Kingdoms of Ind

The Warhammer Fantasy version of India which is split up between multiple local rulers. This is also the least described Eastern Lands human nation. At least Nippon was prominent in the first editions when Games Workshop was trying to capitalize on 80s' Japanophilia, and Cathay was regularly described in other factions' backstories from Lizardmen to Tilea even before Total War. Here, however, we have as much information as on Border Princes (which were deliberately created as a sandbox for roleplayers), which is mildly disappointing.

With the third Total War: WARHAMMER game taking place in the Far East of the Warhammer world, there might be room for Ind to get a proper expansion and official army list. Definetely not at launch though, as the revealed map doesn't even include half of Cathay, so we probably have to wait for a map expansion or something.

History

Their first full mention are the infamous End Times, where they, unsurprisingly, were destroyed. The Skaven of Clan Pestilens had isolated the individual kingdoms the same way they did in Tilea and sent out the Blackclaws - a top-trained special unit of gutter runners to DOUBLE ensure its destruction. The Skaven were not the main benefactor for its destruction however, for the forces of Chaos also showed up and further wreck the place into irrelevance. In details, there were Beastmen attacking from the jungles, Dechala leading an uprising of Indic pleasure cults in the southern kingdoms, and Arbaal the Undefeated and Wulfrik the Wanderer came to claim the skulls of its thousands of local gods, and Galrauch was there too.

Geography

Ind is a tropical southwards peninsula located along the northern shores of a great ocean. It appears to be mostly desert, with tropical rainforests along the northwest and the southern tip. Further south is not-Sri Lanka, home to the Ulthuani outpost known as the Fortress of Dawn.

Notable locations include:

• City of Spires - founded by High Elves, not much is known about this city.
• Caves of Fire - weird caves that were visited by Bretonnian knight Leofric Carrard on his Grail Quest in one Graham McNeill's book. It is supposedly populated by weird ancient beings, probably gods.
• Mountains of Heaven - basically the Warhammer version of the Himalayas. The mountains border Cathay and are home of Monkey Beastmen whose leader (and blatant Sun Wukong ripoff) the Monkey King once temporarily stole the throne of Cathay during a civil war that broke out when the Dragon Emperor and Moon Empress went on vacation.
• Shambani Foothills - location of the Eye of the Tiger, a cave where the lost Stone of Simba was located in. It is now occupied by a Tiger Beastmen tribe known as the Bengal.
• Temple of Gilgadresh - The infamous Dark Elf pirate Lokhir Fellheart slaughtered this temple’s guardian priests and looted a statue made from Indan bloodsteel which he had melted down to make the Red Blades, the deadliest weapons on the high seas.
• Unnamed kingdom - this monarchy is one of the Kingdoms of Ind, ruled by the Raja Shrimant Rao. After he noticed that the Rose Tiger gem was stolen, he sent the brutal Taggee agents to pursue and slay the thief.

Society

The peoples of Ind are known variously as "Indish" or "Indans". They are ruled by various monarchs. These rulers may be generous to visitors and are patrons of the arts and many lavish, golden temples, but they kept many slaves and servants to maintain their opulent palaces. Meanwhile, the people live in poverty, left to constant superstition.

The aristocratic rulers of Ind employ wizards somewhat like their counterparts in the Empire of Man and Cathay.

Religion

They have a thousand local gods, none of whom are of plot significance.

One of those gods, Brahmir, is represented by a wooden idol of four arms. His very presence scares the followers of the Chaos Gods, perhaps including the Beastmen. He is obviously named after Hinduist creation god, Brahma.

Another god is She'ar Khawn, an eight-armed tiger god, whose large statues are in almost every temple in Ind. His weapons are a golden sword, a black mace, a barbed fan, a spear, and a crimson scroll, and he is worshipped with sacrifices of animals in squalid cages. His name is reference to the Jungle Book.

A third deity is Gilgadresh, who has a temple that was looted by Lokhir Fellheart. Named after Gilgamesh, a famed hero of Messopotamian mythology.

The Indan people are a very superstitious lot, always worshipping their deities even when it may risk exposing themselves to the murderous Beastmen and Ogres. One wrong little move (like crossing a bridge the wrong way or even eating meat) could be enough to anger the locals in some parts of Ind, so travellers are advised to smile politely and nod while the locals pray to small deities such as a mouse or weevil.

Foreign relations

Although the monarchies of Ind were isolated from the rest of the world, they are constantly harrassed by various threats. They have spices, jade, slaves, fancy swords called Tulwars, blood steel, magic candles, and ivory. They trade the above stuff via the Silk Road.

Cathay

They have a complicated relationship with Cathay. The local Beastmen tribes are a threat to the Southern Provinces of Cathay and its ruler, Fire Dragon Li Dao.

High Elves

Among the few reliable allies for the Indan realms would be the High Elves, who are least likely to attack their people. The Elves have an outpost in a southerly island which the Everqueen passes through every ten years on her way to the Tower of the Sun. They also had founded the City of Spires at the northwestern coast. The sword of Finubar, the Phoenix King of the High Elves, was also from Ind.

Hostile relations and enemies

Vampiric and Chaos cults murder locals in secret.

Treacherous Arabyan merchants compete for Indan spices, silk, and other commodities against their Cathayan, Imperial, Bretonnian, and Tilean rivals at the locals' expense.

Their shores were raided by Dark Elves and the occasional Chaos-worshipping Northman, such as the murderous Scyla Anfingrimm.

Hidden in their jungles, the Greenskins and the Ogres prey on unfortunate peasants and anyone who wanders too far from safety.

Most likely has to deal with the occasional Chaos Dwarf incursion.

As we recently found out from a new Skaven supplement for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, these rat-things are also present in Ind... which is not surprising, honestly. Much weirder thing is that, according to a supplement, Clan Skryre stole fucking Doomrocket blueprints from there. Nazi rats is one thing, but medieval India almost developing nuclear weapons sounds like a whole new level of derp. Then again according to real life ancient Indian epic the Mahabharata the Vedic gods supposedly had flying battleships called Vimanas that could fire projectiles which would detonate in a way that sounds suspiciously like nuclear weaponry. As for where the tech for the weapons could have originated from there IS a lost city of the old ones right next door in Khuresh so maybe the Warhammer equivalent of the Vimanas are actually Lizardman temple ships and some local Indans got lucky and managed to gain some knowledge from examining one? In that case it would not be that crazy to say that the Skaven stole their tech from Ind after all…well ok that or maybe they traded the Warhammer version of Gandhi from the Civilization games for the tech but that’s a whole other can of worms we’re not going to open.

Gallery

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  Venk Kateswaran, a treacherous merchant, gang leader, and devotee of Khaine in Marienburg.
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  A Beastman of Ind.

Links

• Ind fandex

Regions and Areas of the Warhammer World
Areas of The Old World:	The Empire of Man - Bretonnia - Albion - Estalia - Tilea - Kislev - Norsca - Border Princes - Worlds Edge Mountains - Karak Eight-Peaks
Areas of The New World:	Naggaroth - Lustria
Areas of The Eastern Lands:	Cathay - Nippon - Ogre Kingdoms - Dark Lands - Kingdoms of Ind - Khuresh - Eastern Steppes
Areas of The Southlands:	Nehekhara - Araby - Badlands - Marshes of Madness
Other Areas of the world:	Ulthuan - Athel Loren - Chaos Wastes - Skavenblight - Lost Isles of Elithis
Main bodies of Water:	The Great Ocean - The Far Sea - The Sea of Dread - Inner Sea of Ulthuan