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Prospero Spireguard

2022-09-02T03:47:32Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199:

[[File:Prospero_Spireguard.jpg|330px|right|thumb|Prospero Spireguards pre-Heresy.]]
The Prospero Spireguards were once the the local Imperial Army/[[Planetary Defense Force|PDF's]] stationed to defend the planets of [[Prospero]] during the [[Great Crusade]]. However, after the [[Horus Heresy]], the Spireguard, now corrupted by the forces of [[Chaos]], would continue to fight under the [[Thousand Sons]]. They saw action in the siege of the [[Space Wolves]] homeworld of [[Fenris]], this time led by [[Magnus the Red]] himself. Despite the corruption however, the Spireguards remains one of the most disciplined and cohesive Traitor Guard regiments in the entire Galaxy. This is thanks in no small part to the fact of Magnus's rule on [[Sortiarius]], who still remains sentimental over the loss of his original homeworld. This, combined with the natural psychic brilliance of the Thousand Sons, creates a competent military force that rivals many [[Imperial Guard]] regiments.

==Overview & History==
During the Compliance action on Ark Reach Secundus the Guard were noted to wear crimson greatcoats, heavy boots and silver shakoes lined with fur cut from the wings of the snow-shrikes, an indigenous bird used by the Avenians as weapons.

Officers were noted to wear crimson jackets decorated with brass buttons and gold frogging. They were also outfitted with silver helmets, curved sabres and [[laspistol|laspistols]].

A detachment of these men were onboard the warship Waning Moon under the command of Thousand Son Space Marine Mhotep during the early start of the Horus Heresy. They were set to board the mysterious vessel, the Furious Abyss, but were ultimately killed, when the Furious Abyss destroyed the Waning Moon. Only one rescue pod was able to leave, with only Mhotep aboard.

Modern Spireguard forces can vary a lot in it's appearance, though. While regiments drafted from the [[Sortiarius]]' population of [[Thrall Wizards]] generally keep the old style fueled by the aforementioned sentimental nostalgia of Magnus the Red, Thousand Sons maintain their grip on several planets outside the [[Eye of Terror|Eye]] and out of the view of the [[Imperium]] where they draft more expendable Spireguard regiments. Those "lite" Spireguards are pretty much your standard Imperial Guardsmen in both appearance and function, except with more respected [[psyker|psykers]] and no [[Ministorum Priest|priests]]. Magnus famously mustered a million-numbered army of those lesser Spireguards for his first attack on [[Fenris]] in M32 and then left it all behind to cover his retreat.

They have been reborn and replenish by the time of the 13th Black Crusade.

{{Thousand Sons}}

[[Category:Lost and the Damned]]

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:45:54Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

In his cell, Alcadizzar was consumed by the pain and bad memories tormenting him, and could only think of how much he wished to die. That is until a figure of white light touched his cheek. It was 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the wielder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which caused Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:43:47Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

In his cell, Alcadizzar was consumed by the pain and bad memories tormenting him, and could only think of how much he wished to die. That is until a figure of white light touched his cheek. It was 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the wielder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which the blade's power causes Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:41:16Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

In his cell, Alcadizzar was consumed by the pain and bad memories tormenting him, and could only think of how much he wished to die. That is until a figure of white light touched his cheek. It was 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the weilder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which the blade's power causes Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:40:18Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

In his cell, Alcadizzar was consumed by the pain and bad memories tormenting him, and could only think of how much he wished to die. That is until a figure of white light touch his cheek. It was 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the weilder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which the blade's power causes Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:33:15Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

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 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the weilder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which the blade's power causes Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Alcadizzar

2022-08-27T07:32:25Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar */

[[File:Alcadizzar.PNG|thumb|right|The only picture of the last and greatest king of Khemri and Nehekhara. Sporting a mighty trumpet helmet forged by the Dwarfs.]]
'''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 the Imperishable|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 with the power of Neferata's elixir 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 ==
{{Template:Spoilers}}
After [[Neferata]] has became a vampire and triumphed 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 the child of her and the current Rasetran King - '''Aten-Heru''' - was a boy, he would inherit the throne of Khemri... if only 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 rule the entirely of Nekhehara as the queen of Khemri for eternity.

The queen's child shall be known as '''Alcadizzar'''.

=== 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
being 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 young man with the physique and height of an adult bodybuilder at the age of 19). He beat four armored instructors in a mock battle using only a 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 had shown, Alcadizzar was not permitted to graduate or leave his training (or Neferata) by age 18, which upset him when he saw others being allowed to graduate but not him. He had a dream of enjoying a good life in a mansion with a family of his own while ruling a kingdom, yet his graduation was held back year after year. Little did poor Alcadizzar know that it was all part of Neferata's wife husbandry plan for him.

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

Upon reunion, Alcadizzar greeted his uncle with utmost warmest joy, even Kenti's bodyguard were moved by the prince's chadness for Alcadizzar treated them as his equals just like everyone he has met, without discrimination nor any of the polite social arts and royal manners bullcrap that were drilled into Alcadizzar, and that attitude has gotten him a crowd of admirers.

Neferata was unable to grasp his behaviors as well as reasons for his warm greeting despite being a vampire who specialized in reading people's hearts. The salty bitch was in fact looking down on Alcadizzar's action as "degrading and mysterious".

After Neferata gave a short lesson on how Alcadizzar's ancestry leading to Settra's disgraced fifth son '''Amenophis''', she suggested to 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 decide if he wanted to follow this insane suggestion or go rule Khemri just as he always wanted. It was all up to him.

Despite Khenti's attempts to persuade him to leave while being clueless to the schemes Neferata has cooked up in her sleeves, Alcadizzar naively accepted her training course, for he believed 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 Asaph aka Neferata his devotion.

Due to the elixir's effect, Alcadizzar appeared young despite being 55 years old and yet he was still preparing to be a king and he had so many things he wished to implement in Khemri, his very own 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 he never met has died (for 55 fucking years, seriously). Rasetra was now ruled by his younger brother '''Asar''', who was begging Alcadizzar to come back and attend his father's funeral. Ironically, Alcadizzar didn't seem 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 feel a shred of saddness.

Angered by Naaima's sudden interruption of her sweet time with Alcadizzar, Neferata told him to go pray to the snek goddess for his father's passing. Alcadizzar remained clueless to the scheme Neferata had for him.

5 years later, Alcadizzar finally faced his last trial. He had to prove his utmost sacrifice and devotion to the unkowningly fake Asaph (aka Neferata), by surviving for 7 days and 7 nights without water and food while being tormented with lashes. Kinda similar to the buddhist six cleansings but with more bdsm play and Neferata had probably copied the training doctrine from either the Cathayan or the Inds (being a Lahmian, the 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]] trials. On the last part, Alcadizzar needed to survive a dagger to the heart, and he did (plot armor and all) but lost his consciousness.

When he woke up however, he found Neferata without her mask on, showing her frighteningly pale face and vampiric saber tooth fangs 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 forced Alcadizzar to drink up the final elixir that would turn him into a vampire. Just then, Ubaid saved him by furiously attacking Neferata and telling Alcadizzar to run away.

Despite being a vampire and under Neffy's control for some time, Ubaid was always moved by Alcadizzar's charisma even when he was young (which allowed him to break away from Neffy's control fo a while), especially just seconds ago when Alcadizzar had criticized Neferata for not putting the poor Ubaid to rest and claiming he should have joined his ancestors long ago.

With Ubaid's sacrifice, Alcadizzar escaped. Neferata was so furious that not only she torn Ubaid apart with her fangs like a crazed beast, but she also swore vengeance and that she would do everything in her power to find Alcadizzar, even if it meant turning her city into a roach hotel.

=== Lonesome Road ===

Using the trainings and knowledges he had acquired from the academy as well as the power of elixir he was fed with, Alcadizzar escaped the palace guards and hide in the commoner quarter like [[Metal Gear|a main character in a stealth game]]. He knew he had to survive so he could get to Rasetra and warn everyone about the vampires in Lahmia. For eight months, Alcadizzar took on Ubaid's name as an alias while living the thug life for the first free period of his life [[meme|(not because he chose it, but it chose him)]].

He stole, got drunk and even killed (albeit a member of a group of sailors who tried to press gang him into joining them). He even worked in a brothel in the infamous red <s>light</s> silk district as hired muscle for security. At one point he worked 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 also knew his first love and had his first kiss stolen during this time.

When his appearance was finally different enough from Neferata's description of him, he escaped Lahmia without having the guards recognize him. But worse was to come. He tried to hitch a ride on the caravans in order to avoid the outlaws and bandits on the golden plain, but the master and the guards refused, fearing he might be a spy for the caravan raiders. For the next few months as he struggled his way across the plain, 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 reached '''Lybaras''', greatly diminished due to Neferata's political actions, and hoped to share his information with the king, but was met with refusal as even his vizier refused to answer him.

A full year and a half has passed after he escaped Lahmia when he finally made it to Rasetra. He united with his uncle Khenti, by now an elderly man, and helped arrange a secret meeting between Alcadizzar and his brother Asar. Despite the horrifying tale Alcadizzar told, his brother gave him the benefit of the doubt but demanded proof before any action could be taken.

To start a war with Lahmia and win would require a coalition army of the great cities, something unfeasible for many reasons. Firstly, wars cost a lot of manpower and gold, which are still scarce thanks to Nagash's regime. Neferata took up where Nagash left off by manipulating the great cities into bickering among themselves, weakening them so that none were able to stand up against Lahmia directly. Even Rasetra, which had clawed its way back from the brink of ruin and 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 wielded (and were unaware of the Lahmians' bluff). 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. Evidence of Nagash's dark arts were needed to persuade the rival kings to put aside their ambitions and come together in a common cause against Lahmia.

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

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

Realizing the capability of the desert tribe's (otherwise known as the fallen '''Bhagarian''', whom were defeated and enslaved by 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 chieftain named '''Faisr al-Hashim''', of the '''bani-al-Hashim''' after he saved him from a caravan 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]] (literalry). 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 <s>Reverend Mother</s> 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 <s>Truthsaying</s> 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 irritating 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 everything (being truthful with her since she can read people's minds). However for Ophiria, being a daughter of the sand, she saw far more than just Alcadizzar's identity, but his future as well 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 ancient promise they had made with their god 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 Nehekhara could forgive their sin by remade a new sacred oath with them. Without any 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 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 was 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 Nehekhara. 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 Nehekharans, and he is definitely going to be disappointed since his action might've doomed himself as well as the entirely of Lahmia.

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 with swords (not a single spear were used. Do they play [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] at all?) and tried to run away, but Alcadizzar and his horseman managed to stall him long enough for Faisr to stake the vampire with a barbed javelin in the heart. In the most glorious or perhaps the most iconic moment of his life, Alcadizzar confessed everything to Faisr under the comet's light.

Oh and turns out Zurhas had a lot evidence. [[Fail|The scrolls and letters he bought contained information about the vampires in Lahmia and Nagash's still alive, walking and kicking in the northern part of Lahmia]].

=== 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:

From Rasetra, its army, lead by Prince Heru (Asar's heir), brought ten thousand heavy infantry, plus two thousand cold one chariots.

From Lybaras, its army lead by King Ahmenefret, brought mostly artillery managed by their scholar warrior. Their artillery were a dozen huge catapults, eight ballistae and four armoured fire-throwers, all were transported on a train pulled by teams of oxens.

From the desert tribes, its army lead by the newly elected leader Fasir (who had won the competition to get the role), brought eight thousand of the finest light cavalry in the land, clad in burnished armour and billowing silk robes.

From Mahrak, its army's commander were not specified, but they brought five thousand priestly warriors. These head shaved warrior priest are called the Hurusanni, or Devoted, patterned their weapons and training on the legendary Ushabti of ancient times. They are known to pray and meditate while traveling, are fanatical and desires nothing but the destruction of Lahmia's abominations, as well as anything created by Nagash's dark magic.

From Quatar, its army lead by king Nebunefre, the Lord of the Tombs, brought five thousand of their fabled Tomb Guard of Quatar. They are heavy infantry who march in silence, wears lacquered armour that glimmer in the moonlight (which makes them look like white ghostly figures from a far) and their helms were fashioned in the shape of jackals’ heads, the sacred visage of Djaf, god of the dead.

From Numas, its army lead by Queen Omorose, brought ten thousand proud Numasi cavalry, whose horse were famously known breed among the Nehekharans.
Their larger size horse tend to picking on and bickering with the much smaller horse breed ridden by the desert tribe riders, whom were marching side by side.

From Zandri, its army lead by King Rakh-an-atum, brought two thousand archers, four thousand spearmen and another five thousand Northlander mercenaries.

From Ka-Sabar, its army lead by Aten-sefu, brought their famed Iron Legion; fifteen thousand heavily-armoured spearmen and four thousand archers, who march in thunders of heavy kettledrums.

Then finally from Khemri, its army lead by none other than the hero of this article: Alcadizzar! Khemri has been managed by generations of viziers over the last four hundred years and yet, it's still looking like Rasetra in is colony state (all thanks to the interventions from Numas and Zandri, but mostly Nagash's fault anyway), meaning it has a small army. They however making up for their lack of military strength by throwing the fanciest and the most expensive parade. Two hundred chariots, each one manned by the lord of one of Khemri’s noble houses. The noble lords and their retainers were not armed and armoured for war, but instead were clad in their finest feast garments, tossing handfuls of coins to the dumbfounded soldiers, laughing and chanting “Alcadizzar! Alcadizzar!” at the top of their lungs. Six thousand infantry in total were sighted. From spearmans to javelin-wielding light infantry, clad in pristine white tunics and polished leather armour, plus another two thousand slave auxiliaries armed with slings and short swords. Despite its small size, the soldiers marched with their head held high and proud, cheering Alcadizzar’s name.

