Abdul Alhazred

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Abdul Alhazred is a fictitious character from the universe of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft. Known as "The Mad Arab", he is the in-universe author of the Necronomicon, one of the most famous grimoires covering the lore and magic of the various Mythosian horrors.

Yes, we know his name makes no sense in Arabic; it was made up by Lovecraft in childhood during LARPing sessions - obviously at that point he had no idea about the language. Since then many attempted to interpret what would his name mean in-universe; the general consensus amongst fans of the Mythos is that it's a translation-garbled corruption of "Abd al-Azrad", which translates into English roughly as "Servant of the Great Lord" or "Slave of the Destroyer".

Warhammer

Given that Warhammer Fantasy Battles has never particularly shied away from putting in pretty blatant references to pop culture, Warhammer Army Project naturally thought that when they were doing an Araby army book, they should add an homage to the Mad Arab.

So they featured Abdul Alhazred, the Mad Sorcerer... yeah, even by Warhammer standards, that's a pretty poor attempt at hiding the reference.

Born the son of wealthy merchants, the WAP version of Abdul was educated alongside the sons of the Caliph of Sanaa, and from the Caliph's library learned of the ancient empire of Nehekhara. He became fixated, and promptly stole money and an ancient relic from the Caliph's vaults before setting off to explore the land of the Tomb Kings. Over many years, he learned much of the black arts of Shyish, but was also left stark raving mad. Now he continually roams the wastelands of Araby and Nehekhara, and is sometimes recruited by those Caliphs or Sultans willing to stomach his blasphemous knowledge.

Costing 165 points and using up a Hero slot, Abdul Alhazred is a Level 2 Wizard who knows All of the spells of the Lore of Death, with these stats: Movement 4, Weapon Skill 3, Ballistic Skill 3, Strength 3, Toughness 3, Wounds 2, Initiative 3, Attacks 1, and Leadership 8. He has the following special rules:

• Zealotry: This unit adds their Combat Resolution score to their Unit Strength value when determining if they are Steadfast. Also, when taking Break tests in the first round of combat, roll 3d6 and discard the highest.
• Immunity (Psychology)
• Genie Master: Abdul can re-rolle failed Leadership tests when trying to summon Genies.
• Mad Sorcerer: Roll a D6 each Magic Phase to see which spell Abdul is able to cast (he can swap it out for the Signature Spell, though). Also, he can't be your General, and units he joins can't use his Leadership.

He wields a Hand Weapon and carries two magic items:

• The Eye Pendant: Talisman. Abdul has a 4+ Ward Save and Undead creatures must pass a Leadership test to attack him.
• The Necronomicon: Arcane Item. Abdul can re-roll 1s when casting spells. However, each time he successfully casts a spell, he has to make an Ld test; on a failure, the unit he has joined suffers -1 to their LD value, and Abdul suffers a penalty depending on if the result was odds or evens. On Evens, he acts as if he efailed a Stupidity test. On Odds, he suffers a Wound with no saves allowed.

Honestly... he's kind of underwhelming. He costs 65 points more than a Level 2 Sorcerer with the Lore of Death, has 1 fewer Wounds, can't take a steed, and the fact he knows all of his Lore's spells is undermined by the fact you can't depend on which ones he can cast, to say nothing of how badly he can be screwed up by his Necronomicon. Not to mention that his whole big deal of being "a master of Death magic" is kind of underwhelming when any random Sorcerer can already use that same lore. Hells, the fluff in the book even says that there is far less stigma about using Death magic in Araby than there is in the Empire!