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.

Ind is present on the Total War: WARHAMMER 3 immortal empires map, but is impassable terrain, similar to Athel Loren and the swamps around Skavenblight during the launch of Total War Warhammer 1. Don't hold your breath on an Ind faction making it in, CA has stated that Cathay was the result of a one off collaboration between them and GW and that they had no immediate plans for Ind or Nippon. Most likely, the area will end up like Araby with some other faction(s) squatting on the territory.

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. Presumably it has tall towers, a common feature in high Elvish architecture.
• 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. Lokhir Fellheart famously attacked Ind.

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.

WAP Presents: Kingdoms of Ind

Naturally, given it's made of fans, the Warhammer Army Project decided that if Games Workshop wasn't going to get off their overpaid arses and do something with the Kingdoms of Ind, then they would!

Whilst human-based armies in Warhammer traditionally tend towards the Low Fantasy end of the scale due to its historical wargaming roots, and WAP normally follows that tradition, the WAP version of the Kingdoms of Ind army book is a lot more fantastical than you might expect. Whether this is because Indian mythology has a lot more crazy fantasy shit to draw inspiration from (and not as many specific ideas for human troops), or because the meagre canon lore for Ind mentions Indans fighting alongside non-evil man-beasts, or simply because Total War inspired them with its very High Fantasy interpretation of Cathay, well, who can say?

The leaders of the armies of Ind are, of course, the Maharajahs and their subordinate Rajahs, the many nobles and warlords of the fractured kingdoms. In battle, a Maharajah may be borne atop a throne carried by elite warriors called, simply, Throne Bearers.

Gurus are the spiritual leaders of Ind; wisemen who convey the wills of the many gods and perform the sacred rituals. In times of battle, they reveal their powers; they are the wizards of Ind, using the Lores of Fire, Heavens, Light, Life, or the Indan-unique spells of the Lore of the Devas.

The core of the Indan forces are, of course, human troopers in various designation. The backbone of their infantry are the Rajputs, a warrior caste who serve as the primary infantry of the army. These are bolstered by Maratha Archers, Urumi Swordsmen (who devote themselves to the dangerously flexible "whip-sword" of Ind), Pindari Cavalry, Camel Gunners from the northern deserts, Zamindar Horsemen and finally the long-suffering Peasant Levies, who technically have it better than Skaven slaves... technically.

Above these are the still-human but more elite (or at least irregular) troopers. Thugees are "holy murderers", religious devotees of the death goddess Kali-ma who use the cover of battle to claim their tally of souls and loot from the enemy. The Maiden Guard are warrior-women who serve as elite bodyguards to the royal princes of Ind. The simply titled Holy Warriors are Indan paladins devoted to war and the Devas in that order. Royal Chariots are, of course, a step above "mere" horsemen.

Which brings us to the topic of battle-beasts. Indan Beastmasters train tigers and panthers as beasts of war in the way their Old World counterparts train war dogs; the biggest of these great cats, the dreaded dire tigers, are even used as steeds by an elite order of cavalrymen known as the Bengal Riders. War Elephants (and their bigger counterparts, the colossal Royal Elephants) are some of the most famous steeds of the Indan forces. Finally, whilst well-paid fakirs may use their music to lead poisonous Snake Swarms into battle, true beastmasters instead attempt to tame the incredibly deadly and unpredictable Basilisk.

But wait, there's more! Now we need to talk about the more fantastical members of the army!

Vishkanya (clearly inspired by the Pathfinder race, which was admittedly inspired by Indian mythology) are a mysterious race of warrior-women who are half-women and half-serpent. Not as overtly as the Nagas (we'll get to them in a moment), but they have gold-colored eyes, a serpent's forked tongue in their mouth, small finely meshed scales for skin, and lethally poisonous spittle and blood. They often hire themselves out as assassins and are believed to be the last remnants of a now-lost race that ruled Ind before the coming of mankind.

There are also two other "demihuman" races. Vanaras are a benevolent and friendly race of humanoid monkeys, deeply curious about the world around them and renowned for their cleverness, love of pranks, and their deep loyalty to kith and kin. Despite the frequent attacks on their villages by Indan ogres, they are a far remove from the monstrous beastmen of the Old World, and often fight alongside Indan forces. Rakshasas, a race of humanoid tigers, are much less benevolent; though still not inherently evil, they are selfish and fickle, combining many of the worst traits of man and tiger. Still, they often march to war to protect their human neighbors... if only to ensure a steady supply of offerings of meat and rice.

Finally, there are the Devas; the most mystical aspect of the Indan armies, for they are living embodiments of the various and demigods of Indan mythology. Basically, they're non-evil daemons, though beware the wrath of any Indan who hears you make such a comparison! The greatest of all the devas are the Avatars of the Trimurti Deva; living embodiments (Greater Daemons) of Brahmir the Creator, Vaishna the Preserver and Shaivi the Destroyer. Lesser devas include the Kalaratri (four-armed, three-eyed, near-naked warrior-women), Maruts (human-shaped statues of animate onyx clad in golden armor), Garudas (benevolent, brightly colored humanoid birds renown for their warrior skills), Ganeshans (huge but gentle four-armed elephant-men) and Nagas (four-armed human warriors with the lower bodies of giant snakes).

Finally, no army would be complete without special characters:

• Darahma
• Karishna
• Urjana
• Mhogli
• Parashuruma

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