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. The tradition would requires 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 were 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 horse 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 swift horse archers of the desert tribe shot him with arrows embedded with asphalt 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 flammable liquid and unable to move, the horseman light him on fire.

Ankhat easily slaughtered a company of Northlander barbarians as well as many Nehekharans spearman through the use of 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 inexperienced, 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. Their seduction power works on anyone that looked them in the eye. Calvaries and elite infantries alike were easily controlled and were 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, even the fanatical Mahrak warriors (whom were not immune to her seduction despite being so fanatical), pushed so far into the Nehekharans' army and reached out to 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. Despite 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).

Although he is now a king, he still couldn't catch a break as he had to work his ass off at every single moment in order to ensure the prosperity of Nehekhara. At one time, he had to travel to Numas to oversee the problem with their parched grain field. By the time he had returned, he needs to worry about the planned trade negotiations. 5 years ago, Zandri just had to be a fucking dick and wage war against Khemri. After getting their asses kicked, the Zandri king and all of their nobles fucked off to the southern region of the old world (probably soon to be southern realm, Tilea or Border Princes) and leaving all his citizens starving. Alcadizzar had to care the city for some times without spending time with his family at Khemri. Despite his elixir enhanced body, Alcadizzar was beyond stressful and was made worse by the pain coming from his irreparable broken rib done by Neferata.

Interestingly, one of his explorer named '''Rahotep''' he had sent north had an encountered with [[Dwarf (Warhammer Fantasy)|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 hospitality for the entire winter, even promised a chance of trading and friendship. To show their respect, they gifted Alcadizzar with mastercrafted armor and a huge two-handed khopesh, golden, enchanted with magic, warm like the sun which could hurt dark foes and were quite lightweight, all the while it was made out of iron (note that it was not even enchanted with runes like [[Ghal-Maraz|Sigmar's hammer (which is a weapon meant to be forged for a Dwarf King and was master-crafted when comparing to what Alcadizzar was gifted with)]], and its power could go off the chart if it were).

Other than the Dwarven crafts, Rahotep also bought knowledge about magic from the north (whether he received them from some old world shaman, northlander or Elves is unknown) which Alcadizzar had use its knowledge and 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 rest of great 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 had suspected Alcadizzar had decided to abandoned their faith [[heresy|for some heretical power]] and thus refused to cooperate 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 kingdoms, 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 wizards employed in each great city but Mahrak for obvious reasons. [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica|They act as telephone by telepathically sending their local ruler's messages]] to Alcadizzar without wasting any time with envoys. With Nagash's invasion forces were sighted, they proved vital in quickly sending orders and reports, but it was still a monumental effort that took its toll on Alcadizzar with him overthinking and second-guessing his plans often. But it ultimately paid off, as it made the Nehekharans one step ahead of Nagash's forces, and they prepared for them with siege defenses and armies.

Due to the position of Nagashizzar just north of Lahmia across the sour sea, Nagash's ten armies led by Arkhan and W'soran took over the ruins of Lahmia as soon as they arrived. In response, the closest armies from Lybaras and Rasetra formed a vanguard to challenge them. Thanks to their enchanted weaponry and magic, the Nehekharans gave W'soran and his army a very hard time. But despite putting up a very good fight, the undead legion won through sheer numbers and replenishing its losses with dead Nehekharans. Realizing the Nehekharans were too well prepared, Arkhan sent one third of the army to siege Lybaras and Rasetra to prevent them from reinforcing western Nehekhara.

Mahrak was the next target for the undead legion. The news of Lybaras and Rasetra armies' defeat had reach Mahrak and its fanatical warriors were prepared to defend the city to the death. Without the use of gods' blessing nor Alcadizzar's magic improvements, all Mahrak had was fanatical white robe warriors, basic archers and shield infantry. Although Neferata's ancient policy has allowed Mahrak to recovered themselves, restoring their walls and army to full strength, it is but a easy picking for Arkhan, [[rape|who proceeds to devastate the defenders with hordes of skeleton warriors, arrow rain from skeleton archers, bone giants and catapult that batters the wall, tomb scorpions and scarab constructs that are able to crawl over walls, and his own dark magic]].

Although the Mahrakan warriors' faith made themselves unbreakable, most of them had no ways to deal with the constructs, the bone giants, or Arkhan's magic, not to mentioned the undeads are expendable and tireless, which some of the skeleton warriors would drag off the defenders from the wall to commit mutual death. And just like that, the city that had once held off Nagash's army for months was razed within in five days.

Alcadizzar had hoped the Hieratic Council would evacuate behind the thick wall he had fortified at the eastern end of the Valley of Kings to hold against the undead for many weeks and give their non-combatants enough time to reach Quatar. But that was not to be and Alcadizzar and other great cities had to go on without them.

The aforementioned walls were three very strong, thick walls made from granite, built by the finest smith at Ka-Sabar. In addition,, the walls were equipped with weaponry effective against the undead: fire arrows, flaming tar catapults, manned by heavily armored infantries... all that good stuff. What's more, each wall was taller than the one in front of it and not even ladders could reach the top of the third wall, nor could the bone giants or Arkhan's magic hope to breach it.

Just as the third wall was about to be cleared, Alcadizzar came just in time, riding on his chariot with Khalida besides him followed by a host of cavalry. They flanked the undead army and dealt it a serious blow. W'soran managed to blast Alcadizzar off his chariot and had two of his vampire servants ambush him. Dazed, Alcadizzar was saved by his chief wizard Suleiman and an archer who attacked the vampire and brought Alcadizzar time to recover and kill them.

W'soran then blasted the dead vampire and Alcadizzar with his magic, only for Alcadizzar's Dwarven forged armor to protect him and render the spell harmless, to W'soran's surprise. As W'soran advanced on Alcadizzar, Khalida saved him with an arrow shot straight into W'soran eye, the vampire howling and breaking a clay jar to unleash a swarm of scarabs that carried him to safety. With W'soran's retreat the clouds disspated and the undead army was thwarted.

=== Nagash: I'm About to End This Man's Whole Career ===
[[File:Alcadizzar decision.png|thumb|right| The chariot problem]]
Two weeks after Nagash's army had fled from Nehekhara, Alcadizzar and the rest of the Nehekhara armies gathered at Lahmia's 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 be rid of them once and for all.

Just then, however, Ophiria came to greet Alcadizzar and after some cajoling, tearfully informed him of his fate: if he went to Nagashizzar, he would kill Nagash but he will die (the actual text was he will not return, so same meaning). Initially, Ophiria didn't want to tell Alcadizzar anything other than to send her niece Khalida back to Khemri and have the king leading the army alone, but Alcadizzar convinced Ophiria to tell him everything when he saw her and knew she had bad news for him.

Alcadizzar, who was already so tired and old, wanted to enjoy good retirement life (in a big mansion with his family, just like he's always dreamed of), as did his wife. With Nagash's invasion force broken and not wanting to trigger Ophiria's prophecy, they decided to abandon the chase and enjoy rebuilding and ruling their city. Ophiria was never seen again after that. But just like the tale of Oedipus, Alcadizzar ended up fulfilling the prophecy and doomed his kingdom when Nagash, unbeknownst to any of the Nehekharans, cooked up a deadly genocide spell that would make Alcadizzar rue his decision.

Six years later, a horrible plague appeared. Crops began to wither and fail, livestock died, commoners began to fall ill and water turned red. Alcadizzar summoned his chirurgeons and wizards to find a cure, but without success. The lack of food led to citizens rioting or turning to banditry, despite Alcadizzar's best efforts in using all his power to maintain order among his vassal kings, rationed every clean food so everyone could eat, and quarantine the infected in tents outside the city. Worse came as Alcadizzar's two sons, Asar and Ubaid, fell ill. Ubaid died in agony, constantly asking his father to end him. Asar was sent away to live with the desert tribe, Alcadizzar hoped the plague wouldn't reach them but it did. One night, Asar, now consumed by the illness' madness, left his tent to wander in the desert and was never seen again. Devastated over losing his two sons, he began falling to despair as he watched his empire crumble with people either begging their powerless king to save them, or curse him for unable to save them while somehow not getting sick himself. Then, Khalida finally fell ill; her illness had begun long ago, but she hid it from Alcadizzar and lasted months longer than her two sons. She merely postponed the inevitable, for her stubbornness meant the diseased damaged her body to point that she was unable to recognize her husband. Alcadizzar eventually caved in and perform a mercy kill on Khalida. Since Alcadizzar shared Khalida's belief against tombs, there was never a pyramid built for his family, despite him being the greatest priest king since Settra. Few attended the funeral for though Khalida was well-loved, many were sick or dead and the king himself had to be pallbearer for his wife. Alcadizzar ultimately couldn't bring himself to let her corpse be cremated, and entombed her at the local necropolis, hoping one day a Morturary priest could resurrect her and give her a golden body.

Alcadizzar thought about killing himself to join his family, but news of a new undead army invading Rastera made him gear up mustered what remained of his weakened soldiers. Many citizens that had strength to travel fled to Zandri where they would board its ship and migrate to the Old World. With the remaining forces, weak and sick soldiers who could barely hold a Khopesh, Alcadizzar and his men bravely fought the undead tide in order to buy time for every citizen to escape. Alcadizzar knew it was a battle he cannot win, but gave it his all with his golden blade nonetheless, also hoping one of them could kill him. Then Arkhan came and made short work of the king by parrying all his attacks and capturing him.

=== The Death of Nehekhara, Nagash and Alcadizzar ===
Alcadizzar was stripped of his gear and chained up in a cage for the long journey back to Nagashizzar. While traveling, Alcadizzar was half awake. The cart carried him through the ruins of the great cities, only stopping to occasionally force-feed Alcadizzar a warpstone-laced (or so called because the liquid gives out a fiery sensation) elixir to keep him alive. Eventually reaching the cursed dock where Ophiria had told him of his fate, where they boarded a ship of bone that carried them to Nagashizzar.

At Nagashizzar, he was dragged out of his cage by Nagash himself. Amused by Alcadizzar's weak and malnourished appearance, Nagash took great pleasure in mocking him, claiming that he only sent his army to destroy Nehekhara because he wanted the great cities to know that it was he who had brought them to ruin (leaving out Nagash only used the plague in a temper tantrum after the defeat of his first army. [[Perturabo|Hypocrite manchild]] [[Lorgar|lich]]...). Alcadizzar remained defiant, telling bone daddy that he would die before betraying his people.

Dismissing his claim, Nagash began his new ritual by paralyzing and painfully carving arcane symbols into Alcadizzar. Nagash explaining how Alcadizzar was the symbol he needed for this ritual, that Nagash had deliberately made the plague to spare Alcadizzar and had not killed him for that reason. That this spell would channel Nagash's magic, kill the last few people living in Nehekhara and bind them to his will. Nagash capped this off by taunting Alcadizzar that he might see his family again and possibly taking Khalida as his consort if he liked her enough, leaving Alcadizzar helpless to do anything but howl in rage.

For the entirely of the ritual, Alcadizzar could only kneel, locked in place by paralyzing needles and the power of the great ritual. The great ritual caused a swirling wind tunnel to form in the sky with green light in it's depth, as if it was a gateway to the underworld. The dead Nehekharans had gathered behind the greenlight gate, drawn by the bond of fealty they owed to Alcadizzar in life. Nagash could sense the spirits gathering behind the greenlight, as could Alcadizzar, who only searched for his dead family.

And just like that, the great ritual summoned up all the undead of Nehekhara. The ancient kings, dead commoners, soldiers. Not even dead wildlife were not safe from Nagash's control. Unbeknownst to them, only the occupants of Settra's tomb hadn't risen.

After the ritual, Nagash was throughly drained but still mighty. He took out the needles from Alcadizzar and had his minions throw Alcadizzar into a dungeon, for Nagash planned to regain a bit of strength then entertain himself by torturing Alcadizzar.

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 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 her to the cell door. The door opened and two short furry rat like creatures entered the room with a huge lead box. These were the Skaven Eekrit and Eshreegar of Clan Rikek, both business partners and bitter rivals of Nagash. Knowing about Nagash's plan and a prophecy from their Grey Seer about who would kill him, they made the Fellblade: a weapon so deadly it drains the life force of those who wields it, and gave it to Alcadizzar, the Council of Thirteen protecting the wielder.

Confused and desperate, Alcadizzar opened the box and the light of Fellblade filled the entire room. Being in its presence hurt him, and Alcadizzar knew it radiated death, the kind of weapon kill a god... or an undying king. In his delusions, Alcadizzar thought this was Khalida telling him to make things right before it is too late. So he took up the Fellblade blade, which burned him and filled his body with the strength necessary to go where Nagash is and stab the fucker with it.

(It's like the main character from the Gladiator movie, he had lost everything to a tyrant and is about to kill him with the backing of traitorous allies).

Neferem's ghost approached Nagash to distract him. When Neferem disappeared, she left a white smoke, from which Alcadizzar charged. Nagash tried to block the blade with his armored hand, but the blade cut through armor and limb like they were butter. In retaliation, Nagash fired a magic bolt at Alcadizzar, but he was unharmed due to the protection rune carved on the blade (the rune enabled the spellcasters of the Council of Thirteen to protect the weilder, but some of them died from the effort). Alcadizzar then sliced Nagash's spine, which the blade's power causes Nagash to feel actual pain and leech away his power with each strike. In desperation, Nagash grabbed Alcadizzar's throat and planned to crush his spine. But just as Alcadizzar was about to fall unconscious, he freed himself by severing Nagash's other arm, then went into a frenzy and decapitated Nagash.

