense, Neferata's openly-vampiric followers currently occupy the once-dwarven lands of the World's Edge Mountains (Erryone is getting [[Book of Grudges|grudged!]]). Lahmian groups tend to rely more on psychological effects like Beguile as well as spellcasting, and any non-vampires in the army are ghosts that can be dismissed or skeletons that can be buried or told to lay still until given orders and be told to sit in the crypt to be passed off as inanimate ancestors when Witch Hunters come to investigate them.

* '''[[Blood Dragon]]'''
Formed by [[Abhorash]], the [[Fist of the North Star|fuckingest]] of Vampire Warriors, the Blood Dragons are the martial vampires, and fucking awesome. Honorable to a fault, though still mostly evil-as-hell, they will never refuse a challenge and excel at absolutely curb-stomping anything put against them in combat. Consummate warriors, they live to fight, and they believe that only cowards feed upon the weak - the only ones that Blood Dragons will willingly feed on are powerful warriors and monsters (from both Destruction and the Order alignments of the game). As such, they are capable of resisting the thirst better than the other clans, and, due to their badassery, are arguably one of the two favorite factions of Vampires for /tg/ in the setting.

* '''[[Necrarch]]'''
Following distantly in the footsteps of Nagash, the Necrarchs are Necromancer vampires and loremasters. Whereas other Vampires focus on sorcery, martial pride, or a mix of the two, the Necrarchs focus entirely on Necromancy and thus have vast armies of the undead at their disposal. A common joke is that they'd be studious gits and/or faggots.... If they didn't [[/tg/ gets shit done|GET SHIT DONE]]. They give even less shit about the thirst than the Blood Dragons, often being too consumed in their researches and experiments to remember about it, and as a result they look like withered corpses most of the time, and for most of them this becomes the permanent state, so even if the do start feeding properly they would not revert to human-like looks.

* '''[[Strigoi]]'''
The Strigoi are horrid-looking mutant Vampires, closer to Ghouls than traditional Vampire-kind. They not only drink their prey's blood - they go all the fuck out and devour their prey's flesh as well. They eat anything alive or un-alive, including other vampires and each other. Hated and feared even by their own kind, they are easily the kings of [[Rip and Tear|ripping and Tearing]] and have more Ghouls at their disposal than any other bloodline. Do not let the fact that they are freakish abominations convince you that they are not FUCKING BADASS. They tend to rampage wherever the fuck they want, and as a result they step on the toes of the other bloodlines a fair amount. A common tactic is for the bloodline finding them inconvenient is to send them to another bloodline to be dealt with, killing a bird and annoying another with one stone.

*'''Miscellaneous'''
There are other, smaller bloodlines. All of them are recent and not strong enough to warrant much attention. Among them are a group of vampire [[pirate]]s (believed to be a descendant of the Blood Dragons), vampire [[Warriors of Chaos|Norsemen]], and [[Games Workshop|bloodsucking Brits living in Albion]]. There are also two more major bloodlines that live in Ind and [[Cathay]]. The Cathayan vampires are the closest we get to "good guys" among the undead (barring exceptions like [[Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné|Genevieve]]), being on generally good terms with the Dragon Emperor as long as they stay out of his way. Many of them are nobles and heroes, though they take great pains to conceal their undead nature. The Indan Vampires are worshiped as one of the many gods of that strange land, and are said to resemble wampyres.

==On the Tabletop==
''See [[Warhammer/Tactics/Vampire Counts|Tactics/Vampire Counts]]''

Originally vampires were but just a cog in the greater Undead army. But come sixth edition Undead had been schismed into two armies, with the Vampire Counts getting the lion's share while those [[Tomb Kings|fucking mummies]] made off with what scant few ranged options Undead ever had. But we all know who got the last laugh in [[The End Times|the end]].

==See Also==
* [[Abhorash]], the most badass Vampire in all of Warhammer.
* [[Vlad von Carstein]], also known as Chad von Carstein.
* [[Isabella von Carstein]], Vlad's beloved.
* [[Konrad von Carstein]], bucking the Warhammer trend of Too Dumb To Live in favor of Too Insane To Live.
* [[Mannfred von Carstein]], also known as Mannchild. Directly responsible for the last chance of saving the world failing.
* [[Ushoran]], the unluckiest of the bunch.
* [[W'soran/Melkhior]], nerd.
* [[Neferata]], the mommy of all Vampires.

==External Links==
[http://www.vampirecounts.net/index.php| Carpe Noctem, the main Vampire Counts army forum]

{{Playable Factions in Warhammer Fantasy Battle}}

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]
[[Category:Vampire Counts]]