Editing Kislev (section)

==History of Kislev==
{{topquote|[[Total War: Warhammer|'''Kislev.''']]|The extent of Kislevite diplomacy}}

Long before the Empire was founded, the Ungol people had populated the land that would be called Kislev. They lived alongside several other humans tribes in the area and held a border with the tribe to which [[Sigmar]] belonged to, the Teutogen. When Sigmar began his campaign to drive out the violent Norsii tribe and unite various people into his future [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)| Empire]] he inadvertently drove the Norsii toward Ungol territory. Not liking the Norsii the Ungols decided to aid Sigmar against them and they succeeded in driving the Norsii toward the land of [[Norsca]] where the violent tribe would settle down and give rise to the modern Norscan people. In the wake of this campaign, the Ungol and Sigmar’s fledgling nation would promised to help each other if one or the other was invaded which created a bond between the two lands which lasts till this day. Unfortunately for the Ungols their reign over the lands of Kislev was not to last.

In 1494 IC another tribe called the Gospodar lead by the Khan-Queen [[Miska the Slaughterer]] fled across the [[Eastern Steppes]] and away from the encroaching Chaos wastes at the beckoning of a spirit called the Ancient Widow. The native Ungol people tried to resist the newcomers but were no match for the wealth, arms, and magic of the Gospodar Tribe. The Ungols then tried to appeal to the Empire for aid but the Empire at this time was going through a civil war and could not help them. Without the aid of the Empire the invaders would conquer the Ungol settlement of Praag in 1497 IC and began to carve out a kingdom that grew in size as the Gospodars used the Lynsk river to launch incursions further into Ungol and later Imperial territory. Although Imperial forces eventually drove the Gospodar off Empire lands the tribe was successful in forcing the Ungol to accept Gospodar rule and would eventually agree to a defensive treaty with the Empire. Around 1524 IC Miska abruptly abdicated her position of leadership after receiving an apocalyptic vision of a future where she would once again be needed to lead her people to salvation. The infamous ice witch and queen would disappear into the North promising to return but not before passing her throne and magic blade fearfrost to her daughter. Under the leadership of Miska's daughter Shoika, the first true Tzarina, the Gospodar would then build themselves a new capital city for their kingdom called Kislev in 1527 IC which would eventually lend its name to all the kingdom's inhabitants. Following this, the Ungols would settle on the northern border of the modern-day Kislev nation where their people still reside and mainly serve as the kingdom's first line of defense against Chaos marauders. The south of Kislev is considered more civilized and even has some influence from the [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|The Empire]].

Despite this acrimonious beginning over the ensuing 750 years, the two people would basically intermingle to the point that now almost everyone sees themselves as people of Kislev first and whatever tribe they came from second.

For most of the nation's history, the Gospodar people held virtually all the power in the nation with almost all of the nobles being Gospodar and the Tzars and Tzarinas all being descended from the first Gospodar Khan-Queens. This began to change later on largely because the current Tzarina Katrarin Bohka began uplifting more and more Ungol men into leadership roles to further tighten her grip on the nation. Given her strength of character and the magic power she wields, some people have begun to whisper she may be Miska’s reincarnation.

According to various sources including 2nd ED of [[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] and the 15th issue of Games Workshop's citadel magazine, their military consisted of the following: On the magic front there are Ice witches, an exclusively female group that wields the power of...well ice magic...which interestingly does not draw power from the winds of magic and hag witches (another all-female group) who bind the spirits of the land to themselves rather than use the winds in order to cast curses, predict the future, cleanse stuff, banish malevolent spirits, and give themselves a melee combat boost by turning themselves into a monster called the Form of the Ancient Widow. Due to a legend dating back to the age of Tzarina Shoika stating that a male magic-user would appear and taint ice magic forever Kislev has banned male magic-users entirely. Any male magic-users discovered by the state are either killed, forced to undergo a ritual that removes their magic at the cost of turning them into a husk of their former selves, or forced to flee to the Colleges of Magic in the Empire. Meanwhile, on the conventional army side, Kislev's forces consist of: Kossars, the axemen-archer infantry of the standing army of Kislev recruited from any who can pass fitness and correspondingly has an excellent reputation on the field of battle along with a terrible one-off of it. Streltsi, an elite infantry subset of the Kossars first formed after a Kislev noble viewed the [[Gunpowder (Warhammer Fantasy)|gunpowder]] portion of [[The Empire (Warhammer Fantasy)|the Empire trifecta]] put a Chaos horde to rout and decided to ape their halberds and handgunners, Streltsi are literally just the real Russian Streltsy but with more brotherhood and loving their guns so much that it's said they might find someone sleeping with their wife to be less offensive than shooting their handgun without their permission. Ungol Horse Archers, auxiliaries from the northern tribes which are basically Huns or Mongols in their natural state for battle. Winged Lancers, which are totally the Polish Winged Hussars but based from their settlements rather than part of the standing army and wear wings on their back with the explanation of them causing an unnerving sound as they ride being adapted from a common theory to the real Winged Hussars. And finally the Gryphon Company, the most prominent and heaviest company of Winged Lancers ever which is comprised of noblemen who fletch their wings with Griffon feathers and commonly act as mercenaries while not defending Kislev from Chaos invasion. They come downright close to an actual Imperial Knight order. For extra firepower and to deal with enemy fortifications the army of Kislev has access to Mortars and Urugan cannons which are basically Kislev's version of the Empire's Great Cannons. Also adding a bit of extra cool factor to their army, [[Awesome|at least one example of bear cavalry is canon according to WFRP]], with the prior-to-current Tzar Boris Bokha riding into battle on a bear that was tamed after they defended one another from a wolf pack attacking them while Boris had tried to break and tame the bear more conventionally.

Interestingly the same Role playing book that introduced Bear Cavalry also confirmed the fact that Kislev was once ruled by a Lahmian vampire Tzarina named Kattarin the Bloody (no relation to the current Tzarina) around Magnus the Pius time until she was ousted by a mortal relative Tsarevich Pavel who got a vampire hunting group named after him for this feat. Prior to this more recent mention, the Vampire Tzarina thing had only been mentioned in the Vampire [[Genevieve Sandrine du Pointe du Lac Dieudonné|Genevieve]] books.

In order for the [[Warriors of Chaos]] to get to the Empire on foot they have to go through Kislev. So the horde that shows up in the empire is actually a hell of a lot smaller than when they marched out. Kislev has been on the forefront of the chaos wastes since its inception and not once has the nation fallen. That basically means these guys have balls of steel on par with the [[Imperial Guard]]. At least that's how it was until [[the End Times]] when Katarin got killed, Archaon’s troops destroyed all but one Kislev city and he then proceed to obliterate the whole world.