As his head was severed Nagash let out a hideous scream and his spell came undone. Freed from Nagash's control, the mummy kings began seizing the undead soldiers to serve them, became the Tomb Kings we know and love. The dead that were slain most recently (aka Alcadizzar's people) were instead crumbled and their soul went back to purgatory.

Frenzied, Alcadizzar hacked up Nagash's body and his throne before finally stopping. The last king of Khemri, now dying and insane, took Nagash's crown and the blade and wandered off trying to find Khalida and show her he'd solved the problem. Eventually he found his way out of Nagashizzar and went into the wasteland where he was never seen again.

The legend said he is still searching for redemption.

== Legacy ==
Although Alcadizzar and his people were dead, he did not die without leaving any legacy behind. The man himself wandered the ruins of Nehekhara until he died and fell into the River Vitae/Mortis and his corpse washed up on a distant shore. The Skaven tracked the Fellblade's magic and recovered the sword, but left Alcadizzar's corpse and crown alone. His body was eventually discovered by a shaman named '''Kadon''', who could recognize 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 influences, 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...or not.

According to [[Neferata]]'s novel, part of Alcadizzar's soul were bond to Nagash's crown and prevented the vampires from unleashing its true potentials by giving them some sort of mental attack, which the vampire suckers will experiencing ptsd from Alcadizzar's memories. Kadon had tried to unbind Alcadizzar's soul to Mourkin's wall, but was nearly killed in the process, with only half of Alcadizzar's soul bind to the wall. Neferata suffered the most from his ptsd attack due to her connection with him as she could re-experienced Lahmia's burning and Alcadizzar's dagger stab to her heart. In order to use the crown for their own gains, W'soran and Ushoran recruited Neferata's help to remove the king's soul using nine tomes of Nagash. After collected the nine tomes, Neferata used its power to force Alcadizzar's soul back to his old dead body. Although Neferata hated Alcadizzar, she sympathize his suffering(due to raising him as a child, and apparently developed some kind of motherhood for him), something like sadness can be felt from her emotionless immortal mind. Just before his spirit is about to return back to his old body, Alcadizzar asked Neferata to gave in, but Neferata was like [[JoJo's Bizarre Adventure|Daga Kotowaru'']] and roast Alcadizzar so hard he howled in anguish and turning into a powerful wight. Upon regaining his dead old body, the first thing he did was literary bitch slapped Ushoran onto the ground and began choking him. Although Alcadizzar was a powerful and agonizing piece of work, he is still but one undead, fighting against many vampires nearby that were just about to ganging up on him (including: [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]]). In the end, Alcadizzar was torned to pieces after Ushoran decapitated his head. "Long live the king" said Ushoran, as he held Alcadizzar's bone head high and softly cheer for his death. So it is safe to say Alcadizzar's soul were either freed, stuck in purgatory like every other Nehekharans or probably in Nagash's grip after this.

Nagash's crown would eventually passed down to other people's hand where they would get corrupt by it and become a necromancer (except for [[Sigmar]] himself), then finally took away by a [[Mannfred von Carstein|whiny vampire]] where he would use the crown to resurrect Nagash in [[The End Times]].

In the Sigmar novel, [[Sigmar]] had called upon every scribe to gather any information about Nagash after [[Mannfred von Carstein|Khaled al Muntasir]] (who was forced to work for Nagash after Neferata offered him to Arkhan) came to threaten and parley for Nagash's crown (which Sigmar being the boss, tells the vampire to GTFO). One of the scribe named '''Eoforth''' came across many manuscripts regarding the ancient Nehekhara (which it was found in a burning gallery near some shore alongside with many treasures from Nehekhara, for unknown reasons). 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. Nehekharan probably doesn't translated well into Old Reikspiel) slew Nagash with "a dreadful sword of fell power". Many other manuscripts also referenced 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 anyone's guess. Even the events of Neferata and Skaven's alliance with Nagash were mentioned (though it also said Neferata was a consort of Nagash, which is false as she hates Nagash and wanted to rule her own kingdom. Guess whoever made that manuscript didn't know a lot about Neferata). Were they all written by some undead scribes under the order of a tomb kings? did a seer have a vision and and wrote it? Did Ophiria wrote it? Arkhan? Surely the Nehekharan survivors boarding the refugee ship at Zandri should be able to remember 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? It is a merciless deity 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?

Such is the way of the warhammer's grimdark nature, for every great achievements like technologies or civilizations are ruined just one step before their completion, and results in sending the entire race responsible into the dark age, or worse (this is why the development of the Primaris Project were secretly developed for ten millennia without anyone knowing as to prevent the chaos gods from ruin them; why the Dwarfs would accept an invention only if its blueprint has been stubbornly worked on for multiple generations before a prototype is considered). While The [[Chaos Gods|big four]] are often responsible for those atrocities in order to [[that guy|provide themselves some enjoyments]], many were caused by large scale civil war or treasons. In Alcadizzar's case however, he failed simply because did not know the kind of world he lives in.

==In other media==
Though he does not make a direct appearance in [[Total War: Warhammer II]], a couple of events involving the Tomb Kings do make mention of Nehekara's last king. The first event has you locating the remains of his army, and deciding whether to harvest them for canopic jars or give them a proper burial. The second event, and arguably ''the'' most important, is that the Tomb Kings apparently located Alcadizzar's remains (which is canonically located at Mourkhain, but Tomb Kings DLC came out before the marsh of madness province was added so there weren't any conquest there to claim his remain), and you can build a great pyramid for him in Bhagar, providing some nifty bonuses to your forces. For all their arrogance, [[Awesome|even the Tomb Kings knew damn well they owe him one]]. His wife and two children weren't mentioned however, for the queen was buried in the commoner necropolis (probably with young Ubaid too) and Asar went missing in the great desert.

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

Nagashizzar

2022-08-27T06:46:28Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* The Coming of Nagash */

[[File:Nagashizzar Location.png|260px|thumb|right|Nagashizzar's Location on map.]]

AKA '''Glory of [[Nagash]]''' in [[Tomb Kings|Nehekharan]], also known as '''The Cursed Pit''', and '''Cripple Peak''' by the Skaven, is Nagash's second base of operation (the first being the Black Pyramid) after he was chased out of Nehekhara from his first defeat. Located besides the Sour Sea, it is a terrifying mega fortress that rivals [[Drachenfels|Drachy's castle]] with many edgy skull sculptures, towers, laboratories, Warpstone mines, and an extremely sturdy gate, all personally designed by Nagash himself, using his knowledge of 40 years worth of Nehekharan architectural studies (meaning the fortress itself is a goddamn masterpiece). Said fortress was originally carved out of a mountain, broken by a gigantic fuckoff [[Warpstone]] meteor crushing down the earth. The Skaven tried to fight Nagash for it, only to end the conflict in a draw, then finally won it after they had a certain [[Alcadizzar|fallen king]] do their dirty work. After a long ass time without Nagash's presence, the damned place's Warpstone was completely mined out by the Skaven of the [[Clan Rikek]]. Said clan was destroyed in a single night upon Nagash's second return. After [[Sigmar]] kicked Nagash's arse, the bone daddy regenerated again at Nagashizzar, only this time he was so weakened that he was but a husk sitting on his throne, and all he could do was order his undead soldiers around the fortress to ensure that the Skaven do not disturb his eternal nap time, at least until a certain [[The End Times|fuck-fest]] happened.

== History ==
[[File:Warhammer Nagashizzar.webp|thumb|left| "To my Lord, Great King of Death, the Final God, Nagash...
 we left the key under the doormat this time.
 Your EXTREMELY LOYAL mewling worm, [[Arkhan the Black|Arkhan]].
 XOXOXO."
 P.S:[[Skaven|The rat problem is getting worse]].
]]
Way before the coming of Nagash and the Warpstone meteor, it was ruled by a tribe of barbarians. Since the meteor had not arrived, the nearby lake hadn't been contaminated yet, so it wasn't called '''The Sour Sea''' (it's former name was not mentioned), and its nearby Sea, the '''Bitter Sea''' was called the '''Crystal Sea''' formerly.

After the meteor hit, the humans living there dug the meteor and learned to harness it's power, then used it to dominate the nearby tribe and formed a theocratic kingdom based on the worship of the meteor. In those days, they were known as the '''Yaghur''' (aka '''the faithful''' in their language). Just like how every powerful people became corrupted with power, its nobles went tyrannical and made their people rebel against them. The Yaghur were overthrown when one of their exiled princes returned and brought the teachings of '''Malakh, the four face god''' ([[Chaos God|one of the many obvious-undivided-puppets of the big four]], that or [[Be'lakor]] was bored since Malakh is also called ''The Dark One'') to the already chaotic populace. After all the Yaghur nobles were killed, the prince sealed the mountain entrance to the meteor and led many of his followers northwards to the '''Plain of Bones'''. Unsurprisingly, Malakh turned out to be just as bad, and split the society into two groups: The original Yaghur who decided to remain at the old location by the mountain, and the '''The Forsaken'''; Malakh's followers who occupied the mountain fortresses to the north.

The Forsaken warriors were similar to the Warriors of Chaos: wearing heavy armor while wielding assorted axe weapons, and had superior physiques to the Yaghur warriors. Not to mention having access to magic thanks to the three Sorcerers leading their army.

The Yaghur meanwhile degenerated into a primitive tribe of barbarians with deformed appearances (due to consuming anything coming out of their nearby warpstone contaminated lake: The Sour Sea). Having already been torn apart by their civil wars, they lost much of their technology and thus no longer had the capabilities to forge wargear that was worth a damn (only their chieftains were better armed than their low tier warriors, yet their equipment was just salvaged old gear from glory day's past). They still had the power to control Warpstone, and those who could are the '''High Priests'''. These priests rested at the top of their society, being the only group of humans that were not [[Chaos Spawn|mutated to hell]] due to their excellent control of the stones, which they used to perform funerals and other spiritual voodoo mumbo jumbo to fool the populace, so long as they got to live comfortably like the greedy fucks they are. Their warriors and common folk were so stupid that Nagash of all people looked down on them as not even worthy to be enslaved by Nehekhara, and yet Nagash was also surprised they survived against the Forsaken for so long.

=== The Coming of Nagash ===
After Nagash's first defeat and exile, he discovered just how useful Warpstone was for him. This made him want more of it, which led him to where the Yaghur lived. Like an Isekai MC, Nagash infiltrated the tribe, probing for their strengths and weaknesses. When the time was right, Nagash dug out the mountain's Warpstone and used its power to conquer the tribe with his Undead and magic. Somewhere along the line, Nagash befriended a young acolyte named '''Hathurk''', who mistook Nagash for the same mountain god their people had worshiped long ago. With Hathurk's help, Nagash went to where the village chieftains were, intimidating them into submission by [[edgy|sitting on top of a palanquin littered with the corpses of their high priests]]. Nagash ensured their loyalty by promising them the secret of the Forsaken's alleged [[Chaos|prowess]].

The actual "secret" was their forgotten technology and lost knowledge that the Forsaken retained, but Nagash knew the Yaghur were too stupid and incompetent to distinguish that bone daddy just straight up told them to eat each other, and the Yaghur were stupid enough to follow along.

The war with the Forsaken took a long and tedious 247 years to end. Mainly because Nagash was preoccupied with the construction of Nagashizzar during that time instead of actually leading the war effort. An uncountable amount of undead workers were used in the construction of the fortress, with their numbers no doubt being supplied by the war-dead. The completed fortress itself was so terrifying that it made even the battle-hardened Forsaken flee screaming in terror.

The Yaghur during this time had been practicing cannibalism under Nagash's guidance, with the result that they were slowly devolved into '''[[Ghouls]]''', pale creatures who feasted on human flesh. The village they used to live in completely devolved into messy nests and crypts suitable for such beasts.

=== Skaven Invasion ===
One of Nagash's traitorous lieutenants: formerly a sorcerer of the Forsaken named '''Akatha''', called the Skaven to the damned place with the promise of the mother-lode of Warpstone that was the meteor. Although the fortress was supernaturally tough and ensorcelled with Death Magic, the mountain it was built on was not, and the Skaven were able to invade the fortress using underground tunnels. Nagash's Undead and Ghoul army proved to be too entrenched for the Skaven however, and the war; known by the Skaven as the '''''War of Cripple Peak''''', dragged on for over ''a hundred fucking years''. Nagash eventually managed to force a stalemate by killing his traitorous servant Akatha and beating the Skaven back to their invading tunnels, but was unable to push them out of the mountain entirely. Both sides were depleted at this point. Nagash having depleted a great deal of the Warpstone and the entirety of the living populace of the enthralled Yaghur and Forsaken, whereas the Council of Thirteen had spent too much ratpower and Warpstone of their own on the conflict. In desperation, both sides called a truce and began an uneasy partnership of bargaining and trading to hold off the next war as long as possible.

=== Invasion of Nehekhara ===
Having nursed himself back to full strength, Nagash was preparing to take back his throne in Nehekhara. Since he needed acting commanders in his invasion, he resurrected [[Arkhan the Black]], along with a nerdy vampire called [[W'soran]] and his vampire groupie, who came crawling back from their defeat in Lahmia and pledged their servitude to Nagash.

Unfortunately, the invasion was a massive failure thanks to the massive Giga-Chad that was [[Alcadizzar]], whose prowess and sheer [[Humanity Fuck Yeah|HFY'ness]] made Nagash tantrum for 7 days and 7 nights, trembling the damn place with quakes and green light. Nagash had had enough and decided to throw a genocidal hissy-fit and cheat by contaminating the Great Vitae River; not!Egypt's equivalent of the Nile; turning the entirely of the fucking sub-continent into a wasteland. Only years later, after practically everyone Chad enough was dead from the tainted water, did he send his army to occupy the rest of Nehekhara and capture their current king: [[Alcadizzar]].

=== Nagash's first death & the rise of the Tomb Kings ===
Nagash used the king as some kind of magic conduit in order to enslave the souls of every Nehekharan, which laid the groundwork for the rise of the [[Tomb Kings]] later. Nagash was not done with his uber-dickery however, Nehekhara was not enough, and he desired rulership over the rest of the world. To this end, he started a grand ritual to raise the entirety of the world's dead and use the resulting massive as fuck army to conquer the world. Such a massive magical undertaking however did not go unnoticed.

After receiving visions of doom at the hand of Nagash, the Skaven Council of Thirteen decided to be less incompetent for a moment and put a stop to the huge dick that was Nagash. After forging the [[Fellblade]] and learning of a prophecy of who Nagash would die to, they smuggled the Warpstone blade into the dungeons of Nagashizzar and gave it to Alcadizzar. With the blade and the encouragement of a vengeful spirit named Neferem, Alcadizzar went to take down Nagash. With Nagash's death, the ancient kings that were awoken by the first ritual became the [[Tomb Kings]] and Alcadizzar wandered out of Nagshizzar with Nagash's head and crown, never to be seen alive again. The Skaven immediately rose up, took the fortress and its Warpstone mines as their own, and chased out Nagash's remaining followers like W'soran.

It would be for over a thousand years before Nagash retook his fortress and plopped his ass down on his bone throne like some kind of [[Orcus]] rip-off.

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]]

Imotekh the Stormlord

2022-08-25T11:01:20Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* Campaigns */

{{Topquote|Order. Unity. Obedience. We taught the galaxy these things long ago, and we will do so again.|[[Imotekh the Stormlord]]}}
{{Topquote|I am 4 Parallel Universes ahead of you.|Speedrunner Mario}}
[[File:Stormlord.jpg|200px|right|thumb|In all his ego-maniacal glory]]
[[File:Imotekh Goes Forth.jpg|200px|left|thumb|"Look at all my Monoliths! I've got so many fucking Monoliths, it's great!"]]
'''Imotekh the Stormlord''' is the [[Phaeron|Phaeron]] of the [[Sautekh Dynasty]] and has fluctuated between being the obligatory "costs more than a [[Land Raider]]" character for the [[Necron]]s and having an actually sensible point price. [[Fluff]]wise, Imotekh was the greatest general of the Sautekh Dynasty pre-biotransference, and is today a commander rivaled only by [[Creed]]. His plans are, in fact, so clever and hyperlogical (this is the actual word [[Matt Ward]] uses) that the enemy must [[Ork|abandon all logic]] to fight him.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jrg9KxGNeJY| To be played on repeat whenever Imotekh is on the field.]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpqct1zMqTE| To be played on repeat whenever Imotekh is fighting leman russ.]

==Storm-Lore==
===Imotekh Does Not Serve===
Imotekh's rise to power began in M41 when the Sautekh Dynasty's phaeron was found to have perished in the Great Sleep, so the resident Necron Lords and Overlords decided they'd turn the Sautekh crownworld Mandragora into Game of Thrones in SPAAAAACE trying to pick a new one. This infighting went for some time until Imotekh was raised by one of the nobles hoping to use him to win the war. After hearing about what was going on Imotekh killed the noble who rez'd him, raised his own army and proceeded to bitch and dick slap the rest of the nobility back into line and crowned himself regent. Since then, he has devoted all his time and effort into GETTING. SHIT. DONE.

[[Settra the Imperishable|If this sounds familiar to you, good, you're paying attention.]]

===Campaigns===
As phaeron, Imotekh commands the full might and resources of over 100 tomb worlds, plus the extra 500 or so slave planets forced to offer up tribute for their Necron masters. Turns out he scares the fuck out of the [[Eldar]], since he's apparently completed their checklist for the Prophecy of Doom Arising out of the Book of Mournful Night (the big book of prophecies that was warning the Eldar since forever that they'd better do something or the Necrons would come back and murder '''everything'''). Unfortunately though, after literally millions of years of procrastination and just general [[Dick|dickery]], the Eldar have made an awful lot of enemies, but they never quite got around to eliminating them. Consequently, their enemies list has really only grown longer, so now the Eldar have a [[Orks|whole lot]] [[Tyranids|more]] [[Imperium|than just Necrons]] [[Slaanesh|to]] [[Chaos|worry]] [[C'tan|about]]. That being said however, the Eldar know better than anyone else living the unparalleled threat the Necrons pose, and that a fully-awakened Necron Empire would curbstomp literally every other faction. Whatever that means concerning the Stormlord's future is unknown, because the Eldar, as usual, haven't shared this critical information with anyone besides their Seer Council circlejerk.

A particularly popular battle in Imotekh's campaigns was when he led a small and greatly outmatched force of Necrons defending an awakening tomb world from the panicking Eldar trying to stop whatever important, critical event that other people should really know about from happening involving Imotekh. He instantly turned the tables on them and killed every last one, except for their leader, [[Eldorath Starbane]] (basically an Eldar version of [[M'kar]]), who he let go crying back to his craftworld after he took his hand. Thus was the first recorded instance of Imotekh's hand collection. While it's been said Imotekh will take whatever limb he feels like chopping off (he'd probably cut a leg off a White Scars Space Marine, if anything), he has a particular affinity for hands, probably because he needs to show off how superior his giant fireball hand is. This is just another reason [[Trazyn the Infinite|Trazyn the Infinite]] is banned from Mandragora, the first being Trazyn's past attempt to loot Imotekh's pimp cane/staff.
Because Mr. Collector is often forced to use counts-as models and proxies in his dioramas, having at least a hand would add a bit more authenticity to the display. Imotekh has denied him this, but that doesn't stop Trazyn from showing up whenever he wants.

Imotekh has also conquered a number of Imperial worlds. During one of these invasions, whilst fighting against the [[Black Templars|Black Templars]], he met Marshall [[Helbrecht]], whom he beat up, Disarmed, told off, and threw from a building. Unfortunately for Imotekh, he learned that Black Templars tend not to be the most forgiving types and Helbrecht proceeded to wreck Imotekh's flagship in response. Helbrecht is now ''High'' Marshall, and thus has command over the entire second most fuck-ass mad Space Marine Chapter in existence to hunt down the Stormlord ([[Angry Marines|first place goes to you-know-who]]). Helbrecht also got a badass cybernetic replacement hand, which makes losing the original not all that bad.

===Personality===
Imotekh's aforementioned fight with Helbrecht brings us to the first of Imotekh's two big flaws: pride. While he could easily obliterate an enemy without ever having to put a metal foot on the field, Imotekh has decided that he needs to beat them in close combat for no other reason than to prove how superior he is. This wouldn't be so bad if he actually killed them. Rather he humiliates them (usually by taking their hand) as a lesson and lets them survive so that they can come back as a challenge. While this seems like it would lead to death by Thunder Hammers to the face, he has a Phase Shifter, and can potentially self-repair after a hit from a Demolisher cannon due to being a Necron (in fact, that's kinda how he beat Helbrecht; he just took all the hits and repaired himself until Helbrecht got tired). It should be noted that Matt Ward has stated that Imotekh isn't a close combat killing machine, but he sure as hell ''thinks'' he is. This is backed by the fact his staff works better as a gun than a melee weapon and has phantom pain from a busted knee which happened when he was still flesh and blood (since his new knee works fine and, like the rest of him, can go incorporeal and self-repair after being hit by an anti-tank weapon).

Imotekh's other big flaw is that his impossibly brilliant plans can all be foiled by a single Ork. While he tries to account for everything, Orks [[What|are too random and illogical to plan ahead for and always ruin his plans.]] To this end he desires to see every single Ork in the galaxy vaporized. Exactly why he can't account for Orks is a little unclear; nobody else in the galaxy seems to have much problem with figuring them out: they want to smash stuff up. Then again, it’s actually possible that the [[Old Ones]] designed them specifically with Imotekh in mind, since he was presumably leading the Necrontyr/Necron forces against them in the [[War in Heaven]]. Thankfully [[Nemesor Zahndrekh|Imotekh's replacement]] Nemesor has no such problems, and happily mops up greenskins that piss his Regent off, in no small part because he's not much saner himself.

===The Spookening===
[[File:901F5A1F-35FF-446D-B552-70E59DC3DEB7.jpeg|thumb|This guy is too mean to mess with!]]

Recently Imotekh realized that fear is just as potent a weapon as his troops' disintegration beams. To this end he will let terrorized enemy troops escape capture, letting them run back to their buddies and spread panic and fear, while also infecting them with bloodswarm nanoscarabs so that any Flayed Ones nearby can hone in on a finely seasoned meal, pop out of the ground, and rip them to pieces. As if that wasn't scary enough, this mofo carries around his own personal Lightning Storm into battle. Yup. Through some powerful Necron technology or sheer badassery, Imotekh can summon a dramatic lightning storm in battle. Now, as if fighting genocidal, self-repairing robots with lasers while your buddies are rambling about how scary they are while more and more are coming to [[Necron Warrior|vaporize you]], [[Lychguard|recreate Fruit Ninja]], or [[Flayed Ones|make you the unfortunate object of an episode of "Will It Blend?"]] wasn't bad enough, you also have to worry about getting struck by fucking lightning.

===Imotekh and The Silent King===

According to the 9th edition Necron codex Imotekh ain’t too happy about the return of ‘ol Szarekh. Imotekh, with good reason, sees himself as ‘the great uniter of the Necron people’ and so having his thunder (get it) stolen is mildly aggravating for the guy. Throw in the fact that the thunder-stealer is someone he rightly blames for screwing things up and then leaving the Necrons with a fractured empire, one might say that Imotekh is peeved, irritated and maybe even slightly ticked-off. How this bodes for the future of the Necron story is unknown; after all, Imotekh is not a stranger to rising up against his superiors for what he believes to be the right thing.

== On the Tabletop ==

[[File:Imotekh Model.jpg|300px|thumb|right|The boss takes to the field.]]

{| class=wikitable
! || pts || M || WS || BS || S || T || W || A || Ld || Sv
|-
| '''Imotekh the Stormlord''' || 145 || 6" || 2+ || 2+ || 5 || 5 || 6 || 4 || 10 || 2+
|}

Like last edition, Imotekh is more focused around making the most of his special rules instead of singlehandedly massacring hordes of enemies. With a point drop all the way down from the 200 he started with in 8th edition to 145, the true challenge in working Imotekh into an army nowadays is that [[Fail|he's still made of]] [[Finecast|fucking finecast]]. Aside from that, he's practically a must-have for Sautekh Necron lists.

His equipment is a bit better than your standard Overlord, trading the option to take a Resurrection Orb to being ''the only'' Necron with a [[Gauntlet of Fire|Flamer that can cast Dnd Fireballs that automatically hit,]] and getting what's basically an upgraded [[Staff of Light]] with some more range and -AP called appropriately enough, the [[Staff of the Destroyer]].

Now onto the ''real'' good stuff. First, having Imotekh as your Warlord in a Battle-Forged Army activates his Grand Strategist ability, giving you two extra command points (and you'd better know Imotekh likes his command points). Thanks to the Sautekh Warlord trait Hyperlogical Strategist, every time you spend a Command Point, Imotekh has a chance of performing a Jimmy Neutron brain blast, getting it back on a 5+ roll. Because of this, Imotekh can potentially take even just one or two command points in smaller lists and turn them into three, four, or more with some good rolls. In larger games, give him a Battalion or Brigade and [[Rape|watch him go.]]

Another plus Imotekh has over a standard Overlord is the ability Phaeron of the Sautekh Dynasty, letting him cast not one, but two My Will Be Done abilities in a single turn (meaning you can cast it on two core Infantry units.) When charging into battle alongside his Warriors or Immortals, Imotekh also has some abilities to tank that extra damage he'll inevitably receive, getting a 4+ invulnerable save and the normal 1 wound regeneration from Living Metal. Unfortunately, in 9th edition, Imotekh no longer receives 1D3 wound regeneration and loses his Bloodswarm Scarabs ability.

Of course, Imotekh is called the Stormlord for a reason. Once per battle, during the shooting phase, he can invoke the spirit of Emperor Palpatine (the fleet destroying Legends version, of course) upon some poor enemy (non-character) unit within 48". On a 4+ D6 roll, [[Rape|that unit suffers 3 Mortal Wounds. As if that weren't bad enough for the enemy, you then roll a D6 for every other unit within 6" of the first target, and getting a 4+ for any of them causes the unit rolled for to take 1D3 mortal wounds.]] Of course, you could always roll less than 4 and have this awesome ability just [[Fail|decide to not work.]]

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]

[[Category: Xenos]]

[[Category: Necrons]]

{{Necrons-Characters}}

Sanctuary 101

2022-08-25T10:59:19Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199:

[[File:Sanctuary101Art.png|right|thumb|A nun about to get massacred by a cron.]]

'''Sanctuary 101''' was a [[Sisters of Battle]] Fortress-Convent in the Vidar Sector on the Eastern Fringes, and the location of the first battle between the [[Imperium of Man|Imperium]] and the [[Necrons]] to be known to the public at large. Unknown to the sisters, the planet their convent was in, which was also called Sanctuary 101, was a dormant Necron [[Tomb World]], which, at the time, the Imperium didn't know was a thing (minus the higher-ups). The sisters were caught with their panties down when the Necrons woke up in 897.M41. The Sisters battled the Necrons, but were inevitably defeated and slain to a woman, and the battle came to be known as the "'''Massacre at Sanctuary 101'''". However, (SPOILER ALERT) if you count [[James Swallow]]'s books as [[Canon|canon]], and there's nothing that says it isn't, there was a single survivor hiding in the desert (END SPOILERS). Video picts from the battle only showed the sisters being slain by shadowed figures. While those who reviewed the footage couldn't make out the attackers, the recordings, and the battle itself, were the Imperium-at-large's first solid evidence of the Necrons' existence; a foe pretty much without any equal, but fortunately curtailed by their lack of functioning alarm clocks.

Sanctuary 101 was based off a battle report debuting the Necrons when they were first released. The Necrons literally killed them all, to the last model. This battle is the first instance of the Sisters of Battle being killed en masse, and arguably the start of the trend. The battle actually ended with a single Sister still alive, but she was alone and the Necron army was within charge range. However, unlike every other instance, it was not intended by the writers - just the natural consequence of poorly balanced tabletop rules (Debatable - the Sisters had literally half the points allowance of the Necrons, and <s>technically won</s> still lost on victory conditions (as they didn't manage to activate the distress beacon), but it's the slaughter that was immortalised). The report took place back in the days of [[your dudes]], when the outcome of battles could actually have a dynamic affect on some portions of the [[Fluff|fluff]]. Having all the sisters wiped out was simply a consequence of losing to the original Necrons, who were homicidal killing machines, rather than the [[Tomb Kings]] IN SPACE! that they're better known as now.

The novel ''Hammer & Anvil'', a.k.a. Round 2, did explain much about the battle (except it got several pretty key facts wrong; where was Sister Purity for one?), including the fact the Sisters were never the Necrons' real target; it was really just two [[Necron Dynasty|dynasties]] fighting each other, and the Sisters got caught in the cross fire. Even though that would mean the Necrons had no reason to attack the Sisters or their Convent in the first place so clearly they are just lying to make the Sisters feel better about themselves. Then Sister Miriya blew up the nearby [[Star Wars|Necron Tomb Moon]] with a handful of Krak grenades to the power core, destabilising it enough to rip the entire place apart and destroy the Dolmen Gate that lay within the Obsidian Moon. Yes, blowing up a ''moon'' with ''hand grenades'', which is either the stupidest or most awesome thing the Sisters have ever done.

==Trivia==
*The [[High Lords of Terra|High Lords]], [[Alienhunters]], and AdMech had already known about the existence of Necrons for decades; it's just that every other encounter was possible to cover up due to a lack of solid evidence.

{{40k-Timeline}}
{{40k-Planets}}

[[Category:Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category:Sisters of Battle]]
[[Category:Necrons]]

Sisters of Silence

2022-08-18T10:13:48Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* History */

[[image:Sisters of Silence art.jpg|right|250px|thumb|They're as bitchin' as they look.]]
{{Topquote|That's their function... Aside from the fact that they fight like bastards. Got the pariah gene in 'em.|[[Leman Russ]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Space Wolves]], on the Sisters of Silence}}

The '''Sisters of Silence''' are an elite all-female order created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] to man the [[Black Ships]] and round up a planet's renegade [[psyker]]s. They, the [[Adeptus Custodes]], and the Psi-Titans of Ordo Sinister together form the '''Talons of the Emperor'''.

==History==
[[image:Sisters of silence.jpeg|right|250px|thumb|The Sisters of Silence. NOT ELDAR! It's like reverse eldar, anti psykers that have the near same outfits...]]
Near the onset of the [[Great Crusade]], the Emperor formed them as a counter-measure against untrained psykers, whose numbers had increased at the start of the [[Age of Strife]]. To do this, the Emperor ensured that they were all [[Blank|pariah]]s, human beings with no presence in the [[Warp]]. As such, a psyker's abilities would have no effect on them, being cancelled out when they got close enough to the Sisters. In one of his stranger decisions, the Emperor explicitly had the Sisters take literal vows of silence upon becoming full Sisters. They could communicate via several sign languages (including [[Space Marines|Astartes]] battle-sign) but would not speak a word upon completion of their training. To ensure communication between other branches of the [[Imperium of Man]], Sisters-in-training would serve as communicators.

Given recent revelations about the nature of the Emperor, this [[skub|may or may not]] have been to stop them blabbing [[Neckbeard|what they saw]] under his glamours. It's revealed that what a Sister sees when she looks at a warp entity is not the same as what a regular being will see; Tannau Aleya describes Bloodthirsters for example as being disgusting, contemptible creatures but that's it, rather than as the spooky monsters the masses see. Speaking of [[daemon]]s, recent fluff from the ''Horus Heresy''/''Siege Of Terra'' novels, as well as in the more current era ''Dark Imperium'' entries have really expanded on just how much the neverborn fear these ladies. Even the likes of Drach'nyen and Ku'Gath (among others), excessively powerful [[Greater Daemon|greater daemon]]s both, have outright stated that to be struck down by one of the Sisters will result not in merely getting banished back to the warp, but in a ''true death'', and for beings whose entire (for lack of a better term) identity and world view are built upon their own infinite existence, the notion of being snuffed out is exponentially more terrifying.

The Sisters of Silence are also consummate warriors. Actually, that's something of an understatement; don't make the mistake of assuming that they are comparable to the [[Sisters of Battle]], who for their part occupy a space somewhere between Guardsman and Astartes. They are not. It's not hyperbole to say that even the most elite of the Sisters of Battle are completely eclipsed by just an "average" Null Maiden. The Sisters of Silence operate alongside The Custodes, and what's more, are able to ''keep up with them'', which probably says more about their prowess than anything else could. The Silent Sisterhood are trained to at least the same levels as the old Space Marine Legions and are more than capable of taking down enemy Astartes on their own. Most likely, Astartes' blatantly physically impossible capabilities even without power armor comes from Warp shenanigans which would mean, given their own power armor and most likely extensive genetic modifications, the Sisters of Silence being able to match them would be reasonable. Recent fluff even depicted a SoS contingent engaging a larger contingent of goddamned [[Primaris Marine|Primaris]] [[Minotaurs]] and '''[[Awesome|WINNING]]'''; though to be fair, in all honesty, the Sisters would likely have suffered severe casualties had the Custodes not then intervened on their side, bringing the engagement to an immediate and definitive conclusion.

Using similar wargear to the Space Marines, such as [[bolter]]s and [[power weapon]]s, they are typically clad in SoB-like power armour, but made of golden Auramite (basically the 40k equivalent of Beskar) called [[Vratine Armour]], a distinction which they share with only The Custodes; theirs typically lacks an armored helmet or other head protection aside from the bevor that hides their mouths, which leads to a lot of deaths from headshots during the burning of [[Prospero]]. As a military force, they are formidable; during the Burning of Prospero, they were deployed to augment the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]]. While this was more because the pariah gene would neutralize the [[Thousand Sons]]' psyker abilities, they were more than capable of fighting against the Astartes. They would also in turn augment the Custodes, the [[Imperial Fists]], the [[Blood Angels]], and the [[White Scars]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], where the pariah gene became a boon fighting the [[Daemon]]s unleashed by the traitors.

===After the Horus Heresy===
For the longest time, the fate of the Sisters of Silence following the [[Horus Heresy]] had been an object of much speculation in the fandom. It is only recently that what they've been doing has been brought to light, and while some of the theories have been surprisingly spot-on (namely, that many Sisters were absorbed into the Inquisition to man the Black Ships), others... didn't quite hit the mark. Thanks to their own mini-codex, as well as the [[War of the Beast]] series, ''Watchers of the Throne'', and most recently the ''Dark Imperium'' series, a somewhat clearer picture of ''what'' happened to the Sisters can be reconstructed.

It turns out that the Sisters were never "officially" disbanded by the [[Administratum]]. However, in the wake of the Emperor's interment within the Golden Throne, the surviving Sisters suddenly found themselves without direct support from the Imperial Bureaucracy. This made a lot of the surviving Sisters bitter obviously, but a number of others just shrugged, and decided to continue with their Emperor-given mandate anyway... just with less resources than they're used to.

As previously mentioned, some Sisters were absorbed into the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]] to crew its [[Black Ships]], or served as retinues to important [[Inquisitor]] Lords. Many others, however dispersed, back into the general populace, settling down to have normal lives, and in doing so passed down the Pariah gene down to their descendants. Lastly, some quietly found secret Convents in out-of-way worlds, far from view of the average Imperial citizen. It is one of these Convents that [[Slaughter Koorland]] approached and convinced to aid the Imperium in the [[War of the Beast]].

By M32, the Sisters of Silence refused to recognize the Imperium in its political form, seeing it as a corrupted simulacrum of what the Emperor actually intended, but they still acknowledge the Emperor as the focus of their loyalty. Thus, when their services are required again, they accept the calling and return to Terra, where they are granted an audience with the Emperor in his sanctum, a privilege that not even the High Lords are afforded. [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Just how exactly that would've worked is a mystery, given how the Emperor can presumably only communicate psychically at this point, which probably wouldn't work at all on a group of nulls.]] Of course, blanks/nulls/whatever have been overpowered by strong psykers before, so it wouldn’t take the Emperor any real effort. Or he sent Astropaths to deliver messages via secretaries or something.

Although that particular Convent was wiped out slaying the Beast, many more survived through the millennia, and by the end of the 41st Millennium, the number of Sisters had swelled into the tens of thousands. And it was just as well too, as the Imperium would need their aid really REALLY soon.

===Returning to the Fray: The Rise of the Primarch===
[[image:Sister-of-silence.jpg|right|250px|thumb|You, Psyker. Yeah You. Fuck You.]]

Shortly after the reappearance of [[Magnus the Red]] during the [[Fenris]] campaign, the High Lords of Terra issued a writ that would summon the Sisterhood back to Terra, where they would be used once again. It transpired that [[Trajann Valoris]], Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] had pre-empted this decree and had quietly been collecting disparate Sisters to Terra in advance, knowing that the time may come when they were needed again; the knee-jerk response of the High Lords of Terra simply rendered it legal.

Some of the exiled Sisters resented this greatly, having been ignored for millennia. In the novel ''Watchers of the Throne'', one particular sister, the previously mentioned Tannau Aleya, spends most of the book (quietly) raging about how her convent was left without support for so long, especially how the Custodes seemed to be "pampered" by comparison, despite being stuck on Terra for nearly ten millennia. Aleya also "talks" a fair bit about the mentality of the Silent Sisters, stating that the Sisters ironically crave human fellowship, as it temporarily fills the void they feel inside due to their nature as blanks. This also leads to extremely <strike>Lesbian</strike> close bonds between the Sisters described as a fierce almost desperate love, due to sharing such a unique bond and having been reviled and hated by most of the people they'd ever come across.

The sisters also seem to grow close to the Custodes they fought with during the Great Crusade, to the extent Custodes could tell what a sister was trying to convey without her even having to sign it to him, something that later made one sister immediately realize Drach'nyen was impersonating a Custodes. If Valerian and Aleya are any indication this bond between Custodes and Sisters is likely to reemerge in the 41st millennium. They also never entirely get used to the reaction they cause in others, with every twitch and every appalled expression twisting the knife every time they see that reaction.

Overall they come across as rather tragic, as they spend their lives protecting a species that can't even stand to be in the same room as them, and hates them without even being able to articulate why.

The Sisters' first "official" action was to deploy with the Custodes on Luna to save a recently resurrected Lord Guilliman from being used by Magnus to mop the floor, and they later helped fight back against a [[Khorne]] daemon invasion of Terra directly. When Guilliman returned from his audience with the Emperor, he dissolved the standing order that restricted the Custodians to Terra, and he ordered the Sisterhood to coordinate with them and join the front lines.

Still, no matter how hurt or angry they are, they still answered the call to defend humanity from Chaos again.

==Emperor Worship==

By the 41st Millennium it turns out that some Sisters had converted to the worship of the Emperor, even describing the Emperor as "holy" right in front of Lord Commander [[Roboute Guilliman]], while considering the Primarch to be his divine messenger and demigod son. Though this is not entirely new information, as even during the Horus Heresy, there were some Sisters who had already started to consider the Emperor as a god, and were willing to break their vows of tranquility. Some had even "read the book" ''(the Lectitio Divinitatus)'' according to [[Knights-Errant|Kyril Sinderman]], and allowed the faithful to escape custody from the Somnus Citadel on Luna so that they could continue to spread the word.

Since most of ''Dark Imperium'' was about Guilliman trying to come to terms with what humanity had become since the Heresy, it was all Guilliman could do to not [[Blam|eat his own bolter]] then and there. However, giving the appearance of converting to the faith is the easiest way to integrate themselves with the Imperium without getting grief from the other branches. This is definitely true for at least one convent; Aleya's was said to have had "sham" shrines and it's implied that those Sisters feigned their faith to avoid being persecuted as heretics. There is also a difference between those sisters that manned the [[Black Ships]] versus those that were outside of the Imperium's control, with those that were aboard the black ships having closer ties and a lot more loyalty towards the [[High Lords of Terra|Imperium's leadership]], to the extent that Aleya didn't trust them to do what was needed without waiting for permission. It's possible the Emperor-worshiping Sisters are those that were recruited and controlled by the Imperium for the black ships, while those outside of Imperial control and influence managed to keep their old ways.

==Notable Sisters==
* '''Jenetia Krole:''' AKA the "Soulless Queen of the Imperium" was the Knight Commander of the Sisters of silence and the single most terrifying woman in the entire human race. No, Really. (NOT confirmed to be a redhead.) She could be placed in a staring contest with an entire Convent of [[Sisters of Battle]], [[Inquisitor Greyfax]], A warband of [[Night Lords]], a cat and a FUCKING Dark Eldar [[Haemonculus]] and she would stare them all down until they ran away with their tails between their legs. Her Pariah aura was so strong and distracting she caused members of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] to avert their eyes because it pained them to look at Her. To most beings, her anti-soul aura was so strong that they simply couldn't see her. When Big E needed the [[Thousand Sons]] "disciplined" she challenged the legions most powerful sorcerers to duels and Killed them, and then she Killed a Daemon just for good measure. She then fought in the Webway and survived the retreat to the Imperial Palace losing 3 fingers on the way, not really seeming to care about her lost digits. She used a Zwei-hander sword dubbed "Veracity" that was used by [[The Emperor]] during the unification wars, so yeah, that's cool too. She finally dies while fighting [[Khârn]] during the Siege of Terra, right after she took out a fuckton of named World Eaters.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - A former Sister of Silence turned ''[[Knights-Errant|Agentia Tercius]]'' to Malcador. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow of silence to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that no-one other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.

* '''[[Tanau Aleya]]:''' One of the (previously mentioned) POV characters for ''Watchers of the Throne''. A Sister from the convent located on Araissa, she becomes its sole survivor when it is attacked by the [[Black Legion]] while she was away hunting down cultists on another world. Hot-headed and very opinionated, Aleya spends most of the book bitter at the Imperium for ignoring the Sisters for so long, and infuriated that [[Shield-Captain]] Valerian (the ''other'' POV character of the book) seems impossible to goad into anger, but takes her duties as a Sister very seriously, and was willing to lay down her life at even a chance to cave in some Black Legion heads. Started out using a heavy flamer to do her work, before turning it in for a greatsword once she got picked up by Navradaan on the way to Terra. She is also an absolute badass, winning a firefight that was 5-1 and taking on a Chaos Marine in close quarters alone and WINNING, then removing his helmet and spitting in his face for killing her sisters. The updated rules for the Talons of The Emperor make her not just in fluff but also in-game a battle couple with Valerian, another proof tsunderism and animu is slowly infecting 40k's updated setting.

==Mini-Codex and Moving Forward==

A common rumor is that they will be added into some upcoming [[Sisters of Battle]] relaunch. If so, that would be an interesting revision; on the one hand, the Sisters of Battle, despite being designated witch-hunters, are lacking in the anti-psyker department. On the other hand, the Sisters of Silence, much like the Space Marines, are big believers in the Great Crusade era of the Imperium, and likely won't mesh well with the [[Ecclesiarchy]]. On the other hand, Dark Imperium implies they fully converted to the Imperial Cult over time (which makes sense, seeking comfort in faith given their shitty existence and loss of the guy who uplifted them) so their ideology would likely mesh together well. So, in conclusion, the most probable thing that GW can do with the SoS is to say that the Adepta Sororitas in its current form can trace its origins to the M36 '''Daughters of the Emperor''' as well as offshoots of the original [[Sisters of Silence]] and find some way to reconcile them both.

As of 2018, any news on them has been slow and via the Horus Heresy Team at Forge World. They stated that there would at least be some 8th edition rules for Talons (which includes Grey Knights apparently) coming eventually while they're not working on all these other Horus Heresy, Titanicus, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl projects. So far nothing on Sisters but Custodians at least got a handful of new kit.

Why they weren't simply added to the Custodes codex, only GW knows.

As of 2020, during Nurgle's Pandemic, it's been all but confirmed by GW that Sisters of Silence and Custodes will be merged together in the second-to-last chapter of the Psychic Awakening, "War of the Spider", as the Talons of the Emperor. Coupled with the new Black Library models that feature a Shield Captain and SoS in a single unit with that as a faction keyword, there is a lot of evidence that supports this.

And even more recently, in November of 2021 it was confirmed that the new Custodes Codex set to accompany the new shadow throne boxset in 2022 would include rules for a [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/11/30/lead-a-full-sisters-of-silence-army-with-the-powerful-knight-centura/ new Sisters unit] the Knight-Centura and rules to finally field either a full Sisters of Silence army or a mixed Custodes/Sisters Talons of the Emperor army.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Talons_of_the_Emperor_(30k)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) Horus Heresy Tactics]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Talons of the Emperor (9E)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) 40k Tactics]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
SoS vs. TS Dred.jpg|Being in a Dreadnought does not make you safe from these chicks.
SoS vs. EC Noise Marines.jpg|Even ''these'' bastards are having a hard time dealing with them.
Sister_of_silence_by_n924.jpg|As scary as they are, they can still be the cutest sweethearts of the Emprah.
Jenetia Krole.jpg|Jenetia Krole, She's not staring into your soul, she's staring through it.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Sisters-of-Silence}}

{{Imperium}}

Sisters of Silence

2022-08-18T10:12:54Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* History */

[[image:Sisters of Silence art.jpg|right|250px|thumb|They're as bitchin' as they look.]]
{{Topquote|That's their function... Aside from the fact that they fight like bastards. Got the pariah gene in 'em.|[[Leman Russ]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Space Wolves]], on the Sisters of Silence}}

The '''Sisters of Silence''' are an elite all-female order created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] to man the [[Black Ships]] and round up a planet's renegade [[psyker]]s. They, the [[Adeptus Custodes]], and the Psi-Titans of Ordo Sinister together form the '''Talons of the Emperor'''.

==History==
[[image:Sisters of silence.jpeg|right|250px|thumb|The Sisters of Silence. NOT ELDAR! It's like reverse eldar, anti psykers that have the near same outfits...]]
Near the onset of the [[Great Crusade]], the Emperor formed them as a counter-measure against untrained psykers, whose numbers had increased at the start of the [[Age of Strife]]. To do this, the Emperor ensured that they were all [[Blank|pariah]]s, human beings with no presence in the [[Warp]]. As such, a psyker's abilities would have no effect on them, being cancelled out when they got close enough to the Sisters. In one of his stranger decisions, the Emperor explicitly had the Sisters take literal vows of silence upon becoming full Sisters. They could communicate via several sign languages (including [[Space Marines|Astartes]] battle-sign) but would not speak a word upon completion of their training. To ensure communication between other branches of the [[Imperium of Man]], Sisters-in-training would serve as communicators.

Given recent revelations about the nature of the Emperor, this [[skub|may or may not]] have been to stop them blabbing [[Neckbeard|what they saw]] under his glamours. It's revealed that what a Sister sees when she looks at a warp entity is not the same as what a regular being will see; Tannau Aleya describes Bloodthirsters for example as being disgusting, contemptible creatures but that's it, rather than as the spooky monsters the masses see. Speaking of [[daemon]]s, recent fluff from the ''Horus Heresy''/''Siege Of Terra'' novels, as well as in the more current era ''Dark Imperium'' entries have really expanded on just how much the neverborn fear these ladies. Even the likes of Drach'nyen and Ku'Gath (among others), excessively powerful [[Greater Daemon]]s both, have outright stated that to be struck down by one of the Sisters will result not in merely getting banished back to the warp, but in a ''true death'', and for beings whose entire (for lack of a better term) identity and world view are built upon their own infinite existence, the notion of being snuffed out is exponentially more terrifying.

The Sisters of Silence are also consummate warriors. Actually, that's something of an understatement; don't make the mistake of assuming that they are comparable to the [[Sisters of Battle]], who for their part occupy a space somewhere between Guardsman and Astartes. They are not. It's not hyperbole to say that even the most elite of the Sisters of Battle are completely eclipsed by just an "average" Null Maiden. The Sisters of Silence operate alongside The Custodes, and what's more, are able to ''keep up with them'', which probably says more about their prowess than anything else could. The Silent Sisterhood are trained to at least the same levels as the old Space Marine Legions and are more than capable of taking down enemy Astartes on their own. Most likely, Astartes' blatantly physically impossible capabilities even without power armor comes from Warp shenanigans which would mean, given their own power armor and most likely extensive genetic modifications, the Sisters of Silence being able to match them would be reasonable. Recent fluff even depicted a SoS contingent engaging a larger contingent of goddamned [[Primaris Marine|Primaris]] [[Minotaurs]] and '''[[Awesome|WINNING]]'''; though to be fair, in all honesty, the Sisters would likely have suffered severe casualties had the Custodes not then intervened on their side, bringing the engagement to an immediate and definitive conclusion.

Using similar wargear to the Space Marines, such as [[bolter]]s and [[power weapon]]s, they are typically clad in SoB-like power armour, but made of golden Auramite (basically the 40k equivalent of Beskar) called [[Vratine Armour]], a distinction which they share with only The Custodes; theirs typically lacks an armored helmet or other head protection aside from the bevor that hides their mouths, which leads to a lot of deaths from headshots during the burning of [[Prospero]]. As a military force, they are formidable; during the Burning of Prospero, they were deployed to augment the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]]. While this was more because the pariah gene would neutralize the [[Thousand Sons]]' psyker abilities, they were more than capable of fighting against the Astartes. They would also in turn augment the Custodes, the [[Imperial Fists]], the [[Blood Angels]], and the [[White Scars]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], where the pariah gene became a boon fighting the [[Daemon]]s unleashed by the traitors.

===After the Horus Heresy===
For the longest time, the fate of the Sisters of Silence following the [[Horus Heresy]] had been an object of much speculation in the fandom. It is only recently that what they've been doing has been brought to light, and while some of the theories have been surprisingly spot-on (namely, that many Sisters were absorbed into the Inquisition to man the Black Ships), others... didn't quite hit the mark. Thanks to their own mini-codex, as well as the [[War of the Beast]] series, ''Watchers of the Throne'', and most recently the ''Dark Imperium'' series, a somewhat clearer picture of ''what'' happened to the Sisters can be reconstructed.

It turns out that the Sisters were never "officially" disbanded by the [[Administratum]]. However, in the wake of the Emperor's interment within the Golden Throne, the surviving Sisters suddenly found themselves without direct support from the Imperial Bureaucracy. This made a lot of the surviving Sisters bitter obviously, but a number of others just shrugged, and decided to continue with their Emperor-given mandate anyway... just with less resources than they're used to.

As previously mentioned, some Sisters were absorbed into the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]] to crew its [[Black Ships]], or served as retinues to important [[Inquisitor]] Lords. Many others, however dispersed, back into the general populace, settling down to have normal lives, and in doing so passed down the Pariah gene down to their descendants. Lastly, some quietly found secret Convents in out-of-way worlds, far from view of the average Imperial citizen. It is one of these Convents that [[Slaughter Koorland]] approached and convinced to aid the Imperium in the [[War of the Beast]].

By M32, the Sisters of Silence refused to recognize the Imperium in its political form, seeing it as a corrupted simulacrum of what the Emperor actually intended, but they still acknowledge the Emperor as the focus of their loyalty. Thus, when their services are required again, they accept the calling and return to Terra, where they are granted an audience with the Emperor in his sanctum, a privilege that not even the High Lords are afforded. [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Just how exactly that would've worked is a mystery, given how the Emperor can presumably only communicate psychically at this point, which probably wouldn't work at all on a group of nulls.]] Of course, blanks/nulls/whatever have been overpowered by strong psykers before, so it wouldn’t take the Emperor any real effort. Or he sent Astropaths to deliver messages via secretaries or something.

Although that particular Convent was wiped out slaying the Beast, many more survived through the millennia, and by the end of the 41st Millennium, the number of Sisters had swelled into the tens of thousands. And it was just as well too, as the Imperium would need their aid really REALLY soon.

===Returning to the Fray: The Rise of the Primarch===
[[image:Sister-of-silence.jpg|right|250px|thumb|You, Psyker. Yeah You. Fuck You.]]

Shortly after the reappearance of [[Magnus the Red]] during the [[Fenris]] campaign, the High Lords of Terra issued a writ that would summon the Sisterhood back to Terra, where they would be used once again. It transpired that [[Trajann Valoris]], Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] had pre-empted this decree and had quietly been collecting disparate Sisters to Terra in advance, knowing that the time may come when they were needed again; the knee-jerk response of the High Lords of Terra simply rendered it legal.

Some of the exiled Sisters resented this greatly, having been ignored for millennia. In the novel ''Watchers of the Throne'', one particular sister, the previously mentioned Tannau Aleya, spends most of the book (quietly) raging about how her convent was left without support for so long, especially how the Custodes seemed to be "pampered" by comparison, despite being stuck on Terra for nearly ten millennia. Aleya also "talks" a fair bit about the mentality of the Silent Sisters, stating that the Sisters ironically crave human fellowship, as it temporarily fills the void they feel inside due to their nature as blanks. This also leads to extremely <strike>Lesbian</strike> close bonds between the Sisters described as a fierce almost desperate love, due to sharing such a unique bond and having been reviled and hated by most of the people they'd ever come across.

The sisters also seem to grow close to the Custodes they fought with during the Great Crusade, to the extent Custodes could tell what a sister was trying to convey without her even having to sign it to him, something that later made one sister immediately realize Drach'nyen was impersonating a Custodes. If Valerian and Aleya are any indication this bond between Custodes and Sisters is likely to reemerge in the 41st millennium. They also never entirely get used to the reaction they cause in others, with every twitch and every appalled expression twisting the knife every time they see that reaction.

Overall they come across as rather tragic, as they spend their lives protecting a species that can't even stand to be in the same room as them, and hates them without even being able to articulate why.

The Sisters' first "official" action was to deploy with the Custodes on Luna to save a recently resurrected Lord Guilliman from being used by Magnus to mop the floor, and they later helped fight back against a [[Khorne]] daemon invasion of Terra directly. When Guilliman returned from his audience with the Emperor, he dissolved the standing order that restricted the Custodians to Terra, and he ordered the Sisterhood to coordinate with them and join the front lines.

Still, no matter how hurt or angry they are, they still answered the call to defend humanity from Chaos again.

==Emperor Worship==

By the 41st Millennium it turns out that some Sisters had converted to the worship of the Emperor, even describing the Emperor as "holy" right in front of Lord Commander [[Roboute Guilliman]], while considering the Primarch to be his divine messenger and demigod son. Though this is not entirely new information, as even during the Horus Heresy, there were some Sisters who had already started to consider the Emperor as a god, and were willing to break their vows of tranquility. Some had even "read the book" ''(the Lectitio Divinitatus)'' according to [[Knights-Errant|Kyril Sinderman]], and allowed the faithful to escape custody from the Somnus Citadel on Luna so that they could continue to spread the word.

Since most of ''Dark Imperium'' was about Guilliman trying to come to terms with what humanity had become since the Heresy, it was all Guilliman could do to not [[Blam|eat his own bolter]] then and there. However, giving the appearance of converting to the faith is the easiest way to integrate themselves with the Imperium without getting grief from the other branches. This is definitely true for at least one convent; Aleya's was said to have had "sham" shrines and it's implied that those Sisters feigned their faith to avoid being persecuted as heretics. There is also a difference between those sisters that manned the [[Black Ships]] versus those that were outside of the Imperium's control, with those that were aboard the black ships having closer ties and a lot more loyalty towards the [[High Lords of Terra|Imperium's leadership]], to the extent that Aleya didn't trust them to do what was needed without waiting for permission. It's possible the Emperor-worshiping Sisters are those that were recruited and controlled by the Imperium for the black ships, while those outside of Imperial control and influence managed to keep their old ways.

==Notable Sisters==
* '''Jenetia Krole:''' AKA the "Soulless Queen of the Imperium" was the Knight Commander of the Sisters of silence and the single most terrifying woman in the entire human race. No, Really. (NOT confirmed to be a redhead.) She could be placed in a staring contest with an entire Convent of [[Sisters of Battle]], [[Inquisitor Greyfax]], A warband of [[Night Lords]], a cat and a FUCKING Dark Eldar [[Haemonculus]] and she would stare them all down until they ran away with their tails between their legs. Her Pariah aura was so strong and distracting she caused members of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] to avert their eyes because it pained them to look at Her. To most beings, her anti-soul aura was so strong that they simply couldn't see her. When Big E needed the [[Thousand Sons]] "disciplined" she challenged the legions most powerful sorcerers to duels and Killed them, and then she Killed a Daemon just for good measure. She then fought in the Webway and survived the retreat to the Imperial Palace losing 3 fingers on the way, not really seeming to care about her lost digits. She used a Zwei-hander sword dubbed "Veracity" that was used by [[The Emperor]] during the unification wars, so yeah, that's cool too. She finally dies while fighting [[Khârn]] during the Siege of Terra, right after she took out a fuckton of named World Eaters.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - A former Sister of Silence turned ''[[Knights-Errant|Agentia Tercius]]'' to Malcador. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow of silence to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that no-one other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.

* '''[[Tanau Aleya]]:''' One of the (previously mentioned) POV characters for ''Watchers of the Throne''. A Sister from the convent located on Araissa, she becomes its sole survivor when it is attacked by the [[Black Legion]] while she was away hunting down cultists on another world. Hot-headed and very opinionated, Aleya spends most of the book bitter at the Imperium for ignoring the Sisters for so long, and infuriated that [[Shield-Captain]] Valerian (the ''other'' POV character of the book) seems impossible to goad into anger, but takes her duties as a Sister very seriously, and was willing to lay down her life at even a chance to cave in some Black Legion heads. Started out using a heavy flamer to do her work, before turning it in for a greatsword once she got picked up by Navradaan on the way to Terra. She is also an absolute badass, winning a firefight that was 5-1 and taking on a Chaos Marine in close quarters alone and WINNING, then removing his helmet and spitting in his face for killing her sisters. The updated rules for the Talons of The Emperor make her not just in fluff but also in-game a battle couple with Valerian, another proof tsunderism and animu is slowly infecting 40k's updated setting.

==Mini-Codex and Moving Forward==

A common rumor is that they will be added into some upcoming [[Sisters of Battle]] relaunch. If so, that would be an interesting revision; on the one hand, the Sisters of Battle, despite being designated witch-hunters, are lacking in the anti-psyker department. On the other hand, the Sisters of Silence, much like the Space Marines, are big believers in the Great Crusade era of the Imperium, and likely won't mesh well with the [[Ecclesiarchy]]. On the other hand, Dark Imperium implies they fully converted to the Imperial Cult over time (which makes sense, seeking comfort in faith given their shitty existence and loss of the guy who uplifted them) so their ideology would likely mesh together well. So, in conclusion, the most probable thing that GW can do with the SoS is to say that the Adepta Sororitas in its current form can trace its origins to the M36 '''Daughters of the Emperor''' as well as offshoots of the original [[Sisters of Silence]] and find some way to reconcile them both.

As of 2018, any news on them has been slow and via the Horus Heresy Team at Forge World. They stated that there would at least be some 8th edition rules for Talons (which includes Grey Knights apparently) coming eventually while they're not working on all these other Horus Heresy, Titanicus, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl projects. So far nothing on Sisters but Custodians at least got a handful of new kit.

Why they weren't simply added to the Custodes codex, only GW knows.

As of 2020, during Nurgle's Pandemic, it's been all but confirmed by GW that Sisters of Silence and Custodes will be merged together in the second-to-last chapter of the Psychic Awakening, "War of the Spider", as the Talons of the Emperor. Coupled with the new Black Library models that feature a Shield Captain and SoS in a single unit with that as a faction keyword, there is a lot of evidence that supports this.

And even more recently, in November of 2021 it was confirmed that the new Custodes Codex set to accompany the new shadow throne boxset in 2022 would include rules for a [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/11/30/lead-a-full-sisters-of-silence-army-with-the-powerful-knight-centura/ new Sisters unit] the Knight-Centura and rules to finally field either a full Sisters of Silence army or a mixed Custodes/Sisters Talons of the Emperor army.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Talons_of_the_Emperor_(30k)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) Horus Heresy Tactics]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Talons of the Emperor (9E)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) 40k Tactics]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
SoS vs. TS Dred.jpg|Being in a Dreadnought does not make you safe from these chicks.
SoS vs. EC Noise Marines.jpg|Even ''these'' bastards are having a hard time dealing with them.
Sister_of_silence_by_n924.jpg|As scary as they are, they can still be the cutest sweethearts of the Emprah.
Jenetia Krole.jpg|Jenetia Krole, She's not staring into your soul, she's staring through it.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Sisters-of-Silence}}

{{Imperium}}

Sisters of Silence

2022-08-18T10:12:15Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199: /* History */

[[image:Sisters of Silence art.jpg|right|250px|thumb|They're as bitchin' as they look.]]
{{Topquote|That's their function... Aside from the fact that they fight like bastards. Got the pariah gene in 'em.|[[Leman Russ]], [[Primarch]] of the [[Space Wolves]], on the Sisters of Silence}}

The '''Sisters of Silence''' are an elite all-female order created by the [[God-Emperor of Mankind|Emperor of Mankind]] to man the [[Black Ships]] and round up a planet's renegade [[psyker]]s. They, the [[Adeptus Custodes]], and the Psi-Titans of Ordo Sinister together form the '''Talons of the Emperor'''.

==History==
[[image:Sisters of silence.jpeg|right|250px|thumb|The Sisters of Silence. NOT ELDAR! It's like reverse eldar, anti psykers that have the near same outfits...]]
Near the onset of the [[Great Crusade]], the Emperor formed them as a counter-measure against untrained psykers, whose numbers had increased at the start of the [[Age of Strife]]. To do this, the Emperor ensured that they were all [[Blank|pariah]]s, human beings with no presence in the [[Warp]]. As such, a psyker's abilities would have no effect on them, being cancelled out when they got close enough to the Sisters. In one of his stranger decisions, the Emperor explicitly had the Sisters take literal vows of silence upon becoming full Sisters. They could communicate via several sign languages (including [[Space Marines|Astartes]] battle-sign) but would not speak a word upon completion of their training. To ensure communication between other branches of the [[Imperium of Man]], Sisters-in-training would serve as communicators.

Given recent revelations about the nature of the Emperor, this [[skub|may or may not]] have been to stop them blabbing [[Neckbeard|what they saw]] under his glamours. It's revealed that what a Sister sees when she looks at a warp entity is not the same as what a regular being will see; Tannau Aleya describes Bloodthirsters for example as being disgusting, contemptible creatures but that's it, rather than as the spooky monsters the masses see. Speaking of [[daemon]]s, recent fluff from the ''Horus Heresy''/''Siege Of Terra'' novels, as well as in the more current era ''Dark Imperium'' entries have really expanded on just how much the neverborn fear these ladies. Even the likes of Drach'nyen and Ku'Gath (among others), excessively powerful [[greater daemon]]s both, have outright stated that to be struck down by one of the Sisters will result not in merely getting banished back to the warp, but in a ''true death'', and for beings whose entire (for lack of a better term) identity and world view are built upon their own infinite existence, the notion of being snuffed out is exponentially more terrifying.

The Sisters of Silence are also consummate warriors. Actually, that's something of an understatement; don't make the mistake of assuming that they are comparable to the [[Sisters of Battle]], who for their part occupy a space somewhere between Guardsman and Astartes. They are not. It's not hyperbole to say that even the most elite of the Sisters of Battle are completely eclipsed by just an "average" Null Maiden. The Sisters of Silence operate alongside The Custodes, and what's more, are able to ''keep up with them'', which probably says more about their prowess than anything else could. The Silent Sisterhood are trained to at least the same levels as the old Space Marine Legions and are more than capable of taking down enemy Astartes on their own. Most likely, Astartes' blatantly physically impossible capabilities even without power armor comes from Warp shenanigans which would mean, given their own power armor and most likely extensive genetic modifications, the Sisters of Silence being able to match them would be reasonable. Recent fluff even depicted a SoS contingent engaging a larger contingent of goddamned [[Primaris Marine|Primaris]] [[Minotaurs]] and '''[[Awesome|WINNING]]'''; though to be fair, in all honesty, the Sisters would likely have suffered severe casualties had the Custodes not then intervened on their side, bringing the engagement to an immediate and definitive conclusion.

Using similar wargear to the Space Marines, such as [[bolter]]s and [[power weapon]]s, they are typically clad in SoB-like power armour, but made of golden Auramite (basically the 40k equivalent of Beskar) called [[Vratine Armour]], a distinction which they share with only The Custodes; theirs typically lacks an armored helmet or other head protection aside from the bevor that hides their mouths, which leads to a lot of deaths from headshots during the burning of [[Prospero]]. As a military force, they are formidable; during the Burning of Prospero, they were deployed to augment the [[Space Wolves]] and the [[Adeptus Custodes]]. While this was more because the pariah gene would neutralize the [[Thousand Sons]]' psyker abilities, they were more than capable of fighting against the Astartes. They would also in turn augment the Custodes, the [[Imperial Fists]], the [[Blood Angels]], and the [[White Scars]] during the [[Siege of Terra]], where the pariah gene became a boon fighting the [[Daemon]]s unleashed by the traitors.

===After the Horus Heresy===
For the longest time, the fate of the Sisters of Silence following the [[Horus Heresy]] had been an object of much speculation in the fandom. It is only recently that what they've been doing has been brought to light, and while some of the theories have been surprisingly spot-on (namely, that many Sisters were absorbed into the Inquisition to man the Black Ships), others... didn't quite hit the mark. Thanks to their own mini-codex, as well as the [[War of the Beast]] series, ''Watchers of the Throne'', and most recently the ''Dark Imperium'' series, a somewhat clearer picture of ''what'' happened to the Sisters can be reconstructed.

It turns out that the Sisters were never "officially" disbanded by the [[Administratum]]. However, in the wake of the Emperor's interment within the Golden Throne, the surviving Sisters suddenly found themselves without direct support from the Imperial Bureaucracy. This made a lot of the surviving Sisters bitter obviously, but a number of others just shrugged, and decided to continue with their Emperor-given mandate anyway... just with less resources than they're used to.

As previously mentioned, some Sisters were absorbed into the [[Adeptus Astra Telepathica]] to crew its [[Black Ships]], or served as retinues to important [[Inquisitor]] Lords. Many others, however dispersed, back into the general populace, settling down to have normal lives, and in doing so passed down the Pariah gene down to their descendants. Lastly, some quietly found secret Convents in out-of-way worlds, far from view of the average Imperial citizen. It is one of these Convents that [[Slaughter Koorland]] approached and convinced to aid the Imperium in the [[War of the Beast]].

By M32, the Sisters of Silence refused to recognize the Imperium in its political form, seeing it as a corrupted simulacrum of what the Emperor actually intended, but they still acknowledge the Emperor as the focus of their loyalty. Thus, when their services are required again, they accept the calling and return to Terra, where they are granted an audience with the Emperor in his sanctum, a privilege that not even the High Lords are afforded. [[If the Emperor had a Text-to-Speech Device|Just how exactly that would've worked is a mystery, given how the Emperor can presumably only communicate psychically at this point, which probably wouldn't work at all on a group of nulls.]] Of course, blanks/nulls/whatever have been overpowered by strong psykers before, so it wouldn’t take the Emperor any real effort. Or he sent Astropaths to deliver messages via secretaries or something.

Although that particular Convent was wiped out slaying the Beast, many more survived through the millennia, and by the end of the 41st Millennium, the number of Sisters had swelled into the tens of thousands. And it was just as well too, as the Imperium would need their aid really REALLY soon.

===Returning to the Fray: The Rise of the Primarch===
[[image:Sister-of-silence.jpg|right|250px|thumb|You, Psyker. Yeah You. Fuck You.]]

Shortly after the reappearance of [[Magnus the Red]] during the [[Fenris]] campaign, the High Lords of Terra issued a writ that would summon the Sisterhood back to Terra, where they would be used once again. It transpired that [[Trajann Valoris]], Captain-General of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] had pre-empted this decree and had quietly been collecting disparate Sisters to Terra in advance, knowing that the time may come when they were needed again; the knee-jerk response of the High Lords of Terra simply rendered it legal.

Some of the exiled Sisters resented this greatly, having been ignored for millennia. In the novel ''Watchers of the Throne'', one particular sister, the previously mentioned Tannau Aleya, spends most of the book (quietly) raging about how her convent was left without support for so long, especially how the Custodes seemed to be "pampered" by comparison, despite being stuck on Terra for nearly ten millennia. Aleya also "talks" a fair bit about the mentality of the Silent Sisters, stating that the Sisters ironically crave human fellowship, as it temporarily fills the void they feel inside due to their nature as blanks. This also leads to extremely <strike>Lesbian</strike> close bonds between the Sisters described as a fierce almost desperate love, due to sharing such a unique bond and having been reviled and hated by most of the people they'd ever come across.

The sisters also seem to grow close to the Custodes they fought with during the Great Crusade, to the extent Custodes could tell what a sister was trying to convey without her even having to sign it to him, something that later made one sister immediately realize Drach'nyen was impersonating a Custodes. If Valerian and Aleya are any indication this bond between Custodes and Sisters is likely to reemerge in the 41st millennium. They also never entirely get used to the reaction they cause in others, with every twitch and every appalled expression twisting the knife every time they see that reaction.

Overall they come across as rather tragic, as they spend their lives protecting a species that can't even stand to be in the same room as them, and hates them without even being able to articulate why.

The Sisters' first "official" action was to deploy with the Custodes on Luna to save a recently resurrected Lord Guilliman from being used by Magnus to mop the floor, and they later helped fight back against a [[Khorne]] daemon invasion of Terra directly. When Guilliman returned from his audience with the Emperor, he dissolved the standing order that restricted the Custodians to Terra, and he ordered the Sisterhood to coordinate with them and join the front lines.

Still, no matter how hurt or angry they are, they still answered the call to defend humanity from Chaos again.

==Emperor Worship==

By the 41st Millennium it turns out that some Sisters had converted to the worship of the Emperor, even describing the Emperor as "holy" right in front of Lord Commander [[Roboute Guilliman]], while considering the Primarch to be his divine messenger and demigod son. Though this is not entirely new information, as even during the Horus Heresy, there were some Sisters who had already started to consider the Emperor as a god, and were willing to break their vows of tranquility. Some had even "read the book" ''(the Lectitio Divinitatus)'' according to [[Knights-Errant|Kyril Sinderman]], and allowed the faithful to escape custody from the Somnus Citadel on Luna so that they could continue to spread the word.

Since most of ''Dark Imperium'' was about Guilliman trying to come to terms with what humanity had become since the Heresy, it was all Guilliman could do to not [[Blam|eat his own bolter]] then and there. However, giving the appearance of converting to the faith is the easiest way to integrate themselves with the Imperium without getting grief from the other branches. This is definitely true for at least one convent; Aleya's was said to have had "sham" shrines and it's implied that those Sisters feigned their faith to avoid being persecuted as heretics. There is also a difference between those sisters that manned the [[Black Ships]] versus those that were outside of the Imperium's control, with those that were aboard the black ships having closer ties and a lot more loyalty towards the [[High Lords of Terra|Imperium's leadership]], to the extent that Aleya didn't trust them to do what was needed without waiting for permission. It's possible the Emperor-worshiping Sisters are those that were recruited and controlled by the Imperium for the black ships, while those outside of Imperial control and influence managed to keep their old ways.

==Notable Sisters==
* '''Jenetia Krole:''' AKA the "Soulless Queen of the Imperium" was the Knight Commander of the Sisters of silence and the single most terrifying woman in the entire human race. No, Really. (NOT confirmed to be a redhead.) She could be placed in a staring contest with an entire Convent of [[Sisters of Battle]], [[Inquisitor Greyfax]], A warband of [[Night Lords]], a cat and a FUCKING Dark Eldar [[Haemonculus]] and she would stare them all down until they ran away with their tails between their legs. Her Pariah aura was so strong and distracting she caused members of the [[Adeptus Custodes]] to avert their eyes because it pained them to look at Her. To most beings, her anti-soul aura was so strong that they simply couldn't see her. When Big E needed the [[Thousand Sons]] "disciplined" she challenged the legions most powerful sorcerers to duels and Killed them, and then she Killed a Daemon just for good measure. She then fought in the Webway and survived the retreat to the Imperial Palace losing 3 fingers on the way, not really seeming to care about her lost digits. She used a Zwei-hander sword dubbed "Veracity" that was used by [[The Emperor]] during the unification wars, so yeah, that's cool too. She finally dies while fighting [[Khârn]] during the Siege of Terra, right after she took out a fuckton of named World Eaters.

*'''Amendera Kendel''' - A former Sister of Silence turned ''[[Knights-Errant|Agentia Tercius]]'' to Malcador. She is still a Pariah of course, but she gave up her vow of silence to become one of the first members of Malcador's [[Inquisition|band of merry travellers]]. She is quite possibly the first "True" Inquisitor, by virtue of her background as a Witch-Hunter and the later development of her character which shows her radically using the authority granted to her by the Sigillite to get shit done: Co-opting Space Marines from the survivors of the ''Eisenstein'' into her retinue, and later ordering a battle-barge to enact ''[[Exterminatus]]'' on a planet turned renegade, despite the fact that no-one other than a Primarch or the Emperor himself had ever ordered such an act before her.

* '''[[Tanau Aleya]]:''' One of the (previously mentioned) POV characters for ''Watchers of the Throne''. A Sister from the convent located on Araissa, she becomes its sole survivor when it is attacked by the [[Black Legion]] while she was away hunting down cultists on another world. Hot-headed and very opinionated, Aleya spends most of the book bitter at the Imperium for ignoring the Sisters for so long, and infuriated that [[Shield-Captain]] Valerian (the ''other'' POV character of the book) seems impossible to goad into anger, but takes her duties as a Sister very seriously, and was willing to lay down her life at even a chance to cave in some Black Legion heads. Started out using a heavy flamer to do her work, before turning it in for a greatsword once she got picked up by Navradaan on the way to Terra. She is also an absolute badass, winning a firefight that was 5-1 and taking on a Chaos Marine in close quarters alone and WINNING, then removing his helmet and spitting in his face for killing her sisters. The updated rules for the Talons of The Emperor make her not just in fluff but also in-game a battle couple with Valerian, another proof tsunderism and animu is slowly infecting 40k's updated setting.

==Mini-Codex and Moving Forward==

A common rumor is that they will be added into some upcoming [[Sisters of Battle]] relaunch. If so, that would be an interesting revision; on the one hand, the Sisters of Battle, despite being designated witch-hunters, are lacking in the anti-psyker department. On the other hand, the Sisters of Silence, much like the Space Marines, are big believers in the Great Crusade era of the Imperium, and likely won't mesh well with the [[Ecclesiarchy]]. On the other hand, Dark Imperium implies they fully converted to the Imperial Cult over time (which makes sense, seeking comfort in faith given their shitty existence and loss of the guy who uplifted them) so their ideology would likely mesh together well. So, in conclusion, the most probable thing that GW can do with the SoS is to say that the Adepta Sororitas in its current form can trace its origins to the M36 '''Daughters of the Emperor''' as well as offshoots of the original [[Sisters of Silence]] and find some way to reconcile them both.

As of 2018, any news on them has been slow and via the Horus Heresy Team at Forge World. They stated that there would at least be some 8th edition rules for Talons (which includes Grey Knights apparently) coming eventually while they're not working on all these other Horus Heresy, Titanicus, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl projects. So far nothing on Sisters but Custodians at least got a handful of new kit.

Why they weren't simply added to the Custodes codex, only GW knows.

As of 2020, during Nurgle's Pandemic, it's been all but confirmed by GW that Sisters of Silence and Custodes will be merged together in the second-to-last chapter of the Psychic Awakening, "War of the Spider", as the Talons of the Emperor. Coupled with the new Black Library models that feature a Shield Captain and SoS in a single unit with that as a faction keyword, there is a lot of evidence that supports this.

And even more recently, in November of 2021 it was confirmed that the new Custodes Codex set to accompany the new shadow throne boxset in 2022 would include rules for a [https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/11/30/lead-a-full-sisters-of-silence-army-with-the-powerful-knight-centura/ new Sisters unit] the Knight-Centura and rules to finally field either a full Sisters of Silence army or a mixed Custodes/Sisters Talons of the Emperor army.

==See Also==
*[[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Talons_of_the_Emperor_(30k)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) Horus Heresy Tactics]]
*[[Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Talons of the Emperor (9E)|Sisters of Silence (AKA Talons of the Emperor) 40k Tactics]]

==Gallery==
<center>
<gallery>
SoS vs. TS Dred.jpg|Being in a Dreadnought does not make you safe from these chicks.
SoS vs. EC Noise Marines.jpg|Even ''these'' bastards are having a hard time dealing with them.
Sister_of_silence_by_n924.jpg|As scary as they are, they can still be the cutest sweethearts of the Emprah.
Jenetia Krole.jpg|Jenetia Krole, She's not staring into your soul, she's staring through it.
</gallery>
</center>

{{Template:Sisters-of-Silence}}

{{Imperium}}

Maelstrom

2022-08-18T09:59:21Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199:

[[File:Maelstrom_segmentum.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Map detailing the location of the Maelstrom Zone in the Ultima Segmentum]]
{{wh40k-stub}}

''Not to be confused with [[Maelstrom's Edge]]''

In the real world, a "maelstrom" is a powerful whirlpool.

In the universe of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Maelstrom (with a capital M) is a massive rip in space-time that leads to the [[Warp]] -- second only to the [[Eye of Terror]] in size -- in the Badab Sector, near the galactic core. In contrast to the Eye however, which, lest we forget, was formed by the some very [[Eldar|smarmy ]][[TTS|knife-eared assholes]] murder-fucking a god into existence, the Maelstrom is far older, and seems to have come about relatively naturally.

The forces of [[Chaos]] started using the Maelstrom as a launching point for invasions, and since there was a lot of mineral wealth in the area, the [[Imperium]] decided to post guards around it. These were the Maelstrom Wardens, four [[Space Marine]] Chapters (the [[Lamenters]], the [[Mantis Warriors]], and the [[Charnel Guard]] [who were later withdrawn from the Sector], all under the command of the [[Astral Claws]]).

[[Lugft Huron]], Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, repeatedly proposed that a Crusade be mounted to purge the Maelstrom of heretics once and for all, but was rebuffed; finally, he took matters into his own hands, declaring himself the Tyrant of Badab and seizing all tithes and production for his Chapter and allies. The Imperium objected, and started the [[Badab War]] to put him in his place. Eventually, they took control of the Sector from him, but not before he and the remnants of his chapter fled into the Maelstrom, becoming the [[Red Corsairs]] [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband. After the fall of [[Cadia]] the Maelstrom is now connected to the [[Great Rift]].

There was also a Selection of short Warhammer 40,000 stories, titled "Into the Maelstrom" with a derp ass picture of good ol' Huron on the front.

==Outside of Warhammer 40k==
In RPGs, Maelstrom was a decent yet relatively unknown game set in 16th century England.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Chaos]]

Maelstrom

2022-08-18T09:58:38Z

2603:8001:6901:2586:559A:8912:F791:F199:

[[File:Maelstrom_segmentum.jpg|500px|thumb|right|Map detailing the location of the Maelstrom Zone in the Ultima Segmentum]]
{{wh40k-stub}}

''Not to be confused with [[Maelstrom's Edge]]''

In the real world, a "maelstrom" is a powerful whirlpool.

In the universe of [[Warhammer 40,000]], the Maelstrom (with a capital M) is a massive rip in space-time that leads to the [[Warp]] -- second only to the [[Eye of Terror]] in size -- in the Badab Sector, near the galactic core. In contrast to the Eye however, which, lest we forget, was formed by the some very [[Eldar|smarmy ]][[TTS|Knife-Eared Assholes]] murder-fucking a god into existence, the Maelstrom is far older, and seems to have come about relatively naturally.

The forces of [[Chaos]] started using the Maelstrom as a launching point for invasions, and since there was a lot of mineral wealth in the area, the [[Imperium]] decided to post guards around it. These were the Maelstrom Wardens, four [[Space Marine]] Chapters (the [[Lamenters]], the [[Mantis Warriors]], and the [[Charnel Guard]] [who were later withdrawn from the Sector], all under the command of the [[Astral Claws]]).

[[Lugft Huron]], Chapter Master of the Astral Claws, repeatedly proposed that a Crusade be mounted to purge the Maelstrom of heretics once and for all, but was rebuffed; finally, he took matters into his own hands, declaring himself the Tyrant of Badab and seizing all tithes and production for his Chapter and allies. The Imperium objected, and started the [[Badab War]] to put him in his place. Eventually, they took control of the Sector from him, but not before he and the remnants of his chapter fled into the Maelstrom, becoming the [[Red Corsairs]] [[Chaos Space Marine]] warband. After the fall of [[Cadia]] the Maelstrom is now connected to the [[Great Rift]].

There was also a Selection of short Warhammer 40,000 stories, titled "Into the Maelstrom" with a derp ass picture of good ol' Huron on the front.

==Outside of Warhammer 40k==
In RPGs, Maelstrom was a decent yet relatively unknown game set in 16th century England.

[[Category: Warhammer 40,000]]
[[Category: Chaos]]